Page 41 of The Burning
“Barely.”
“Well, I haven’t been wrong so far.”
I snorted. “Uhm, cocky much?” I straightened my back, trying to compete with his height. “Whatever you say.”
Kael looked down at his phone again. I could barely hear the faint ring.
“I gotta go. You can give me the money for the chair later.”
“Where are you going?” I asked before thinking. I wanted to slap myself on the forehead, but he was looking right at me with a curious expression that made my stomach twist.
His brows pulled in and he did that smile thing again and it made my stomach flutter. “To the baby shower,” he said plainly.
Huh? Not what I expected, and I stood there stunned for a moment as his fingers tapped the screen of his phone.
“What baby shower?” I asked.
He looked at me like I was an idiot.
“Elodie’s? I was wondering why you weren’t there today, but figured you must’ve gone already and left or something.”
Kael looked around at the people closing up their stalls. A man in a football jersey waved at him as he walked by carrying a folding table.
“What do you mean Elodie’s baby shower? I haven’t even started planning it yet.”
“It’s Tharpe’s wife who planned it. Toni? She’s saying it’s a cookout so Elodie wouldn’t catch on, but it’s really a baby shower. Didn’t they give you the invite?”
I shook my head. “Uh, no. They didn’t.”
I swallowed. My throat was so dry all of a sudden. I was embarrassed as hell and I wanted to disappear so I could process this.
“I mean, Elodie invited me to a platoon cookout, but I really didn’t want to go . . .”
Then the embarrassment really flared up. My chest was on fire. I was the one who was supposed to plan her baby shower, or so I’d thought . . .
“Nobody told me it was a baby shower. No one even told me they were planning one. I don’t have any of those women’s numbers or contacts, anyway, but I would have helped . . . I thought I was planning it anyway. If I had known, I would have gone.”
I wanted to cry.
Kael looked like he didn’t know what to say to me.
“Oh,” was all he said.
I wanted to snap at him, but this time my pain wasn’t his fault. I took out my phone to text Elodie to apologize. I couldn’t believe none of those women thought to invite me. Even worse: they threw a baby shower for her, and I had just assumed that I would be the one to do that. This was a clear, blazing message that those girls either hated me or didn’t care to remember my existence at all.
“Do you wanna come with me? I’m going there now,” Kael said.
I shook my head. “No fucking way.”
“Why not?”
I blew out my breath. “Well, they clearly didn’t want me there in the first place.”
“It must have been a mix-up? They don’t even know you, do they?” he asked seriously.
“I can’t just show up uninvited. Ugh, I hate cliquey people. Whatever, I didn’t want to go to that cookout, anyway. I’ll have my own shower for her.” I talked myself through the rejection I felt.
“Who cares what they think? Elodie’s your best friend and lives with you. If anyone says anything, they’d be fucking stupid.”
