Page 58 of Not a Friend (Crescent Light #1)
I turned, taking in the spectacle in front of me. Martinez and Jared each with their arms looped around Kieran’s torso. Kieran held like a ragdoll, too drunk to stand upright. And Nate, lingering behind them, focused solely on me. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll get him back,” Martinez said, extending his free hand out for the key. “Go back inside and enjoy the party.”
I eyed him and Jared. “I’m not sure that’s such a—”
“Nate, take Olive back inside. We’re going to handle this.”
Nate didn’t move. With an expression that was half concern, half pleading, he didn’t say anything. It was my decision.
They clearly weren’t going to let me leave the wedding to babysit Kieran, but my emotions were still running too high. Not knowing what else to do, I washed my hands of the whole thing and stomped away.
Instead of turning down the hall that led back to the reception, I kept going until I met a pair of double doors that led to an unoccupied patio.
Then, I turned on my heel and paced back to where I started.
I knew Nate was behind me, silently offering his support by his presence alone, but the adrenaline and anxiety pumping through my system didn’t allow me to stop walking until I paced up and down the empty hallway a few more times.
Embarrassed didn’t begin to cover what I was feeling.
Jared, Martinez, and Nate had to be furious with me.
Heels slowing on the marble floor, I shot a glance at Nate a minute later. He’d taken up a spot against the wall and was studying his shoes, hands in pockets, waiting.
Defeated, I came to a stop in front of him.
He met my eyes over his lashes, keeping his chin tucked toward his shoes.
“Are you mad?” I asked.
He pulled his brows together, the wheels in his head turning for a beat. “Yeah. I’m pretty pissed.”
I swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?” he asked, standing up straighter.
My palm pressed against my forehead. “I don’t know. I ended things with Kieran this morning and asked him not to come tonight. And I should’ve told him to go back to the suite when he showed up to the ceremony, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and—”
“Hey…” Nate soothed, taking a small step forward.
“—I didn’t mean for it to become a whole thing. You guys have the right to be pissed. You shouldn’t have to clean up my mess.”
“Let’s back up,” he said, shifting his weight. “What happened?”
My shoulders rose slowly with my inhale.
“Turns out, spending the whole weekend drunk off your ass, being a possessive jerk, and talking shit about my best friend doesn’t bode well for keeping a relationship alive.
Also, someone pointed out the fact that Kieran and I don’t have very much in common, and… they were right.”
A million questions painted his face, mingled with a look of pride. “You told him not to come to the wedding?”
I nodded. “I broke up with him this morning. Told him he shouldn’t come, but he did anyway.”
Nate shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “You should have told somebody.”
“And what? Make a big scene? Have him escorted off the property?”
Nate bit back a smile and nodded, almost to himself. “Would have loved to see that.”
I laughed dryly. “When did you get so vengeful?”
“You really wanna know the answer to that?”
The bass of the distant reception music bumped as I waited.
“That night when you called me crying.” He sucked his teeth, shaking his head. “I’m not a violent person, Oli, you know that. But when you said a guy was partially responsible for you crying like that?”
My eyes fell to my feet.
He moved a lock of hair out of my face and pushed it over my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, smiling softly. “Yeah.”
“Let me be clear,” he said, keeping his hand resting gingerly on my shoulder. “Nobody is upset with you. You don’t have to apologize for anything. In fact, I should be apologizing. I escalated things.”
I leveled a look at him. “You’re not sorry, are you?”
His head shook as he cracked a smile. “No, not at all. Fuck that guy.”
A laugh bubbled out of me, echoing off the walls.
“Nobody else saw, Oli. Nobody has to know anything if you don’t want them to. ”
Shaken and embarrassed as I was, another feeling washed over me in equal measure.
Relief.
It was like I’d finally set down a heavy weight I’d been carrying around for days, weeks, perhaps even months. And it was over. One thousand and ten percent totally fucking over. Dead and buried.
I didn’t have to settle. I didn’t have to keep the peace. I didn’t have to bite my tongue. I could be my true and authentic self with the people who loved me for exactly who I was.
Meeting his eye again, I wanted to say it. That I loved him, and not a day had gone by since we met that I didn’t think about him. Now that I’d realized it for myself, the floodgates were opened. It wouldn’t be ignored.
Dropping his hand from my shoulder, he said, “You wanna go back inside?”
I took a deep, cleansing breath. “Yeah. Let’s go.”