Leap of Faith

Day One

“Oh, no,” Georgie whispered as she stole a glance at the door. “Grey’s here. Cate, what do I do?”

I laugh. “You’re asking me?” That was beyond funny, but she nods anyway. “Be yourself?”

Georgie nods as if it’s the most profound thing anyone’s ever said. I watch as she re-adjusts her hair around her shoulders, letting the soft natural curl of her hair bounce like a slinky, and makes sure her top is sitting perfectly. I reach out my hand to touch hers and force her to look at me. I mouth ‘you’ll be fine’ at her just as a shadow is cast over our table.

“Morning you two,” Greyson smiles down at me first before moving his smoldering gaze to Georgie. “Hey, beautiful.”

Did Georgie Sanderson just blush? I so wish I had a camera to catch the moment because this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. I’ve never seen my best friend blush before so it was her way of showing me that she was totally into Greyson. I laughed to myself and got up from the booth, telling Georgie that I’ll talk to her later. She smiled and waved me off as Greyson took the seat I had vacated.

Hastings was a small town that you could walk around in less than an hour, which is why with the weather being mild as it was for January, I decided to leave my car at home and just walk around town. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular and was minding my own business when I saw Adam Dayton and his new girlfriend strolling down the street towards me.

Up until yesterday I wasn’t so thrilled to see Adam. After everything that had happened, I hated his guts, but today I hated him a little less. Once upon a time, Adam and I had been friends, until we complicated things. I wasn’t sure if what we’d had was real or if it had all been a figment of my imagination, but I couldn’t get over the fact that for months he had strung me along. Plus, I couldn’t forgive him for finishing with me when he was the one who’d been caught cheating.

I wanted to turn and run, and I would have if it wasn’t for the fact that Adam had seen me and was looking directly into my eye. He smiled brightly at me and I narrowed my eyes at him until he and Gillian Merkel came to a stop in front of me. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this boy, but still, I decided to play nice.

“Hey, Cate,” Adam greeted me like he hadn’t done anything wrong. “Looking good today.”

Well, that was a lie. And why was he complementing me?

“Adam,” I said curtly. I turned to Gillian and tried to more polite as I acknowledged her but even I could hear the bitterness in my voice. “Gillian.”

We stood in an awkward silence that was slowly killing me. I hated it when things got silent, and it was made ten times worse when it wasn’t a comfortable silence. Gillian looked bored and was looking anywhere but at me, still not having responded to my greeting. It annoyed me that she had refused to look at me, but at the same time, I wish she would do the decent thing and drag Adam away. She’d seriously be doing us both a favor.

“What are you up to, Cate?” His voice was smarmy. Had it always been like that? Gross. “Or are you just hanging out by yourself?”