“I have one name. People just split it oddly.”
“Whatever.Yeah.You’re Étienne again.”
“Good.”
I wonder if this interaction counts as an apology. “How was she?” I don’t want to say her name.
“Vicious.”
“I’m sorry.” And I’m not, but I have an overwhelming urge to prove we can stil be friends. There’s an actual ache inside of me that needs him. “I didn’t mean to mess things up, I don’t know what got into me—”
He rubs his temples. “Please don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”
“But if I hadn’t dragged you out to dance—”
“Anna.” Étienne speaks slowly. “You didn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to do.”
My face grows hot as the knowledge explodes inside of me like dy***ite.
He likes me. Étienne real y does like me.
But as soon as the information hits, it’s replaced by confusion, by a notion so sickening it thrusts my emotions to the opposite end of the spectrum. “But
. . . you’re stil with her?”
He shuts his eyes in pain.
I can’t control my voice. “You spent the night with her!”
“No!” Étienne’s eyes jerk back open. “No, I didn’t. Anna, I haven’t . . . spent the night with El ie in a long time.” He looks at me beseechingly. “Since before Christmas.”
“I don’t understand why you won’t break up with her.” I’m crying. The anguish of being so close to what I want, and it stil being so far away.
He looks panicked. “I’ve been with her for a long time.We’ve been through loads together, it’s complicated—”
“It’s not complicated.” I stand and shove my tray across the table.The toast bounces off the plate and hits the floor. “I put myself out there, and you
rejected me. I won’t make that mistake again.”
I storm away.
“Anna! Anna, wait!”
“Oliphant! Feeling better?” I jump back, having nearly run into Dave. He’s smiling. His friends Mike and Emily Middlestone, aka the Girl with the Pink
Stripe, wait behind him with lunch trays.
“Um. What?” I look over, and Étienne is on his feet. He was about to fol ow me, but now that he’s seen Dave, he isn’t sure anymore.
Dave laughs. “I saw you in the lobby last night. Guess you don’t remember.Your friends were struggling to get you in the elevator, so I helped them carry you.”
Rashmi didn’t mention this.
“You yakked something fierce in your sink.”
Dave was in my room?
“You okay today?” He tucks a shaggy lock of hair behind an ear.