favorite place. Saturday nights, we had dinner at one of three different restaurants, then went to the movies.”
“What about Sundays?” he asked, wiping his mouth with his napkin.
“Sundays were like weeknights. Had to get to bed early.”
“So…what? He couldn’t see you during the day? Was he nocturnal or something?”
“He was very…organized.”
That brought a slow nod from Nicholas. An assessing nod. She could almost hear the gears in his head turning. Charlie, who had established herself as a creature of habit, had dated someone who, like her, was a creature of habit for four years, staying with him only because the setup was comfortable…like an old slipper. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what Nicholas was thinking right now.
“And that’s why you ended it.”
His statement caught her off guard. For a moment, she considered lying. The messy end to her relationship with Brandon wasn’t exactly her finest moment. But she’d already said this much. May as well reveal the ugly truth.
“He ended it. Said I was too boring.”
There. It was out. She waited for Nicholas to laugh or express horror... Anything. Instead, he just stared at her.
“Sounds like he was the boring one.” Nicholas shrugged. “Relationships don’t fail because of one person.”
“I was going to break up with him after my high school reunion.” She scooped up a generous heap of guacamole with a chip, punctuating her sentence by taking a bite.
“Your high school reunion.” He said the words as though trying to process them. “Let me guess. You want to show some ex-boyfriend that you moved on without him.”
Charlie shook her head. “It’s not about a guy. It’s about Shellie Ashworth.”
“Shellie Ashworth.”
Just hearing the name from a stranger made her realize how silly the whole thing was. She’d been out of high school for ten years. Why did she care what Shellie Ashworth thought?
“It’s not just Shellie,” Charlie rushed to amend. “It’s what Shellie stands for. She had a lot of friends. She was one of the most popular girls in school, actually. But she and another girl…well, they weren’t very nice to me. Let’s leave it at that.”
Why was she telling him all this? She was immediately embarrassed at just how much she’d opened up to this guy she’d previously had the urge to impress. So much for that. He was sure to think less of her now.
“Girls can be mean,” Charlie added with a little laugh. She tossed her napkin on top of her now-empty plate and sat back in her seat, crossing her legs in front of her. Maybe they should just call it a night.
“People can be mean.” He polished off the last taco and picked up his drink, also leaning back in his seat. “The things that happen to us in school stay with us for life. I didn’t go to my ten-year reunion, and I doubt I’ll go to fifteen, either. Mostly because I don’t ever want to see those guys again.”
Charlie’s heart softened toward him. There was a lot he wasn’t saying. She could see it in his eyes. Despite all he’d achieved, he was still missing something in his life. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she sensed it in the trace of sadness she saw in his eyes.
But Nicholas was staring at her again. She could tell she wasn’t getting out of this conversation easily.
“What did your relationship with the boring guy have to do with Shellie Ashworth?” he asked.
Oh, that. Yeah, good question. She supposed she hadn’t really been clear there.
“I don’t know. It was just this silly fantasy I had of walking into my reunion with a well-known corporate attorney on my arm. It’s sort of a ‘take that’ to the way they treated me. I’m sure Shellie probably doesn’t even remember who I am.”
“You’d be surprised. Your ex is a well-known corporate attorney?”
She nodded. “Brandon Charlesworth.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Remember when social media sites were being sued over privacy? He was on the news every night here locally. He represented one of the biggest ones.”
Nicholas’s expression told her he knew the case, but she was pretty sure he didn’t have the image of her ex-boyfriend in his head. He’d go home and look him up, though. At least that wasn’t embarrassing. Her relationship with him may have turned stale, but he was a good-looking, well-credentialed attorney. On paper, he impressed.
Which was why it had been so important for her to have him with her when she attended her ten-year reunion.
“So find someone else.”
Nicholas’s suggestion pulled