Chapter 1

I stood at the airport in a downpour and waited four hours.

All I got for it was a message from Nicole McKenna: [Something came up at the office. Just grab a car and head home on your own.]

I called a ride, but with the storm outside, it took another hour before a driver actually picked up my request.

As unlucky as that was, I felt strangely calm once I finally climbed into the car. I even felt a flicker of relief when I saw the post from Freddy Sandler, Nicole's college junior.

The photo showed the two of them at a candlelit dinner, captioned: [I said the rain was boring, so you came to keep me company.]

None of it stung anymore.

I'd finally made up my mind to leave her.

The realization put me in such a good mood that I tapped "like" on the post without even thinking twice.

Afterward, though, Nicole came to me with her eyes rimmed red and begged, "We've been together for years. You're really just going to let it go?"

Chapter 1

I think I really did love Nicole McKenna.

Before my trip, I'd told myself that if she didn't see me off at the airport, I'd break up with her the moment I got back.

But when she actually begged off, citing work, I found myself giving her one more chance anyway. If she didn't come pick me up when I landed, that would be it. She agreed, promising she'd be there the day I got back.

That made me happy enough that I spent the whole trip thinking I'd never bring up breaking up again. Nicole and I would just keep going, the two of us, for good.

I noticed the faint unease sitting in the back of my mind, and I chose to ignore it.

Then, the first night I was away, I saw the post from one of Nicole's friends: photos from a karaoke bar, everyone drinking and singing, with Freddy right in the middle of it all like the guest of honor. Nicole had her hand out, shielding him from a round of drinks, and Freddy was gazing back at her, soft and doting.

If I was honest, none of Nicole's friends ever said it outright, but I could tell they all thought Freddy suited her better than I did. I'd brought it up with her before, but she'd just told me I was overthinking things. After all, nobody had actually said anything like that.

When I pushed, she snapped at me, "Then figure out how to get on their good side so they change their minds about you!"

I swallowed the hurt and let it go.

Then, at one get-together, one of her friends mentioned how careful Nicole had been when she first introduced Freddy to their group, so careful nobody could even crack a joke about it.

"We honestly thought he was her boyfriend!" one of them laughed.

I stared at my phone and said nothing. There wasn't any point in asking.

Why hadn't she waited until I was back to set up the gathering? Did she even know whose girlfriend she was supposed to be? What was the use in asking any of that now?

For the next few days, I stopped doing what I always used to do: checking in on Nicole constantly, sending her little updates about my day. I didn't send a single message, and our chat thread just sat frozen on the last thing I'd asked her before I left, whether she wanted pot roast for dinner.

She'd replied with a single "K."

I pressed my lips together, thinking, pathetic. Just pathetic.

On the flight back, I spent the whole time dreading the possibility that Nicole really would show up to get me, and if she did, what excuse I'd even use to break things off.

I waited four hours at the airport. When her message finally came, telling me to get myself home, the relief nearly knocked me over.

In the car, scrolling through my feed out of boredom, I came across Freddy's latest post: a candlelit dinner for two, and a pair of hands I knew all too well.

The caption read: [I said the rain was boring, so you came to keep me company.]

Chapter 2

If this had happened before, I'd have already called Nicole, screaming questions down the line.

Now, I just tapped the "like" button happily and moved on.

By the time I reached the complex, the downpour had eased into a light drizzle. The rideshare couldn't drive in, and I couldn't be bothered with an umbrella, so I hauled my suitcase and jogged the rest of the way through the rain.

I ran into Nicole in the elevator, right as she was heading down.

She frowned. "Why so late? Are you sulking because I couldn't pick you up?"

"It's hard to get a car in the rain," I said evenly. "I waited an hour just for someone to accept the request."

Her expression stiffened.

A father and son stepped into the elevator with us. As it climbed, the father said to his son, "So when are you finally going to find yourself a girlfriend? You come home late all the time and nobody's there to pick you up. And you seriously think you can handle living by yourself?"

The young man made a face. "I can handle small stuff like this just fine on my own. Besides, having a girlfriend doesn't mean she'll actually show up. She could be off with some other guy and just tell me she was busy with work."

They didn't mean anything by it, but Nicole's face fell instantly. I laughed out loud.

The elevator stopped at the father and son's floor. The father shot me a grin on his way out, still ribbing his son. "See? Even he's laughing at you."

"Maybe he's laughing at you, old man."

"Oh, get out of here, talking back to me."

Nicole pressed her lips together and waited until the doors slid shut again before she spoke. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would be pouring that hard at the airport. I figured it'd be a light rain there too, same as here."

"It's fine. Whether you meant to or not doesn't change anything for me. Though if you'd texted me sooner, I might actually have made it back earlier."

Nicole went quiet.

Once we were inside, I set my suitcase down, toweled off my hair, and went looking for a change of clothes, ignoring her the whole time.

She hovered, unsure of herself. "I really did have something come up today..."

"Sure. I know," I said, not really listening.

I caught her watching me out of the corner of my eye. "Are you mad?"

"No."

I gathered my clothes and headed for the bathroom. She caught my hand, a note of irritation creeping into her voice. "Then why are you acting like this?"

"I waited five hours at the airport and got soaked in the rain," I said, keeping my voice level.

Guilt flickered across her face. She opened her mouth, then closed it again without a word.

I pulled my hand free. "So I'm going to shower and go to bed."

"I'm sor..."

"It's fine, I know you were busy, I'm really not upset," I said, my voice rising. "Just let me shower first, okay?"

Her eyes went cold. I didn't wait for an answer. I shut myself in the bathroom, and a second later I heard the bedroom door slam.

Nicole started giving me the silent treatment after that.

Actually, calling it a "silent treatment" probably wasn't fair, since she'd never once reached out first if I didn't message her. I let it go and threw myself back into work.

It wasn't until I saw her post about a trip with Freddy to Alaska to watch the northern lights that I realized I hadn't seen her in days.

Turns out I didn't need her the way I'd thought I did. Looking back, all the mental preparation I'd done before deciding to break up with her felt almost unnecessary now.

Still, scrolling through post after post, I felt a small pang. I'd once told her I wanted to see the northern lights, and she'd promised, very seriously, that once her company was stable she'd make it the first thing she did for me.

Chapter 3

Time is a strange thing. It could take someone like Nicole McKenna, who once had eyes for no one but me, and slowly nudge me right out of her mind.

And it turned out I could change too. I used to get anxious and jealous over the smallest thing; now I could scroll past her photos of some cheerful getaway with another man without feeling a thing.

It was for the best, really. With her gone more, I could get on with moving out that much easier.

We'd lived in that apartment together for a few years, and I had more belongings than I realized, so packing took some doing. My own place needed a good cleaning before I could move back in, too.

The day after I moved back home, I got a message from Nicole.

Nicole: [Dinner at Sterling House tonight. I'll pick you up after work.]

I typed back: [Let's break up. I won't be coming.]

Then, I turned off my screen.

Except when I got off work, there she was, waiting by the curb downstairs.

Nicole came over and took my bag from me. "I had a get-together with Paige Morgan and the others today. They all said it's been ages since they've seen you."

I frowned, and just then a coworker messaged me. When I opened my phone, I realized the text I'd sent Nicole that morning had never actually gone through due to some kind of connection issue.

Well. Might as well treat this as our last dinner together.

I opened the passenger door and found a note taped to the seatback: "Freddy's Seat," in big, unmissable letters.

An old memory surfaced, unbidden. I'd once joked about doing the same thing myself, taping a note to the back of the passenger seat, and Nicole had shut me down instantly, scolding me with a straight face. "You're a grown man, and you want to do something that childish? And it's not even your car. Don't be so full of yourself."

Enough time had passed that it didn't sting anymore, but I still remembered exactly how humiliated I'd felt in that moment. Now I understood, on a whole new level, what people meant when they said love, or the lack of it, was never hard to spot.

A hand reached past me and tore the note down.

"Freddy just taped it there as a joke. He didn't mean anything by it."

I came back to myself and realized, with some surprise, that Nicole was actually explaining herself to me.

I made a small sound of acknowledgment and got in the car anyway.

At the restaurant, once we reached the private dining room, I found Freddy there too, along with Nicole's usual group of friends.

Nicole jumped in before I could ask. "Freddy's been living alone out in Mozel City. I didn't want him getting lonely, so I invited him along."

I made another small sound and took whatever open seat I could find. It wasn't like this was the first time, anyway.

I kept my head down and ate while Freddy, as always, fell right in with Nicole's friends. Nicole kept glancing my way at first, but between Freddy and her friends pulling her into the conversation, she warmed up and started chatting along with everyone else soon enough.

Out of nowhere, Freddy laughed and said, "Nicole, could you crack this crab for me? Get it, crack the case?"

Nicole laughed. "Ugh, that's a dollar in the pun jar for you."

She rolled up her sleeves and got to work on the crab. Freddy yelped, then stuck his tongue out at me. "No offense meant, Scott. Nicole and I are just used to doing this."

I picked up a rib. "It's fine. I don't mind."

Freddy nudged Nicole. "You should peel one for Scott too, or he'll get mad at you."

Which one of his eyes had seen me getting mad, exactly?

Nicole glanced at me, then smiled at Freddy. "But I've only got two hands. I have to take care of you first."

Then, to me, she said, "Freddy's still young. Just let him have this one. If you want some, I'll peel it for you when we get home."

"Sure. Fine," I said.

Get home and peel it for me? Wasn't I the one who used to peel crab for her?

Chapter 4

Nicole had always claimed she loved to paint, and that her hands, which had never made it past amateur-hour sketching, were too precious to waste on peeling shells and cracking crab.

Turns out that had nothing to do with her hands and everything to do with who was asking. It wasn't that she couldn't do it. It was that I wasn't worth the trouble.

Satisfaction gleamed in Freddy's eyes, and he couldn't resist pushing further. "But the crab here is so good, Nicole. Are you sure you don't want..."

I cut him off. "It's fine. I had this with a client on my trip and overdid it. I probably won't want to touch crab again for a while."

Nicole smiled. "Didn't you always say you'd rather skip it than peel it? Unless..." Her expression shifted, just slightly. "Someone peeled it for you?"

I nodded. "The client was insistent. Hard to say no."

Her hands went still. "Was it a man or a woman? How old?"

"A woman, early twenties or so. Why does it matter?"

Freddy put on a show of hesitation. "I just don't think it's great, letting some man who isn't your boyfriend peel crab for you..."

I brushed it off. "It's just a crab. No need to make a whole thing out of it. Nicole won't mind, right, Nicole?"

Nicole dropped the crab straight onto her plate and said icily, "If you have something to say, Scott, say it. Don't dance around it like this."

For a moment, the whole table went still.

Someone tried to smooth it over. "I'm sure she's just jealous. Come on, Freddy, peel him one too."

I smiled, wiped my mouth, and stood, grabbing my bag. "No need. I'm full. Go ahead without me."

Nicole shot to her feet. "Are you done making a scene?"

Then she took a breath. "I know you're still upset, but listen to me. Sit back down. We'll go home together after this and talk it through properly, okay?"

The others chimed in too.

"Come on, Scott, sit down. Talk it out."

"Freddy's her college junior. It's normal for her to look out for him a little."

They were saying all the right things, but there was more than a little impatience showing through in their eyes.

Nicole's tone sharpened. "Listen to me, Scott. Tonight, Freddy's going to explain everything to you himself, not just me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Explain what? Are you bringing him home with us?"

She nodded. "That's actually what I wanted to tell you. Freddy's had some trouble, a break-in and an assault, so it isn't safe for him right now. I'm letting him stay with us for a while until we find him a new place.

"Besides, you're there too, so with two men in the house, no one will have anything to gossip about.

"Sit back down. I'll drive you both home in a bit."

"No thanks," I said flatly. "It's out of my way, I'm afraid."

Nicole's chest rose and fell a few times before she finally snapped, "Do you have to fight with me in public like this?

"Fine, out of your way? Then get yourself home. And don't bother going back to Rayen Court either!"

Her friends went quiet at the outburst, though not one of them bothered hiding how pleased they looked at my expense.

I nodded. "That's exactly what I was about to tell you. I already moved out. So no, I won't be going back."

Nicole kicked her chair over and stared me down. "Moved out? When?"