Page 197 of Just for the Cameras
“How is this different from what you said at the coffeehouse?”
“I was just catching your girl up,” he says, and I appreciate that he called Maple my girl. Maybe I’ll give him a little bit of a break for that.
“Okay, so what happened now?” Maple asks.
OC lets out a pain-filled sigh. “My boy Posey just called. Grace is engaged.”
Oh shit.
Maple lightly gasps next to me as if she’s watching a storyline from a soap opera unfold. “Oh no, that’s…that’s terrible.”
“I know.” He throws up his arms. “It’s really fucking terrible, because what am I supposed to do with that?”
“Nothing,” I answer.
“What?” OC asks. “What do you mean, ‘nothing’? I know we’re all in shock here and we need to catch our breath and face the facts that she is engaged, but that doesn’t mean we just throw the towel in immediately.”
“OC,” I say, letting my voice carry a hint of softness. “If she’s engaged, that means she said yes, and the only way she would say yes is if she’s in love with this person. And if she’s in love, that means it’s really serious. Do you really want to be that person who comes back into her life and muddies her reality?”
I can feel Maple’s eyes on me, her hand warming over my thigh.
Yes, I’m an asshole most of the time, but there are points when I’m not a complete and total dick, when I can offer some solid advice and give a fuck about you. It’s a small amount of time and the quota runs low often, but he caught me in a moment when Maple was pushing her energy into me.
Lucky him.
“I don’t want to be that person,” OC says, looking deflated. “Fuck, do you really think it’s over?”
“Yeah.”
“But what if…what if she still has feelings for me and doesn’t know it?” OC asks, hope hitting him in the chest. “What if she’s just saying yes to this guy because she doesn’t know how I feel? Don’t you think Ishould give her the chance to know how I feel and then she can make an informed decision?”
“You have a point,” Maple says. “But let me ask this: When you were there with her, was there tension between the two of you? Did it seem like she wanted to work things out? How were the vibes?”
Check out my girl hammering out the details.
He rolls his teeth over his bottom lip as he looks away. “The vibes weren’t great.”
“Then that should be your answer,” I say.
“But I never got the chance to woo her. I was helping all the other fools with their girl problems, like I helped you, and now look at me, alone and sad and heartbroken.”
“Aw, he helped you,” Maple says, leaning in and kissing my cheek.
“A lot,” OC says. “Like the reason you two are sitting there all snuggly, making me jealous, is because of me.”
“Don’t fucking exaggerate,” I say. Sure, he helped, but also, I had a lot to do with this, thank you very fucking much.
OC just shrugs. “Anyway, don’t you think she deserves to find out how I feel?”
“No,” I answer. “She deserves happiness, and she found it.”
“Yeah, don’t be a Rachel.”
“A what?” OC asks.
“Rachel,” Maple says again. “Rachel Green fromFriends. She has feelings for Ross and goes to London to tell him how she feels before he gets married, only to mess with his head, and he goes and says the wrong name at the altar.”
“That’s because Ross is unstable at best.” OC sits taller. “How on earth can someone who once owned a monkey as a pet function properly in society? There’s a screw loose up there.”
