If We Were Perfect - Ana Huang Page 0,93

one-night stands and the occasional fling before, but he craved the stable relationship, the family, the proverbial white picket fence and kids. He’d much rather have a strong, lasting connection with one woman than dozens of flimsy ties with women who didn’t care about him and who he’d probably never see again.

The problem was, he’d driven away the only woman he’d had that kind of connection with—because he was a massive idiot. The fact that he’d done it because he’d thought it was the right thing to do did not change the scale of his idiocy.

Sammy’s eyes drifted toward Olivia again. The actors were gone—thank God—and she was whispering something to Courtney. She wore the same yellow dress as all the bridesmaids, but she was the one he couldn’t take his eyes off of. She glowed with a light that had nothing to do with her outer beauty and everything to do with her inner being, and Sammy was certain that if he were ever to go blind, he would still find his way back to her. He didn’t need to see her to know where she was; she was his North Star, his guiding light.

What have I done?

He felt sick.

“Yoo-hoo!” Luke waved his hand in front of Sammy’s face. “Earth to Sammy.”

“I’ll be right back.” Sammy edged around his friends, his long, purposeful strides eating up the dance floor until he reached where Olivia and Courtney were standing.

“Told ya. Déjà vu,” he heard Luke say before he left.

“Shut up, Luke,” Nardo said.

Courtney saw Sammy first. Her blue eyes widened a fraction of an inch and she nudged Olivia, whose smile fell when she turned and saw who stood behind her.

His heart twisted.

“Hi.” She looked wary.

Sammy cleared his throat, feeling hot under the collar. Whoever invented the tuxedo needed to die; he could barely breathe in the damn thing. “Can we talk?” Cardi B. came on, and the crowd went wild. He grimaced. “Somewhere a little less loud?”

“Um.” Olivia appeared flustered. She glanced at Courtney, who pushed her in Sammy’s direction.

“Go. I’m starting a conga line,” the brunette announced. “If you think you can’t conga to Cardi, you haven’t seen me in action.” She marched off, leaving the ex-lovers alone.

After an awkward silence and a few false starts, Sammy and Olivia walked through the reception in silence until they reached the line of marble statues and hedges near the castle’s main building, where the music became a distant beat instead of a deafening roar.

“So—” They spoke at the same time.

Their nervous laughs mingled in the sweet evening air before they fell silent again.

The last time they’d seen each other, they’d been high on adrenaline and charged emotion. Now, after weeks apart, they were subdued—like they finally understood the import of what had happened, what they’d done.

What Sammy had done.

“I heard about what happened with that Twitter guy,” Olivia said. “I’m glad you sorted it all out.”

In exchange for Sammy not filing charges, Bulldog—Bobby—had gone on record to confess he’d made up the roach claim. He’d been fired for his actions and destroyed online; meanwhile, Crumble & Bake’s business spiked back up immediately. They were doing even better now than before the PR crisis.

Edison, whose role Bobby had explained in crystal-clear detail in his public statement, had also gotten fired, not to mention shunned by most of the Yu’s. Sammy’s family had been shocked but not necessarily surprised by Edison’s actions, and Sammy hadn’t seen or heard from his cousin since the day he confronted him.

Good riddance.

“Thanks.” Sammy rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t see you leave that day. My house, I mean. I thought you weren’t moving out till later.”

He remembered the blow to his gut when he woke up to find her gone like it was yesterday.

Olivia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I checked into a hotel for the night. It didn’t seem right for me to stay after what happened.”

“You should’ve stayed. I wouldn’t have kicked you out.”

“I know.” A tiny shrug paired with an uncomfortable expression. “It was just one night.”

One less night I had with you. Though they’d broken up that same day, so it wasn’t like they would’ve binge-watched Netflix or cracked jokes over dinner like they usually did. But even when they weren’t speaking to each other, Sammy wanted her nearby.

“I didn’t see you on the plane,” Olivia added. “I thought—I wasn’t sure whether you were still coming.”

“I changed my flight. Figured you wouldn’t want to be near me