Drunk on Love(105)

She put her mug down and looked at him.

“You interviewed there yesterday? Why did you quit in the first place? You always said it was your dream job.”

“Because I hated it.” He hadn’t meant to say it, but it almost exploded out of him. If he was being honest with his mom, it felt like all he could say was the truth. The truth he hadn’t let himself realize.

She sat up straight.

“You hated it? You’re going to go back to a job that you hated, for a better title and more money? Why would you do that?”

“Because I—”

He stopped to think about that. Because he wanted to? No, that wasn’t true; he definitely didn’t want to. Because he wanted the money? He supposed the money would be nice, but he didn’t need it. Because he wanted to prove something to a bunch of people he didn’t really care about?

Yeah, that was closer to the truth.

“What does Avery think about you going back there?” his mom asked. Then she laughed. “Oh, I forgot, you aren’t actually with Avery. I can’t believe you pretended to me about that, all that time. And that you got poor Avery to play along.”

He laughed, too.

“I can’t believe that, either. She’s a good friend, though she did try to talk me out of this. Which makes her a very good friend.”

His mom had a smile on her face.

“If real life was like all of the books I like to read, this would have made you two fall in love for real. So I guess that means it’s never actually going to happen.” She sighed. “It just surprises me that you weren’t really dating, because you’ve seemed so happy lately. I guess that was just not being at a job you hated.”

He shook his head. He might as well tell her everything.

“It wasn’t just that. I mean, I’m sure that was part of it, but I have been dating someone. Not Avery. Margot.”

His mom almost dropped her mug.

“Margot Noble? Your boss?”

“My former boss,” he said. “Why do you think I was so eager to quit that job? Anyway, I asked her out shortly after I quit, and you’re right. I was so happy.”

“Oh no,” his mom said. “?‘Was.’?” Her eyes widened. “Is that my fault? I said something to her at the party about you and Avery. Did she know about that?”

She didn’t have to remind him.

“Yeah, she mentioned that.” He sighed. “And no, I hadn’t told her. She was upset about that, yeah. But she was more upset about the job.” He looked down at the desk. “I thought she’d be impressed, excited. But she was so upset. She was mad about the Avery thing, too, don’t get me wrong, but she thought that me taking this interview . . . without talking to her about it meant I wasn’t serious about her. But . . .”

He folded his hands tightly on the desk and stared down at them. He didn’t say anything for a moment. Finally, he looked up at his mom.

“I’ve been pretty stupid lately, haven’t I?”

She laughed and pulled him into a hug with her good arm.

“I wouldn’t quite put it that way, but since you did . . . yeah, probably.”

He let her hug him as tightly as she wanted to.





Twenty-Six


MARGOT WOKE UP FRIDAY morning, groaned, and closed her eyes again. On the plus side, she only had a splitting headache; it could be far worse. On the minus side . . . everything else.

She eventually made herself sit up, gulped down ibuprofen, and got in the shower. After a shower, two cups of coffee, and a whole lot of water, she felt almost human. It wasn’t until she’d gotten dressed that she remembered her car was still at the winery.

She grabbed her phone to get an overpriced rideshare up the valley and saw a text from her brother.

    ELLIOT

I’ll come get you as soon as Taylor gets here



“Bless you, Elliot,” she said out loud.

    MARGOT

Thank you! I’ll be ready!



He was at her house thirty minutes later. When she climbed into his truck, he handed her a greasy white bag.

“I thought you could use a breakfast sandwich today.”

She almost hugged him, but she and Elliot had hugged more in the past week than in the past three years before that. Better not to push it.

“You’re a hero and a saint,” she said instead. “Do I have to write ‘breakfast sandwiches’ into that contract?”

Elliot nodded.

“Make mine with bacon.”

On the way to the winery, Elliot didn’t bring up anything they’d talked about the night before, and neither did she. Friday was another busy day at the winery, with lots of appointments and tours and phone calls. But all day, as she joked with Taylor and chatted with guests and sent endless emails, she thought about what Elliot had said. That she should tell Luke how she felt about him, before it was too late.

What if Luke didn’t feel the same way? She already felt silly, juvenile, for feeling such big feelings for Luke, caring this much about him, letting him become so central to her life, after only a month. Yes, sure, it had been two months since she’d met him, but they’d been together for only a month, and she’d let herself fall this hard? For someone who had told her, since the beginning, that he wouldn’t be around that long?