Page 156 of Should Our Stars Collide

“Nice to see you too,” he returns mechanically. Bumping into an ex-girlfriend isn’t something that happens to him often, so he doesn’t really know how to react. He should probably practice, though. Unless he switches cafés, he’ll inevitably bump into Ash. Then again, these two can’t even be compared. He liked Jess, but he never thought of her as the love of his life.

Fuck you, Ash.

Deciding to take advantage of the distraction, he focuses on Jess. There’s a beach tote bag slung over her shoulder, and she’s holding two cups of iced coffee.

“New boyfriend?” he takes a guess.

Jess swings her hair over her shoulder. “Yeah. He’s even emotionally available and doesn’t ignore my existence.”

Ouch, but fair. Jess isn’t a saint, but she deserved better than Kieran’s abandonment issues and temper. He hadn’t seen it before, but after being with Ash?—

Jesus, can you stop thinking about the asshole for one fucking minute?!

“That’s good. I’m happy for you,” he says, meaning it.

Jess must detect the sincerity, since her eyes bulge out of their sockets.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Kieran laughs. It’s not a nice laugh. “You want that alphabetically or chronologically?” When Jess only continues giving him averyconcerned look, he sighs. “Hey, I’m glad you found someone who’s not…a jerkface. And I’m sorry for how I treated you.”

“Oh my god.” She drops down next to him, putting the drinks down and scouring his face from a two-inch distance. “Did you get bodyswapped? Is the world ending?”

Kieran swallows and looks back at the ocean, feeling a little envious.Must be nice not to have to worry about anything, just listen to the moon, knowing the moon is never going away, no matter how often it changes.

“Mine kinda is.”

A beat of silence, and then, “Holy shit. You’re in deep, aren’t you?”

And clearly obvious as hell.

He buries his head between his knees, letting out a noise of frustration.

“So deep I’m practically in the Marianna Trench.”

A barrage of questions follows. “Who is she? How did you meet?” Jess gasps, her voice darkening. “Were you seeing her behind my back?”

“We didn’t know each other back then,” Keiran puts her mind at ease. What’s the point of cheating, anyway? Just break up if you don’t think it’s fun anymore, Jesus. Who has time for all the secrets and sneaking off? That’s just dumb.

“And it’s a guy.”

Suddenly, there is a finger in his face, and then Jess yells, “I knew it! I fucking knew it.”

O-kay… Not the reaction he expected. “You did?”

“It was obvious!” She swings her arms theatrically. “No one is that obsessed with their best friend.”

Kieran puts a hand up to stop her. “Wait, you lost me.”

“Don’t play dumb. I knew you had a thing for Dean.”

“Dean? Who—oh.” He snickers. Jess always used to mess up the name, and Kieran thought it was on purpose, to piss him off. “Are you talking about Dawson?”

“Yeah, him!”

What Jess is saying finally registers, and Kieran recoils in disgust.

“Ew. No! Hell no. What the fuck, Jess?”