“Did you know Zachary didn’t know?”
Austin hesitated.
That hesitation irritated me immediately.
“Did you?”
“I figured you probably hadn’t told him.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“Because it never came up.”
It was almost exactly the explanation I’d been giving myself for years.
Hearing it from him made it sound different.
Tiffany folded her arms.
“Paisley, can I say something without you getting mad?”
“Probably not.”
“You keep calling everything individually innocent.
The texts are innocent.
The swimsuit comment is innocent.
Not telling Zachary you two dated is innocent.
Coming here is innocent.
That picture is innocent.
Maybe every single thing is explainable by itself.
But you’re acting like Zachary is crazy for noticing all of them together.”
I hated how reasonable she sounded.
“He gave me an ultimatum.”
“And that was wrong,” Tiffany said.
“But you didn’t post that photo because you love freedom.
You posted it because you knew it would make him angry.”
“You don’t know that.”
She glanced at my phone.
“Then delete it.”
I looked down at the screen.
I didn’t delete it.
That told me more than I wanted to know.
The rest of the afternoon felt poisoned.
Nothing dramatic happened.
That almost made it worse.
Everyone tried to keep the weekend moving.
Someone put music on.
People went back into the water.
Drinks appeared.
Conversations restarted in smaller groups.
But I could feel the awareness around me.
Austin sat beside me on the deck later that evening.
For once, neither of us joked.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For what?”
“For being part of this.”
I looked at him.
“You didn’t do anything.”
He gave me a tired smile.
“That’s what we’ve both been saying for a long time, isn’t it?”
That sentence stayed with me.
I asked him what he meant.
Austin rested his elbows on his knees.
“I like being important to you.
Probably more than I should.”
I didn’t answer.
