Chương 15: Nate
Nate grinned, and gave my shoulder a pat. "Yep, Val and I go way back." He made eye contact with me. "We should catch up when you're free."
Yea, sure...my lips twitched, trying not to laugh in his face.
"She's free all the time!" Brittany volunteered.
I frowned. "I'm really not."
Nate laughed, patting me on the head. "You're still a little prickly, huh?"
I glared at him, standing up. It didn't make much of a difference since he was a foot taller than me, but on the inside I felt stronger while standing. I glanced over at Brittany. "I'm going to chat with Nate for a bit. You keep watching the show."
She lifted her eyebrows. "Yea, I'll watch the show."
I couldn't fight off the urge to roll my eyes this time. I grabbed Nate by the elbow and guided him away from my table. I took him to the front of the restaurant, trying to make him disappear.
"Hey, hey, I just got here." Nate stopped. "I still need to eat."
I frowned. "Who did you come with?"
"Wouldn't you like to know." He smirked.
I pressed two fingers to my forehead. "Whatever. I don't care. Just keep away, okay?"
Nate pretended to be hurt. "I just wanted to say hi to an old friend. No need to be so cold." He turned serious. "But really, lets catch up some time. What's your number?"
I sighed and rattled off a random phone number.
With his phone in his hand, he didn't even bother to put the number in. He grinned down at me. "C'mon Val, I know you. I don't trust that that was your real phone number. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I can just look for one of your brothers."
What a headache. I looked up at Nate. "Why do you even want to 'catch up'? I dumped you. Did you forget?"
Nate lost his smile and put his phone back in his pocket. "I didn't forget. You're even colder than you used to be. Do you like being the ice queen because you're really good at freezing people out."
I scoffed. "I don't freeze anyone out."
"Hey, Nate! There you are!" A tall, lanky man threw his arm around Nate's shoulders. "Come on, the crew is all here. Megan's going to be pissed if you keep dawdling." He glanced down at me and gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I need to steal him away."
"It's fine. Go ahead." We had nothing left to say to one another. I turned away and went back to Brittany and her group, not even bothering to look back.
I came back just as the food was being served. Good timing. I sat down and drank some water to cool myself down. Nate might have called me an ice queen, yet I was anything but. I was on fire. How could he think I freeze anyone out?? I was practically everyone's best friend. It'd be better to be more cold so I would stop getting invited to these stupid weddings.
"Are you okay..?" Brittany asked.
I set my water down. "Yep. Why?"
"I don't know...you seem kind of upset. Did Nate dump you in high school or something? Oh gosh, I should have never tried to set you two up. I should have just kept my mouth shut." She started to panic.
I laughed. "No, really, I'm okay. I was actually the one to dump him. So it was just slightly awkward. He ended up going to eat with his friends so no need to worry about him either. Everything is cool."
She looked relieved. "I just thought he looked hot and seemed so friendly. It wouldn't be bad for you to rekindle with that old flame, but I guess it wasn't meant to be."
"Hmm." I hummed as I started to stuff my face.
"How long did you two date for?" She asked, using her fork to scoop up some rice.
"About two years. Junior and Senior year. Broke up the summer before college." Some old memories flashed through my mind. Memories I prefer to forget so I forced myself to focus on my food.
"Was he your first love?" Brittany asked out of nowhere.
I started to choke on my food and then coughed violently as I tried to swallow.
"Oh no! Val! Are you okay??" Brittany passed me my water while patting me on the back.
The food got unstuck and I washed it down with my water.
"Are you alright ma'am?" The waiter hurried over to check on me.
"Yes, thanks." I held out my glass. "Can I get another water please?"
"Sure thing. I'll be right back." He scurried off, probably to tell his coworkers that he almost had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on one of his customers.
"Geez, Val, you don't have to die if you don't want to tell me." Brittany joked.
Ha. "No...it wasn't something so serious. I thought it was love, but that's just kid stuff." I gave her a sad smile. "Real love hurts way more."
"Noooo." She grabbed my hand. "Your first love was still love. It just didn't get to mature. Every love you know, counts as a real love because that's what you knew in the moment. It's how you felt."
I laughed at her reasoning. "Alright, Britt. If you say so." I pulled my hand away and resumed eating. "Not everyone will have the fairytale like you do, with a boyfriend that follows your every command."
"Ughhh." She groaned. "That has its own challenges, okay? Seriously. I get no input from him. He didn't even help pick the flavor of the cake! I thought men loved that part of weddings!"
"You didn't tell him that you wanted more input from him?"
She sighed. "I did, but it went in one ear and out the other. Now there isn't much left to do besides finding a dress." She looked at me with puppy dog eyes. "You really think I'll be able to find a dress this weekend? One that I like and look good in?"
"I guarantee it." I tried my best to put on that reassuring smile I saved for talking to brides.
I'm sure she'll find something...eventually. I just don't know how many stores it'll take. I held back a sigh.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực