Avoiding Intimacy (Avoiding #2.5)(44)

“Thanks for meeting me,” she said, biting on her bottom lip. She wished she had something else to do besides stare at the stupid menu.

He didn’t glance back up from his menu, and for a second, she thought he wasn’t going to respond. “Well, you have the most annoying best friend in the world.”

Chyna laughed and then coughed, trying to cover it up.

“She certainly doesn’t give up on the people she cares about,” he said, looking up at her then, “like ever.”

“Sounds like her,” Chyna said, holding back a smile. That sounded way too much like Alexa.

The waitress came over, wearing a red and white–striped old-fashioned dress with ruffled socks in white Keds. Her hair was pulled up into pigtails with scrunchies. She looked utterly ridiculous.

Chyna could never get over the outfits here. Just dress them in normal clothes!

“What’ll ya have?” she asked, smacking away on her bubble gum, not even looking at them as she held her notepad poised and ready.

Adam ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg on top with onion rings, instead of French fries, and a root beer. He burned calories like a maniac. Lucky fast metabolism . Chyna just asked for a strawberry milkshake, happily handing over her dirty menu. The waitress walked off with a grunt, flipping her pad back to the front, and slipped the menus under her arm.

“Charming,” Chyna grumbled.

“Judgey.”

“With reason,” she said, pointing at the woman. “She was plain rude.”

“She’s probably just had a long day.”

Chyna hmphed, not wanting to talk about the unfortunate waitress.

With nowhere else to look, Adam returned her gaze with a sigh. “You wanted to meet, so we’re meeting. I only have an hour lunch. What did you want to talk about?”

Chyna swallowed and steeled herself for this. She was pleasantly sober. She hadn’t even been drinking the night before in anticipation of this conversation.

“I...wanted to apologize,” she said meekly, wanting to break eye contact but not allowing herself, “for what happened.”

“Apologize?” he asked suspiciously.

She paused, wishing she didn’t have to do this. Why did it have to be this way?

The one guy who she had agreed to actually give it a go with had ended up leaving her. She didn’t know how to do what she was about to do.

“I can understand why you were pissed and why you left,” she said, her voice breaking. God, she had wanted to keep it together! “I shouldn’t have gone behind your back. I probably could have picked a better time to tell you about it, and I could have handled everything that happened afterward better. So…I’m sorry.

I was a shit, and I’m admitting that.”

“You were a shit,” Adam agreed, “but…”

Chyna froze in place at that word. She had not been expecting that word.

“I was a shit, too. You were drunk, and I got pissed. Instead of working things out, I just left and let them simmer all week. That wasn’t fair to either of us,” he said, sighing. “I talked to John.”

She felt her blood boil at the name.

That son of a bitch! He had used her drunk ass for his own amusement. She had thought she was attracted to him, but really, it was one big façade. He was as charming as a con artist, slippery as a snake, and tricky as a thief. He had thought he could get an easy lay out of her, and when she had pushed him back, he had freaked out on her. She knew guys like him. From now on, she hated them, too.

No one should be able to be that manipulative . He was a certified douche.

“He owned up to what happened. Told a slightly different tale than the one you fed me, but I don’t think anyone will know what happened unless they were in the room that night. Frankly, I don’t want to know. What happened, happened. It’s over now. I can’t continue to dwell on it.”

“I know what you mean,” she said softly as their food arrived.

Adam took the opportunity to fill his mouth, so he didn’t have to talk. She could see he was brooding behind those big hazel eyes, but she didn’t ask a question.

She wanted to soak up the fact that he had apologized as well. No way had she thought he would do that. She had been in the wrong, not him. Chyna sucked on her strawberry milkshake, mulling over the situation in silence. He had more to say, and she knew it. They weren’t finished with the conversation after not talking all week.

Adam tore through his burger, and then he started picking at his onion rings. She waited for him to speak. He looked like he wanted to lead the conversation. When he finally spoke up, she almost wished he hadn’t.

“Why my brother?”

It was a question she didn’t have an answer for. She hadn’t kissed John. He had kissed her. But, that wasn’t good enough. As cruel as John had been that night when she had stopped the kiss, he did have a fair point. She had been thinking about the kiss and worse since she had met him. Her intentions had been anything but honorable, and it made her feel worse. She didn’t even want to fight him on this. She didn’t feel like she had a right to.

“I don’t know,” she finally answered.

“Really?” he asked, dipping an onion ring in ketchup.

Chyna sighed, wishing she could go back and fix it. Fix her attraction to John.