Page 6

“You know, work, wife and kids, the regular.”

My eyes widen. “Wife and kids? You can’t be serious.”

He laughs out loud, a free sound that makes my heart feel warm.

“Lillian and I have been married for a couple of years now. Two kids.”

“Holy shit!”

Grayson keeps grinning, looking a bit sheepish. “I feel a little bad that I came out drinking without her, but she’s visiting her family upstate with the kids. I had to stay home for work.”

Looking at Grayson makes me wonder about someone I shouldn’t be wondering about, but I can’t help from asking the question.

“How’s Meredith?”

I wish I could take the words back the moment they leave my lips. I shouldn’t care how Meredith is, shouldn’t worry that she’s married with kids of her own. It doesn’t matter. Itshouldn’tmatter.

And yet…

“She’s doing all right.” Something sounds off as he sits on the barstool next to me. “Still living with Mother.”

I frown. “Really? But didn’t she become a lawyer?”

He snorts. “No. Burned out her sophomore year of college. Had some kind of nervous breakdown. She’s always been high-strung.”

I don’t remember her as high-strung, but as confident, ambitious… Absolutely beautiful.

I swallow hard, a sudden lump in my throat.

“But you know Meredith, she’s making the best of it.” Grayson shrugs. “Living it up.”

Of course, she is. The Meredith I know would never let anything get in the way of living the life she wants to live. Maybe she’s changed her dreams, but I’m sure she’s going after them.

What happened was for the best.

She deserves so much better than me. She deserves the world, even if she could never see that.

It hurts too much to think about her. “So, tell me all about you and Lillian. I remember when you first met her–you were convinced she was the love of your life.”

Grayson grins, sipping his beer while I chug mine and telling me the whole, romantic story. It’s like something out of one of those romance books my grandmother used to hide in her bookshelf.

“Maybe sometimes, love isn’t just a fairy tale,” I muse, my head spinning from the alcohol I have imbibed in.

Grayson chuckles. “What makes you think it’s ever a fairy tale? Even a relationship like mine and Lillian’s—It's work.”

I nod, but it just makes me dizzy. I argue when Grayson offers to pay the check, but I’ve accidentally gotten too drunk, and I end up letting him.

“Get home safe,” Fred says.

Grayson puts me in the back of a car. “Where are you staying?”

I don’t even remember leaving the bar.

“The Four Seasons.” I give him my room number.

“Let’s meet up in the morning.” Grayson laughs when he looks down at his watch, his own eyes glassy, even though he seems less intoxicated than I feel. “Make it noon, actually.”

“See you then.”