Chapter 6
By the time the reunion hit full swing, a massive blizzard came out of nowhere.
The mountain resort where we were staying was completely snowed in.
So we all had to scrap our plans and spend the night at the lodge, waiting for the storm to calm down enough to make the drive home in the morning.
In the hot tub, some of the girls were catching up:
“God, I used to have the biggest crush on Marcus back in high school. Seeing him now… let’s just say not everyone ages like fine wine.”
“Tell me about it. Remember how crazy Dave used to be? Now he’s this suburban dad with a minivan. Only Ryder still looks like he could walk back into AP Physics and fit right in.”
“Speaking of Ryder-he wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight. Sarah told me he ditched some huge client meeting to show up last minute.”
“That’s so random. He barely talked to anyone in school. Never thought he’d care enough about us to crash a reunion…”
I found myself scrolling to his name in my contacts. In three years, Ryder had texted me exactly three times.
The first came about a month after our divorce: [You left some stuff in my closet. Want to grab it this weekend?]
The second was last Christmas: [Brought some wine for your parents. I’m outside if you want to come down.]
The third was just: [Jess].
Like he’d started typing something else and lost his nerve. I never found out what he really wanted to say.
I ignored all of them.
The day we signed those papers, I promised myself I was done.
If it wasn’t for tonight, we probably never would’ve seen each other again…
After everyone split up-most heading to the bar while I went to crash-I was walking down the hallway when I saw Ryder leaning against the wall like he was
waiting for someone.
I kept my head down and walked right past him.
Jess.”
pretended not to hear and swiped my keycard.
But his hand closed over mine on the door handle.
His voice was strained: “Jess, what the hell is this about you going on dates?”
