I told James my mother had fallen ill.
It wasn’t even hard. He was still mad from the argument we had, still caught up in his own storm of suspicions and anger, and he barely looked at me when I mentioned it. He just waved me off like I was furniture moving itself out of the way. That hurt, but it also gave me the freedom I needed. If he didn’t care whether I stayed or left, then he wouldn’t care about where I was going.
And I knew exactly where I was going.
So I packed my things for the boat cruise and went to Jessica’s place.
When I arrived at her place, she opened the door like she had been waiting for me all morning. Her eyes lit up in a way that made my chest ache because she was so eager, so reckless, so damn willing to throw herself into me again.
“I thought you’d never come,”
