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“You too,” Asher replies.
I only have a chance to glance at them all before Mom pulls me away from the table.
“Come on, the cake is about to be cut and your father wants you by his side for a picture.”
I can’t breathe. The air remains close and pressed against my face, increasing the tickling sensation across my arms and legs. I want to run. I need to escape my own skin and get outside just so I can take a clean breath.
“Mom I just need to?—”
“There’s no time,” she snaps, pulling me through the crowd. Suddenly, she pauses and turns to me. “And please, try to get along with your father’s friend. I know it’s been years and you think you’re too cool for people like him but he’s important to your father.”
“I will,” I reply, “but I just need to?—”
“Good, because they’re coming to stay with us at the cabin this weekend and the last thing I need is you being dramatic.”
17
EMMA
Coldness washes over me as if I’ve just been dunked in ice.
Asher, Finn, and Caspian locked in the cabin with me and my parents.
Fuck. Of course that’s what’s going to happen. Of course, on top of this bombshell, my dad’s old college buddies are some of the friends they’re bringing to the cabin.
The rest of the party passes in a whirlwind of cake cutting, speeches, and present opening so I don’t get a chance to see Finn, Asher, or Caspian again. I keep an eye out for them as we stand at the door and say goodbye to everyone, but they’re nowhere to be seen. They must have slipped away earlier.
By the time I make it home, I’m utterly drained and mentally exhausted from everything. I kick off my shoes, throw my keys into the bowl by the door and seek out my phone. With two taps, I’m calling the group chat, eager to talk to Ana and slightly hopeful that a call to the group chat will pull Meghan back into things as well. Only Ana answers though.
Guess Meghan is still too full of herself to apologize.
“Hey honey, everything okay?” Ana yawns, stretching out on the video as she greets me. “It’s so late.”
“I know, sorry. I just got back from my dad’s birthday and you will not believe the shit that went down.”
I fill her in on all the details as I trudge wearily into my bedroom and then pause. Once again, my window is open and the curtains drift slightly in the barely detectable night breeze. Shit, did I leave that open before I left? I don’t remember opening the window, but I had been in a terrible rush after class. I close it and lock it, pulling the curtains shut and by the time I start running my bath, Ana has all the details.
“Holy shit,” Ana laughs. “Girl, when I said you had to have more fun and enjoy yourself, this is not what I had in mind.”
“You’re telling me,” I groan, keeping the flow of the water on low to ensure the temperature remains high. “I honestly thought I was going to pass out. Within thirty seconds, I learned that all three guys I like know each other, know about me, and know my dad. What are the chances of that happening?”
“Maybe higher than we realize,” Ana says. “So what are you going to do?”
“I…have no idea. They seemed pretty casual about it, but we didn’t get a lot of time to talk. Asher definitely seemed a bit out of it. He was really surprised.”
“Does it creep you out?” Ana asks as I add bubbles and bath salts.
“That he’s friends with my dad? No.”
“What about the fact that he met you as a baby?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t creep me out because I don’t really remember him and he didn’t know me. I’m pretty sure I was like four when he left. But I’m worried it creeps him out.” Sighing, I balance my phone on the stand by the bath and turn the water off. “I mean, I hadn’t thought much about the future but I like them, all of them. Having that possibility of things continuing was really nice. But now it’s like, almost impossible. If my parents were ever to find out, I’m pretty sure my mother would just drop dead.”
“Nah, she’s far too stubborn to give you an easy way out like that,” Ana teases me. “Look on the bright side; this solves one problem.”
“Which is?” Perching on the edge of the bath, I gingerly begin to remove my eyelashes.
“You don’t need to worry about one of them finding out about the other and forcing you to choose.”
