“Can you blame me?” she asked, glancing at the ground.
“No, but I want the record to show that even though I’m a blind idiot who took too long to realize what was right in front of me, I was on board with this relationship from the first kiss. I went along with your secrets because you’re good at the sex.”
“Oh my God,” I said, covering my eyes as a naked and horizontal Corbin and Val flashed across my imagination. “Mental images happening. I can’t.”
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you,” Val said quietly. “It’s weird.”
“Lake,” Manning murmured in my ear. “Why don’t you and Val go talk in the house?”
I slatted my fingers and peeked at the couple. Corbin grinned ear to ear, but Val looked like she was going to be sick.
“I don’t want to spoil your day,” she said.
“Nothing could spoil today for us,” Manning said, massaging my neck. “Especially not this news.”
Well, at least one person in the group didn’t think this was strange. Manning must’ve been over the moon to finally verify that Corbin had an actual love interest who wasn’t me. “Fine, but you—” I pointed at Corbin. “Stay out here. No spying.”
Corbin showed us his palms. “All I ever wanted was to eat cake in peace.”
Val followed me up the back steps and into the kitchen. She sat at the table as I switched on the overhead light, hiked up my dress, and took the seat across from her. “Let’s have it.”
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“Mad?” A host of emotions ran through me. I was confused. Weirded out. And somewhere between repulsed and curious. It hadn’t really entered my mind to be upset, though. I planted my elbow on the table and my chin in my palm. “No. Why would I be?”
“Corbin was in love with you for so long, and you guys had a thing I never understood.” She picked at nothing on the table. “I feel like I should’ve asked your permission or something, but it happened kind of fast.”
“You don’t need my permission. Who am I?” I deflated in my chair with a sigh, running my hands down the lace of my dress. “I don’t really know how to feel. Just start from the beginning.”
“It’s a short story, but it goes back a long time. I’ve always . . .” She laced her hands on the table, then opened one, as if trying to find the words. “I’ve had a crush on him since high school,” she rushed out. “I actually noticed him my first day, but as soon as you introduced us, I could see he liked you, so I sort of ignored how I felt.”
“Jesus, Val. I didn’t have feelings for him.” I remembered back to that first year in high school when Corbin and I had become friends. I couldn’t even really pinpoint why we’d gotten so close, except for his romantic interest in me. “You could’ve gone out with him.”
“Not knowing how he felt about you.”
Back then, I’d thought Corbin’s crush wasn’t a big deal. It’d been easier to ignore it than squash it, but that’d ended up costing all of us in the end, it seemed. “How long have you been together?”
“A few months. Six or eight.” She cleared her throat, glancing at the fridge. “Maybe ten. When I say it happened fast, I mean suddenly we were in it and the more time that passed, the harder it got to tell you.”
My stomach dropped—not because they’d kept it a secret, but because Val and Corbin were only finding each other now—after over a decade and a half of knowing each other. Could they have been together all this time? Was it my fault they hadn’t been? “Why not years ago, when I moved in with Manning?” I asked. “Why not in college?”
“So many reasons.” She lifted her bare shoulder. “Mostly, after everything you’d been through with Tiffany, I didn’t want you to feel like I was betraying you by going after Corbin. So I kept it to myself.”
“I wouldn’t have thought that.” It’d been so long since I’d had any inkling of interest in Corbin, but I had to admit at one time, I’d wanted to love him. I’d wanted to forget Manning and take the easy way out with Corbin. Would I have been upset if he and Val had fallen in love while my heart was broken? I couldn’t know for sure, and Val knew me as well as anyone, so maybe she was right. “I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be. It didn’t matter anyway.” She bent to remove one of her heels, massaging her foot. “It was so obvious he still had feelings for you.”
“But if you’d spoken up, he would’ve realized sooner.”
“I don’t think so. Back then I’d wished he’d see me, you know, really see me. But looking back, it wasn’t our time. He needed to get you out of his system.” She smirked as she replaced her shoe. “You, then lots of other girls.”