Faking It with My Ex's Best Friend novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Coaster

The ladder creaked and Cade came down in his jeans, barefoot, with his hair flattened on one side.

He saw the drawer and the coaster in my hand, and he stopped on the last rung.

"You weren't asleep," I said.

"You left the bed cold."

"This is me."

"Yes."

"On the night I met Trevor."

He came the rest of the way down and stood across the table from me.

He did not reach for it.

"Rosen's," he said. "Four years ago. It was raining sideways."

"I had a blue umbrella that turned inside out."

"I know. I watched it happen."

The lamp buzzed over the table.

My arm was cold from the open air.

"Say it plain," I said. "Don't make me guess."

He pulled out a stool and sat, forearms on his knees.

"Trevor and I were at a table by the window. You came in out of the rain and stood in the door, trying to wrestle that umbrella shut. You laughed at it. Out loud, by yourself. I'd never seen anybody laugh at an umbrella."

I could see it too.

I could feel the wet wool of my coat.

"I told him I was going to go say hello," Cade said. "I pointed at you. I said, 'That one, I'm going to talk to her.' Then I went to pay my tab, because I wanted to be the kind of guy who has his tab paid."

"And when you came back?"

"You were gone. He had you by the elbow, walking you toward the door. He said he was going to see you home."

"And you didn't say a word."

"He's my best friend. He walked faster." His voice was even. "I told myself that. For three weeks. Then he brought you to a barbecue and called you his girlfriend, and I shook your hand like I'd never seen you."

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