Page 1 of While You Were Trending

1

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT GINNY

Declan Fox, aka a guy who’s never been over her

Ginny Rhodes ishell on my heart.

You’d think watching a woman try to stop my best friend’s wedding would’ve broken the spell she had on me the entire time he dated her, but no.

It didn’t.

She sprinted into that brightly lit, flower-strewn church four years ago, yelling that Alex was making a mistake, that she loved him, that she wanted to marry him, that his high school sweetheart wasn’t right for him, and my heart stopped.

It seized up in my chest with the raw, soul-deep, secondhand shame that blossomed inside me on her behalf.

And then she fell.

Her face crashing into the side of the pew.

The crack of bone against wood.

More gasps from the wedding guests as she went down. A few laughs.

Fury erupting out of my best friend that she was there at all.

I should’ve been mad too.

Mad on Alex’s behalf. Horrified that Ginny was making a scene on his big day.

Instead, I desperately wanted to run up the aisle to her and gather her in my arms and hold her and tend to her injuries, no matter what they were.

But I didn’t, because you don’t help your best friend’s ex-girlfriend when she’s trying to stop his wedding.

Even when his wedding happens three months after their steady relationship of four years ended.

Even when you privately agreed that his wedding was a mistake.

And especially when you didn’t know how to handle how much you liked her, so you were a dick to her out of self-preservation the whole time he dated her.

And now?

Now, here we are.

Another day, another wedding.

This one is outdoors in a field beside a stone banquet hall at a Sonoma winery, with rows of white folding chairs instead of pews, natural sunlight unfiltered by stained glass windows, no guests who knew Ginny better than they knew the bride.

No one objecting to her sister’s marriage to one of the world’s most well-known actors.

Ceremony’s over, and now the high-profile guests are mingling and eating and dancing while the happy couple makes the rounds accepting congratulations at this private vineyard.

Gorgeous setting. Bright, sunny September day. Fluffy white clouds in the blue sky. Green still covering the rolling hills leading up into the mountains separating Sonoma from Napa. A hint of warm grape juice lingering in the air as harvest approaches.

Rain passed through this morning, but the weather cleared up well before the ceremony started.

What hasn’t cleared up?

All of my feelings at being close to Ginny again.