Page 41 of Just Another Meet Cute

“Guess you couldn’t help getting back into your stalker habits, huh?” Ian asked with a grin as he scooped some corn onto a plate and held it out to me. “Although you’re doing a pretty bad job today. You’re supposed to pretend that you didn’t know I was here.”

Taking it from him, I poked his chest and shoved him backward. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m just here for the steak.”

“That’s better.” He laughed and swept his hair off his face. “Admit it. I’m too irresistible for you to send to jail. You’d miss me too much.”

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at his smug face like I was ten years old again. “Never.”

Turning away to sit at the small table by the piano, I couldn’t stop the smile from drifting across my face. But I made sure it was gone by the time I turned around to face Ian again. That didn’t stop my beaming from the inside, though.

This morning, the sun was barely up when Mom bolted out of the room. She claimed that she had to run to the store for some important stuff like pads and tampons. Or at least I think that’s what she said over her shoulder as she left.

I spent all day at the hotel on my own, but Mom never came back.

I knew she was fine, since every time I texted her, she answered with a different emoji.

A thumbs-up. A jogging woman. She even texted a picture of a turtle and some vegetables.

Either she was planning on getting a pet turtle or eating one for dinner. I was afraid to ask.

By midafternoon, I decided to leave the room so that Mom could finally stop avoiding me. It didn’t take that long to buy pads and tampons. Then again, maybe she forgot how to, since she’s never had to buy them before.

Ironically, we never had to worry about buying those things when we were at Aunt Sarah’s house. With her couponing skills and hoarding tendencies, we were always stocked up in that department. And with lotion. Even though she was a bit of a bossy bully, Aunt Sarah always took care of us.

Thinking of the tampons made me think of Ian (which was something I never thought I would ever say about a guy), and I decided to visit him at the Shamrock Patio. He did promise to be a distraction from my family. Without any judgments.

Besides, there was nowhere else to go, since Linh was still with her mom.

She promised to text me when Aunt Sarah wasn’t mad anymore.

So far, nothing yet. And Ryan was finally taking my advice and teaching Kathy how to mow the lawn.

I hoped that meant he was planning to go on the trip with his friend, too.

I was almost done with my steak when Ian came strolling over. Leaning one hand against my table, he stole one of the pieces I had cut and stuck it in his mouth. “So, what have you been doing today besides stalking me?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re really making me wish I stayed at the hotel.”

Dropping his teasing act, Ian gave me a concerned look. “Hotel? Why were you at a hotel? What happened?”

“My mom and aunt got into an argument, so we’re staying at the Waldorf Luxury now.”

Again, I expected him to ask about the argument, but he glanced over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t needed before sitting down in the chair in front of me. His arms crossed on the table as he leaned forward. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t my argument.” I stopped and frowned a bit. “Well, I did start it, but it was mainly between them. It’s … a long story.”

He flashed me a brief smile. “You always say that about your family.”

“Because nothing’s ever simple with them.”

“Nothing is ever simple with anyone,” Ian pointed out with a raised brow. “Come on, how bad can it be?”

“You’d be surprised.” Not sure if I wanted to prove him wrong, or if I was just dying to talk someone—anyone—about what happened, but I ended up blurting out everything. Including the conversation with Mom and how she lied to everyone. I gave him an expectant look when I was done. “Well?”

He scrunched up his face and finally nodded. “Okay, that’s pretty bad. Like almost K-drama type of bad. At least there’s no shocking birth secret. What are you going to do?”

I poked at the pile of potatoes left on my plate. “What do you mean? I’m just here to eat my free steak.”

“First, your other steak was free. This one isn’t. We’re not running a charity here. And second, there’s tons of stuff you can do. First, you can forgive your mom, but that’s a given.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re you,” he said like that was enough of an explanation. He took the fork from me so I would stop stabbing the potato lumps. “And there’s tons you can do about your dad. With your dad, now that you know the truth.”

“Well, technically he still left his other family—”

“But you don’t know why. Maybe there’s an explanation for that, too. You won’t know until you ask him. And that means that you need to talk to him first.”

I grimaced. Ian was right, but hearing the words out loud didn’t make it easier.

Sure, all the reasons for avoiding Dad were gone now.

And I didn’t know why he got divorced. Just like I was in the dark about how he didn’t abandon us .

And I knew that after the way everyone in our family treated him all these years, how I treated him, I was obligated to try to make it up to him now.

If only it were so simple. I’ve avoided him for so long, I didn’t even know what to say or what to do anymore. And after being angry for two years, I couldn’t switch my feelings that easily.

“I’ve kept him at a distance for so long that I don’t even know how to start. It’s weird.”

Ian gave me a smile so gentle that I almost forgot what we were talking about. “You can start with some ice cream.”

“Ice cream?”

“Yeah. Get a scoop of ice cream with him and see where it goes.”

Sigh. “Fine, I’ll try,” I finally said. “Now you have to tell me a family secret.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s how we do things. I tell you something, and then you tell me something. It has to be good though.”

He looked amused and leaned back in his chair. “I don’t remember ever making this deal.”

I poked his arm repeatedly. “Come on. Come onnn …”

Swatting my hand away, Ian rubbed his forearm. “Fine. Let me think of something.”

A couple of minutes went by and he still didn’t say anything. Since I wasn’t wearing a watch, I pointed at my bare wrist, and Ian sighed loudly. When about five minutes had passed, I leaned forward to poke him again, but he grabbed my finger with his hand so I couldn’t move.

“Fine, this is kind of stupid, but has Ryan ever told you about his ex-girlfriend?”

“Liv? Sort of.”

Ian chewed on his lower lip. “Well, she broke up with him because of me.”

I jerked backward so suddenly that my chair almost knocked over. I barely noticed though. All I could do was blink at him. “What?!”

His hands rose like he was defending himself.

“Shit, nothing like that . I would never do anything like that to Ryan.” He raked his hand through his hair.

“One day she found me at his locker before lunch. I was borrowing his history book because I left mine at home. She must have thought I was Ryan, because she grabbed my arm and kissed me.”

“And then what?”

“And then nothing! When I jerked back, she realized that I wasn’t Ryan and was super embarrassed. We both were. And we promised never to tell him what had happened. But then they broke up a week or two after that.”

I shook my head. “But that doesn’t mean it’s your fault. Maybe—”

Now it was his turn to fiddle with the potatoes with my fork. “Later she told me that kissing me made her realize that she wasn’t that into Ryan. Not that she liked me or anything, but just that if she was really in love with him, then she should have been able to tell us apart.”

“Oh.” It was kind of hard to argue with that logic. “She was probably ashamed that she couldn’t tell you guys apart. I know I would be.”

He glanced up at me. “But you could tell us apart.”

“Not in the beginning. And after I found out there were two of you …” I shook my head and laughed. “If Liv even felt a tiny bit the way I did, then she must have been mortified.”

“Oh, she definitely was.”

“And you never told Ryan?”

Ian shook his head.

Crossing my arms, I leaned back in my seat and chewed on my thumbnail. “Maybe you should tell him. He thinks that she broke up with him because he’s too nice.”

“He told you that?”

“That’s what she told him, but he knows it’s a lie.

” For a moment, I wondered if it was right for me to tell Ryan’s secret like this.

Especially one that he didn’t even tell his own brother, but I felt like this was something Ian needed to know.

“He said he doesn’t care, but I know that he does.

I think it would really help him to know the truth. ”

Ian didn’t say anything for a long time. All he did was rub his lower lip like he did so often when he was thinking of something. “I guess sometimes wondering can be worse than actually knowing.”

“That sounded almost philosophical,” I teased, glad that it seemed like he was going to take my advice.

He grinned. “Thanks, but don’t expect it to happen very often.”

“That’s not true. You’re really good at expressing yourself. Like in your essay.”

“What are you talking about?”

Oh crap. I didn’t mean to say that.

I lowered my eyes to the tabletop and scratched at the peeling paint in one corner. “Well, when I was looking for you to return your stuff, I looked through the flash drive on your key chain and saw the comic and …”

It took him a few seconds to realize where I was going. Peeking up, I could tell when it hit him as his fingers tightened on the fork. “ That essay.”

“Yes.”

“And you read it.”

Was he asking me or telling me? Either way, I gave him a weak nod.

His jaw clenched and his lips pursed together into a straight line. It was so tight that I saw his right dimple pop out. I didn’t even know that it was possible to show off a dimple without smiling.

And then silence.

For ages.

“How do you know it’s mine and not Ryan’s?”