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“Except that I have to teach.”
“It’s true,” I tease. “I got the teacher to come out on a school night. That’s how good I am.”
“So cocky. You sound like Lucca. Are you sure you want a second date? Because I’m about to back out.”
“No backing out now, Miss Conrad.” I smirk and head in the direction of the restaurant. The Sugar Pine Café is only a few minutes away from the concert hall. I’ve never been there, but then neither has Rosalie. I like the idea of us trying new things together. “Can I ask one question?” I say, pulling into a parking space near the front.
“Go for it.”
“I like you, Rose. I think you might like me—”
“I am happy to explain to you what a question is, if needed.” She grins, her blue eyes sparkling, and I can’t help but grin back at her.
She opens the door and I follow suit. Side by side, arms brushing, we walk into the café.
“Not that I’m complaining. Believe me, I’d ask eight more times and wait four more months if need be. But can you help me understand why?”
“You really want to know?” she says. “Fran didn’t tell you?”
“Fran mentioned a bad breakup.”
“Okay, Zevulun Hayes, you asked for it.” She pulls in a breath. “Let’s get a table before I get in too deep and scare you away.”
Does she really not know? That isn’t possible.
We settle into our seats out on the empty patio of the café. The September air is cool, but not cold. Still, I wish I had a jacket to offer her. Rosalie takes me up on my offer to buy her anything. She orders hot cocoa, chicken Alfredo, cheese bread, and a chocolate lava cake. I’d happily buy this woman anything.
“I met Robert in college. His last name is Pattinson, and Fran immediately went to the actor who played the vampire in those movies a few years ago. We thought he was so funny and so cute, and we had this running joke about the vampire or the engineer. Now, she is just legitimately clarifying—because my Fran still very much likes the vampire. The same cannot be said for the engineer.” She lifts her brows. “Anyway, Robert and I started dating. We spent more and more time together. Until—” She swallows.
“Until?” I say.
Rosalie tilts her head, her white-blonde hair tumbling like a waterfall down her left side. She offers me a sad smile. “Until I was utterly in love with the idiot.”
“Ah.” I nod. Yeah—not my favorite thing to hear about the girl I plan to marry one day.
“We’d been together two years, and I was pretty sure Robert was my forever person when I got my assignment to student teach. I purposely stayed in Reno to be close to Robert. He still had a year to finish his degree.” Mindlessly, she opens a package of sugar and dumps it onto the table, then she swirls her pointer finger through the grains, drawing an R—I’m not sure if it’s for Rosalie or Robert, or if she even realizes she’s doing it. “He’d visit me at the elementary school where I was student teaching. I thought he was being sweet. Margo Kim was my mentor teacher, and she’d comment on how lucky I was every time he came.” Rosalie sighs. “I didn’t even see it coming, Zev. I was so clueless.”
“You aren’t clueless,” I say, gripping the wrapped silverware in front of me. “You’re trusting and good and—”
She huffs. “Completely clueless.”
“He cheated then?”
Her chest fills with air and she nods. “Yes, he cheated. With Margo.”
“Your mentor?” I gasp.
“He’d come and she’d gush over what an attentive boyfriend he was, and I had no idea that they were seeing each other behind my back. It’s humiliating. It’s completely shameful.”
“No—”
“She was my friend, Zev. When a job opened up at that school, she encouraged me to apply.”
No. How awful can one human be? “Did you?”
“I did. I interviewed and I waited. I had interviewed at two other schools, and both had already come back to me with offers, but I was waiting for Clark Elementary. I wanted to stay. I wanted to work with Margo and everyone else I met at Clark.”
“I’m sorry, Rosalie.”
