“Nope. We’re doing this.”
“Let it be known that I’m only doing this because I love you.” Juliet zipped up a hoodie sweatshirt. January evenings in Charleston often dipped down into the forties.
“If it’s good enough to serve to paying customers, surely you can handle eating a slice tonight.” I decided to forego a sweatshirt. My cable knit sweater would do the trick. If there was a chance I’d run into Aaron, I wasn’t going to do it looking frumpy. He needed a reminder of what he’d lost.
The walk over to Al’s was short, but it felt longer than usual that night. A mix of nerves and the cold made every step seem difficult.
“He might not even be there.” Juliet looped her arm through mine.
I leaned into her side. I may have had a jerk ass for an ex-boyfriend, to use Juliet’s term, but I had awesome friends. “He finally stopped calling, so I’m guessing he got the hint.”
“It was either that or the nut shot from Juliet.” Mallory looped her arm on my other side. “Reed had better be careful not to piss her off.”
I smiled imagining Juliet’s ninja moves. “You guys should have heard the first few messages. He didn’t even try to deny it. Instead he tried to rationalize it.”
“Rationalize it how? How could he possibly explain that?” Mallory scrunched up her face.
“Oh, Aaron tried. First it was all her fault, she just wouldn’t stop pushing him. Then there was the ‘we have history’ excuse, and then finally the best one: it’s good you caught me. Now we can move on.”
Juliet stopped short. “He didn’t. He actually said that?”
“He did. He actually thought I’d want to stay with him.”
“Arrogant prick.” Mallory started moving again which meant we all did.
“I don’t want to see him, but I know it’s bound to happen. I still don’t know what I’m going to say to him.”
Juliet held out her hand palm up. “Just tell him to go fuck himself.”
“Juliet!”
“What? It’s not like he’s going to be getting any action.”
“He will if he wants.” I pulled my arms back and crossed them over my chest. I regretted my decision to leave my sweatshirt at home. “Plenty of girls like him.” I’d had to swallow down my annoyance at girls throwing themselves at him more than a few times.
Mallory laughed, and I knew something was up.
“What? What did you guys do?”
“Who us?” Juliet gave me a sheepish look. “Nothing.”
“Out with it.” I didn’t care what they did, but I still needed to know.
“Well, you know how I’m on Panhel this semester?” Mallory asked.
“Yes.” Over winter break, Mallory had accepted a spot on the Sorority Council.
“I may have accidentally let it slip that he was a cheating bastard with a small dick, and the rest of the girls may have spread the word to their houses too.”
“What?”
“Yeah… he’s not getting sorority action any time soon at least. The combination of being unfaithful and having a small penis isn’t a good thing for a guy.”
“But he doesn’t have a small—”
“And you’re going to keep that detail to yourself.” Mallory hugged me from the side. “He deserves this.”
“I just want him out of here. Can’t he graduate early?”
“It’s going to be okay. You’ll show him whose turf this is and you’ll be fine.” Juliet took my hand. “Let’s go eat some really bad pizza and try to drown out the taste with beer.”
“I love you, girls.”
“Yeah, we love you too.” Juliet opened the door to the empty restaurant.
“Hey, ladies.” Reed greeted us with a smile as we made our way over to him. He didn’t usually work the counter, but some of his staff must have still been home on break.
“Hey, Reed.” I took in the tall, broad frame of Juliet’s boyfriend. He’d let his brown hair grow out a little since I’d last seen him.
“How are you doing, Cara?” He smiled. It wasn’t a sympathetic smile. It was just a smile, and I appreciated it.