Page 15 of Worth the Risk

Ed was stretched out beside him taking up almost two full cushions of the couch, which suited Landon just fine, as he was curled into himself against the opposite arm. Verity side-eyed him then went upstairs, returning a short while later in floral print silk pajama pants and a loose black tank top.

“So?” they asked, pushing Ed out of the way and taking a seat next to Landon.

“So?” Landon mumbled, taking a drink of wine straight from the bottle.

“So, that was Greg.”

“Gregory, apparently now.”

“Fighting me on semantics is not going to save you from this conversation, Landon,” they chided him.

Landon grumbled and took another drink.

“And don’t think I didn’t see you follow him into the parking lot before you left, either. So you might as well come clean. Did you need a seating change?” Verity pointed at the floor, and Landon shook his head no.

“It was just shocking to see him.”

“Have you really not seen him since college?”

“High school. Or the summer after, I guess. I haven’t seen him since I left for New York.” Landon dragged his finger around the outline of the label on the bottle.

“And refresh my memory, why didn’t he come to New York?” Verity asked.

Landon glared at them. “You know why.”

“I know, but I want you to go through it again for me because this reaction seems a little bit dramatic for a high school sweetheart come back to life.”

“Because we were supposed to go to school in Florida. We’d planned on Florida. He had a scholarship.”

“And you went to Columbia instead?”

Landon forced an abrupt nod. “My parents made me. They wouldn’t pay if I didn’t go there.”

“So how is that his fault?” Verity pried the wine out of Landon’s hand.

“You know that’s not the problem. The problem is that we agreed we would make it work even if I went to Columbia.”

“So your plans changed and you ended up a country away from each other and you’re mad he broke up with you?”

Landon hated how logical it sounded when Verity spelled it out like that. It had always sounded logical when someone else repeated it back to him, but his heart was steadfast that Gregory had been the one to wrong him.

“We agreed to stay together, even after we went away. But after we moved, he changed his mind and said he couldn’t do it. He dumped me. He wouldn’t call me, he wouldn’t reply to me online afterward, nothing.” That had to be worth some punishment or chastisement. Landon may have gone away for school, but he hadn’t tried to cut Gregory off.

“You know we’ve had this talk before, so now I’m going to ask you to repeat to me what I normally tell you when you say that.” Verity placed their hand on Landon’s thigh and did that reassuring thumb circle thing they always did. He tried to focus on how that felt through the cotton of his lounge pants, but all he could focus on was how he hated Gregory and wanted more wine.

“You tell me it was self-preservation and that I can’t be mad at him for trying to salvage his own emotions.”

“But you don’t agree with that.”

“Of course not! If I wanted to go to college, it was the only option my parents would pay for, and anyway, it’s one of the best business schools in the country. What was I supposed to do?”

“Yeah, I know. You went to Columbia and your business would fall apart if I wasn’t keeping your schedule, so how great was that education really, Landon?” Verity huffed a laugh and handed Landon back the bottle of wine.

“You sound noticeably more pro-Greg…Gregory than you used to,” Landon observed, taking a long pull of wine from the bottle.

Verity raised an eyebrow. “Do I?”

“You can cut the innocent act; I’ve known you for too many years.”