Page 80 of How To Not Need You

“How much more undeniable does it have to be?”

The question hangs in the air. Nobody has an answer that doesn’t sound like platitudes. Something about Natalie’s question, the exhaustion in it, the weariness of someone who’s been carrying this alone for too long, pushes me to answer her.

“Enough that when you show him,” I say quietly, “you’re not asking him to believe you.”

Natalie turns to me. Her eyes are shining now, but she doesn't look away.

Natalie stares at me for another second before nodding.

“Okay.” She sinks back into her chair, rubbing her hands over her jeans before clasping them together in her lap.

Nobody seems to know what to say after that. Even Luca is quiet for a solid ten seconds, which might be a new record.

Eventually Ben clears his throat. “So… we keep looking?”

Harper closes her notebook. “We keep looking.”

Apparently that’s enough to call the meeting. People start moving again. Mugs and empty bottles are collected.

Someone folds up the half-empty packet of biscuits. Wren goes looking for Popcorn, who vanished into the bookshelves at some point and has been suspiciously quiet ever since.

Ben pulls out his phone and starts photographing every inch of the investigation board.

“What are you doing?”

He doesn’t even look at me. “Documenting the evidence.”

“It’s not a crime scene.”

“That's exactly what someone contaminating a crime scene would say.”

I stare at him. He takes another photo.

Luca starts stacking chairs, so I shake of my confusion and grab the ones closest to me and help without being asked. Somewhere along the way, I’ve apparently learned how Page & Grounds gets put back together after one of these meetings. Wooden chairs against the wall. Mugs behind the counter. Harper’s abandoned pens back in the cup beside the register.

That probably says something about how often I’ve been here lately.

I’m choosing not to overthink it.

Adrian appears at my shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”

“That's what I'm worried about,” I say.

But I keep stacking chairs. At some point, these people stopped being Liv's friends.

I'm not sure exactly when it happened. Maybe the stakeout. Maybe tonight. Maybe Luca decided I belonged here the first time I walked into Page & Grounds and I've just been too slow to notice.

Either way, I apparently know where the mugs go now.

That's probably a bad sign.

I catch Liv's eye across the room. She smiles at me.

Yeah.

Definitely a bad sign.

But I don’t move to leave. My hands keep stacking chairs.