Page 2 of The Ring
“It’s nice to see you back.” The words come from behind me.
I turn around, and speaking of good genes, there’s Nate Winthrop, impeccably dressed in a full suit, the most formal of all of us. Six-foot-two, blonde, brown-eyed. He’s also an entrepreneur. Three years ago, he started a tech company focused on coding or… something software-related, and it’s skyrocketed.
He’s also TJ’s cousin. They love each other like most cousins who grew up together do, but TJ has always harboured a bit of resentment towards Nate. It’s not Nate’s fault, though. The real source of the tension lies with TJ’s father. Though he’s never said it outright, he’s made it clear in a thousand subtle ways that he wishes Nate were his son instead of TJ.
“It’s good to be back,” I reply, hugging him.
Nate hugs me tightly, like he’s afraid I might disappear at any moment, but then, as suddenly, he pulls away. I think he stopped because he remembered we aren’t alone, and maybe he is worried that if we stay like this too long, our friends will figure out what happened between us in Paris. They won’t. But whyrisk it?
The silence around us feels strange, and when I follow Nate’s gaze, I realise the real reason he let go.
TJ is walking towards us, looking impossibly handsome. His slightly curly brown hair—darker than West’s but lighter than Laurie’s—is almost unreal; it almost makes you want to reach out and touch it. At six-foot-three, he towers above me, and those deep greyish-blue eyes… everything about him seems to command attention. He’s wearing a Prada brown leather jacket, a black T-shirt, and black trousers. My chest tightens. I want to look away, but I can’t.
It feels unfair that he looks like this. Everything about him should repel me, should fill me with disgust, should make me want to turn away, but I feel like I’m staring at the most beautiful jewel I’ve ever seen. How could someone so beautiful have caused me so much pain?
The day I’ve been desperately trying to bury in the depths of my mind tries to creep in. Flashes hit me. His face when he saw me. Me running. Me crying in my bathtub. Him banging on my door. I swallow hard and use all my strength to shove those memories into a box.
Once he reaches the table, he stops in front of me and says, “Cornelia.” My name sounds like a curse on his lips, the same lips that once made it sound like a prayer.
I take a deep breath, steadying myself, but it doesn’t help much as his cologne—Tobacco Vanille from Tom Ford, the one I love—hits me. “TJ,” I reply as coldly as I can.
West strolls over, casually slinging one arm over my shoulder and the other around TJ’s. “Oh, you can feel thelove,” he says, his tone dripping with sarcasm. I’m not sure if he’s trying to defuse the tension or just enjoying himself, because the thing about West is that he loves a bit of chaos. “You two, get a room. There are children present.”
I roll my eyes and shove him off, heading to mychair. “How about we just order? I’m starving.” It’s a lie. I’ve completely lost my appetite.
We all sit down, and thankfully, Laurie and TJ switched seats, so TJ isn’t in his usual spot beside me. Once we’re settled, we place our orders. I go with an avocado toast and a gin martini without olives. It arrives, and I drink it like it’s water, then order another one.
Normally, I wouldn’t start drinking at noon—it feels a bit too much like alcoholic behaviour—but when you’re having brunch with your ex who betrayed you the way he did to me… I’ll say,bottoms up. Honestly, not showing up drunk or pre-gaming is an achievement in itself.
Brunch passes with cautious conversation. TJ and I don’t interact, apart from a couple of glances. My friends talk about gossip, travel, and life. I’ve missed them a lot. They visited me in Paris a few times, but it wasn’t the same. Being in Paris felt like a holiday, but London has always been our home, our natural habitat.
“I still can’t believe Anthony actually let you skip an entire term,” Annabelle says, shaking her head. “Do you remember how furious he was when we ditched Edelweiss to go to Tulum for a week?”
That was a memorable trip in more ways than one.
“Yes, how could I not?” I reply. “But I think he was angrier about having to pull us out of a police precinct in a small town in Mexico than about the actual skipping school part.” I shoot West and Laurie a pointed look.
“Technically, he picked us up at the embassy,” West corrects me.
“Still, we were injail,” I remark.
Laurie chimes in, “But not charged with anything.”
I roll my eyes.
“You have to admit it’s a fun anecdote now,” Luciandefends them, though he didn’t find it funny back when we were arrested or when the policeman grew even grimmer when West tried to bribe him.
“I’ll admit to nothing,” I declare firmly.
“Are you taking this term off, too?” Laurie asks, changing the topic. He’s an expert at diffusing tension, and he knows that talking about being in jail gets me fired up. I haven’t gotten past it yet. “Because if you are, we could be in classes together the next one.”
Both Laurie and I are pursuing undergraduate degrees in economics, finance, and data science at Imperial College, though he’s almost a year behind me. Well, now only one term behind since I missed the last one.
Annabelle and I were supposed to graduate at the end of June if we had gone straight to university after high school, but we took six months off to travel. She’ll graduate this winter. I still have more to go.
“Sadly, my sabbatical is over,” I answer. “I start classes next Monday.”
“Hadn’t classes at Imperial started two weeks ago?” TJ asks, acknowledging me for the first time in an hour.
