I held her off, leveling her with a warning. “You are unbelievable. At first I thought you thought you were too good for me. Then I felt bad for you. You were shy. That’s what Jake said, and now I find out you stole my best friend’s phone? Were you down here while they were swimming?”
If looks could kill, I’d have been ashes.
Then Jake answered his phone. “Hello? You have Sia’s phone?”
“Hi, Jake. Yeah. It’s Addison.”
“Addison?” I could hear him pull away from the phone. “Addison has your phone,” he told Sia.
I could hear her in the background. “Oh, thank goodness. Hi, Addy!”
He came back. “Are you home? We just tried buzzing your place.”
“I’m in the lobby.”
“Oh good.” He pulled away again. “She found your phone downstairs.”
“She did?” Sia questioned, her voice distant. “That’s so weird. I wonder where I left it. Where was she? We were just down there.”
I returned Dawn’s glare. As she heard the conversation, horror bloomed in her eyes, and she began shaking her head. “Don’t tell him. Please. Don’t tell either of them.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “You want to come up here or should we come down there?”
I didn’t answer right away, mulling over my best course of action.
Dawn mouthed, “Please. Please!”
I groaned. “I’ll come up there.” Then I forced a lightness in my voice. “Are you guys dressed? Do I need to cover my eyes when I come in?”
He laughed. “We’re dressed. We were already out and about today, too.”
“Addison, we need to have drinks tonight!”
“Yeah. Drinks sound great. Be up in a bit.” I hung up and placed my hands on my hips. “What the hell were you thinking? Did you break her code?”
“No.” Some of the fight seemed to have left Dawn. She moved back a step and her head hung slightly. “I could just read the texts the way you did now. You know her code?”
“I’m her best friend. Of course I do.”
“That’s nice.” Her shoulders drooped. “That’s really private. She must trust you.”
“Yeah, and you know what? I’m going to tell her you stole the phone.”
Her head shot up. “You can’t. Please. Please don’t.”
“Why not?” I felt like I was bartering with a child. “Give me a good reason why I should break her trust in me?”
“Because…” Dawn’s hands came up in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. I’ve loved Jake for a year, and it’s hard. You have no idea how hard it is. He finally looked at me. You have no clue what it’s like to always be around, but never have someone look at you, really look at you. He did. A month ago. There was a moment, and then you moved in, and you brought her along. Now it’s back to how it was before. He doesn’t even see me. He walks right past me.”
Okay. My heartstrings tugged a little, but only a little. I held up the phone. “So you stole Sia’s phone?”
“Yeah. Because…I don’t know. I was hoping for information.”
“What kind of information?”
“Like…” She shrugged, looking away. “What does he like? Does he flirt on the phone? How did she get him? She’s not prettier than me. I might be weird, sometimes, but I can look good. I know I can. Derek thinks so.”
“So date Derek.”
“No way. He’s weird.”
“So are you.” I cringed as soon as the words were out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, but the two of you are similar. Jake and Sia, they’re similar.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t say that. Opposites attract.”
I…had no words. This wasn’t the hostile and guarded Dawn; this was the real her. She was in love, or thought she was, and she wanted that guy to love her back. A part of me felt for her. We all wanted to be loved, or to have that back again.
I tucked Sia’s phone into my pocket and started for the door.
“What are you going to do?”
I turned around, hitting the door with my back and pushing it open. “I don’t know.”
I saw the pain and hurt in Dawn’s eyes, but my heart hardened. I felt for Dawn. I did. But she’d gone about things in a bad way, and Sia was my family. Even after forgetting about me the night before.
“You stood me up!”
I went up there to tell Sia about Dawn, but then I saw how happy she was. They were eating cheese from a platter. Jake had his arm around her waist, and she was snuggled into his side. If they hadn’t been so adorable, they would’ve been nauseating.
Dawn could wait.
She was putting a piece of cheese in her mouth and froze. “What?”
“We had plans last night.”
“Oh…” I saw the wheels turning and then she groaned, her head falling to the counter. She rested her forehead there, gently hitting it one more time. “I am such a shitty friend. Holy shit. I suck. There’s no other way around it.” She moved around the counter, lifting her arms up. “First the whole make-out in front of you and now this.” She pulled me in, hugging me tight. Her voice dropped to a murmur, “I’m so beyond sorry. I’ll make it up to you. Slumber party tonight. I don’t care what I have going on. It’s canceled, and prepare for an entire month of me groveling. You’ll be getting chocolates, wine, whatever you want. Every single day.”