Page 169 of How To Not Need You

Adrian looks at me. “Don't.”

I smile at that. Coffee appears. Then plates. Then more plates. Apparently Natalie has decided her grand opening is also an opportunity to personally test the structural integrity of our digestive systems.

I am halfway through deciding whether eating half a cinnamon roll, part of a croissant and something involving custard counts as breakfast or a cry for help when the bell rings again.

Matthew walks in.

I look automatically toward Natalie. Her whole face changes. Not dramatically. Natalie doesn't fling herself across the bakery or start batting her eyelashes like she's in a perfume commercial.

She just smiles. A proper one. The kind she doesn't give everyone. Interesting. Very interesting. Matthew spots her and grins, weaving his way through the tables toward the counter.

Then Rebecca walks in behind him. Well. There goes my appetite. Actually, no. That's a lie. I take another bite of cinnamon roll.

Trauma has taken enough from me. It isn't getting baked goods too. Across the table, Elsie's eyes meet mine. Then Harper's. Then Luca's. Nobody says anything. We don't need to.

For the last few weeks, the Rewrite Club has spent an alarming amount of time investigating Rebecca and the increasingly convincing evidence that she's sleeping with another man.

Matthew, unfortunately, has no idea.

Which makes sitting here smiling at him feel a little bit like participating in the world's most uncomfortable surprise party.

Except instead of someone eventually yelling surprise, his girlfriend may destroy his life.

Fun.

Matthew reaches Natalie and pulls her into a hug.

“Look at this place.”

Natalie laughs as he releases her. “You like it?”

“Like it? Nat, it's incredible.”

And there it is again. That smile. I glance at Harper. She's already looking at me. Yep. We are absolutely discussing that later.

Matthew looks around the bakery. “You did it.”

“We did it,” Natalie corrects, pointing toward our table. “I had an unreasonable amount of unpaid labour.”

“Some of us were coerced,” I call.

“You offered!”

“I was emotionally vulnerable.”

Jake snorts beside me. Natalie ignores us. Rebecca reaches the counter a few seconds later and slips her hand around Matthew's arm.

“Congratulations,” she says to Natalie. “It's lovely.”

Perfectly pleasant. Perfectly normal. Which, annoyingly, makes me dislike her more.

“Thank you.” Natalie smiles. It stays on her face. Mostly. Matthew says something else to her, but Luca suddenly stands. I look up.

“What are you doing?”

He lifts his coffee.

“No.”