Where do I start?
I wanted to blurt everything out, to tell her about the boy in the closet, how I had put myself out there and how, despite having only known Theo for half an hour, I was completely and irrevocably in love with him.
The words were there, on the tip of my tongue, ready to spill to my best friend.
Expressive aphasia.
So instead I played stupid and looked at her quizzically, brushing my fingertips through my hair until it resembled the soft waves that Georgie had painstakingly styled it into earlier this evening. I wipe the moisture from my eyes discreetly, mumbling something about smoke as if it explained why my eyes had watered.
Of course, it had nothing to do with smoke. It had everything to do with feeling as if a part of me was missing. Thankfully, Georgie didn’t push things further and instead motioned her hand between me and Greyson Parker.
“Greyson,” she purred his name seductively. “This is my very best friend in the world, Cate Westbrook. Cate, this is Greyson Parker, my… friend.”
She blushed as she forced out that last word, and I took it to mean that they were more that friends. Or that were on the way to being more than that.
“Hello, Greyson,” I smile my fake grimace politely. “Nice to meet you.”
Greyson looked beyond me, his face frowning as he stared at something behind me. That something- or rather, someone- strode towards us purposefully, coming to a stop at my side.
“There you are,” Greyson grumbled. “Finally. TJ, meet Georgie Saunders. Geo,” he addressed my best friend using a nickname I had never heard before. “This is my man, TJ.”
Trust Georgie to be bright as she smiled back a friendly ‘Hi.’
“Yeah, great to meet you,” TJ cut Georgie off with an air of arrogance. “Listen, Grey, I need to talk to you.”
“Course,” Greyson seemed unnerved by the tone his friend used, but first there was something more pressing for Greyson to take care of. He looked at me and smiled. “TJ, this is Geo’s best friend, Cate. Cate, this is TJ. I swear to God he isn’t always this rude.”
“Yeah, whatever,” TJ replies brusquely. I scoffed at his greeting, but TJ ignored me entirely. “Grey? Now.”
Greyson shifted Georgie off his lap and yanked TJ away from us by his bicep, leaving us gawping after them. As they disappeared into the crowd, I couldn’t help but try to search Theo out. My heart sank when I remembered that I didn’t know what he looked like.
On the upside, Valentine’s was only six weeks away.