respects so however late he could get, he would take it.
This morning I had to get myself ready early. Not only did I have to go and get the roses from the flower shop, but I also didn’t want to wake up to the awkwardness of seeing Natalie. If she would have rode with me to the funeral the tension in the air would have been awkward and heavy and I don’t think I would have handled it correctly.
Seeing her at the funeral made me do a double take. She looked wonderful in her black dress that stopped just above the knees and revealed a smidget of cleavage. Her hair was pinned up and her lips were glossy but I noticed the sad look in her eyes as she arrived with Mills. She stood by his side the entire time and comforted him and a part of me wanted to blow up because it should have been me she was comforting. I should have had my arm around her shoulders, not my brother.
But I guess I deserve it for now. I just need some time alone. I need time to actually gather my thoughts and cope with the idea that I’m not just fatherless, but motherless, too. I can’t continue to cause harm to her emotions so taking some space is best.
“Nolan?”
I spin around with my glass in hand to the sound of Aunt Macy’s voice but my gaze jerks over quickly to the familiar blonde with plump lips and a tight black blouse and black skirt on. Her green eyes pierce through mine and she smiles, clutching her glass of wine.
“I’d like you to meet Sharon. Leona told me a lot about how she helped out with afterschool tutoring and even coordinated a Mathematician Group for the university.”
My gaze lingers on Sharon and as I look her over, I partially cringe. Partially because she’s one of the many exes who broke my heart but looks hotter than hell.
“I’ve met her before,” I mutter tightly.
Aunt Macy looks at me, her head tilting. “Really? Where? Did Leona bring her around?”
“No. I knew her before she’d even met my mother.”
“Yeah,” Sharon butts in. “Nolan and I go way back. We were pretty tight in twelfth grade.” She flashes a wide, white smile beneath her glossed lips but I look away from her to my aunt.
“Well that’s fantastic!” Aunt Macy chimes. “I’ll leave you two alone to get acquainted again. I’ll go attend to the guests.”
I fix my lips to speak, wanting to tell her to take this bitch with her but she’s already around the corner before I can even look away from Sharon. Bringing my glass up to my lips, I look her over a few times before finally deciding I was an idiot for falling for someone like her. She looks like the kind of girl who doesn’t know how to settle down. The kind of girl who hurts for the fun of it. What the hell was I so caught up about?
“So, Nolan,” she sighs, walking past me to get to the wine bottles. She grabs the bottle of wine beside me and I catch a whiff of her. She doesn’t smell like Natalie who always smells like warm vanilla. She smells like strawberries and some other fruit. I have to go with the vanilla more on this one. I can never get enough of Natalie’s sweet aroma. “Let me just start by saying that, differences aside, I truly am sorry for your loss. Ms. Iris was the best professor I ever had and working with her was always fun.”
“That’s nice.” I hate how my mother got people to call her Ms. Iris instead of Ms. Young. When she started dating her boyfriend, she changed her last name back to her maiden name to make it seem like she had never been married.
Sharon looks up at me, her green eyes flickering before she takes a sip of her wine. As she drinks, her eyes never leave me. “So how are things?”
“Great.”
“No girlfriend or anything?”
“I have a girlfriend,” I counter.
“Oh.” She looks around, as if my girlfriend is supposed to magically appear. “Well, where is she?”
“She’s coming.”
My throat thickens and for a moment it feels as if someone has just poured sand into my mouth. I don’t know if she’s coming. I know her flight is at five but it’s only one in the afternoon and neither she nor Mills are here.