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Her eyes darted to Thomas, who stood closest to us She jerked theht, I wanted to cra to know each other I think I wanted to pretend this was normal, that ere just two friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time But that’s not the truth The truth is that I shouldn’t even be here"

"You shouldn’t?" Her voice dipped low

"No, but not because of you Because of other things And as I’ I ao" I started to stand Calling Carter, ht was foremost in my mind now

"Wait" She touched my arm "Wait, please Sit Please"

I did, but slowly

She sed and reached for her glass of wine again Her hand tre under a rock not to knoho Carter Reed is, and like I said before, everyone back ho about you They all knoho he is, too I’d be a liar if I sat here and told you I didn’t want to know about him That’s not the truth I’m curious, yes, but I think anyone would be"

She paused for a moment and took a breath "However, I’m more curious because he’s a part of your life It’s you I really want to know We don’t have to talk about hi thatup AJ Kevinto conclusions I don’t re bad happened with her Maybe AJ was saving you I don’t know I’ve just been looking for you allyou away"

"AJ was good to me" No one would take that from me

"I can see that" She see the day together I want to get to know you too, but I got a sense last night that now isn’t the time for that to happen Maybe we could finish our lunch and then proht? How about that?"

I nodded, feeling all the tension leaving me "That sounds wonderful, actually"

"Good" She lifted her wine glass "To getting to know one another And if it takes a long tilass to hers "That’s perfect"

"Cheers to us then"

"Cheers"