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Words slipped from my lips before I could catch them. “And if I find myself back here?”
She opened the door. “And face the rain? I don’t see why you’d do that to yourself.”
Cameron stepped out through the door, pulling it shut behind her, and the office was quiet in her absence.
Chapter 21
I held the coin up over the glass railing, turning it one way or the other, looking at how the face glinted in the moonlight. Ocean Drive streaked with cars below me, and over the beach past it, the half-moon cast milky shapes over the long, rolling waves of the ocean, a tranquil sight in contrast to the hum and chatter of the rooftop bar behind me.
“London,” Ruth’s voice said, coming breathlessly through the crowd, and I palmed the coin, glancing back to where she squeezed past a couple of drunk tourists and dropped down at the table next to me. “Lord, I kept you waiting for ages. I swear I’ve never seen traffic on the bridge so bad.”
“Not like I’m in a rush. Unemployed, remember?” I pushed away from the railing, sinking back into my chair across from her, and on a whim, I flipped the coin. “Call it.”
“What, deciding whether to be mad at me?”
I laughed, catching the coin and palming it, clapping it onto the back of my other hand, covering it. “Just call it.”
She shrugged. “Heads?”
I glanced at the coin. Tails. “Heads,” I said, pocketing the coin. “Guess I won’t be mad.”
She raised her eyebrows high. “Uh… you had a mental break or something?”
“Just a little.” I leaned forward, folding my arms on the table. “Hey—I wanted to ask you a favor.”
“Not gonna flip your coin to see if you should ask?”
I laughed. “Nah. Already agonized enough over it.”
“All right, all right. Let’s hear it.”
“I want you to lay into me.”
She opened her mouth, closed it, and cocked her head. “If that’s some kind of euphemism, sorry, but I’m straight…”
“Ew, Ruth. I think it says more about you that you interpret it that way.” I shook my head, laughing. “Nah. Just… I’m sure you’ve held back a lot of the things you wanted to say to me over the years. Things I need to hear. I want you to put them all on me.”
She blinked. “Did something happen?”
I looked back over the railing, casting my gaze out over the water. “Ugh… Cameron Mercier happened.”
“You two have a fight?”
“Fight’s a strong word… more a graceful goodbye.” I pursed my lips. “But I don’t think I want to say goodbye. Not yet. Feels like it’s wasting this last month and a half I’ve got here, close to her.”
She narrowed her eyes, studying me for a while before she said, “You’re saying all that, and you’re telling me you two aren’t doing anything?”
I shook my head. “We are. Or… we were.”
“Dammit, I knew it—” She clapped her fist into her palm. “Since when?”
I gave her a sardonic smile. “I’m hitting up the bar. Want to join me, or can I bring you back something?”
“Oh, just dropping that and walking away?”
“I’m planning on coming back.”
She laughed, an odd look in her eyes. “Mai Tai. Might as well commemorate this.”
