CHAPTER16
I don’t havemuch money at all, but I do have a twenty in my wallet, and I slap it onto the table.
“Katie—”
“You need money to take her out, right?” I say bitterly. “At least she has a job. That’s more than I can say.”
Rob reaches for me, but I just glare at him. If he touches me, I swear I’m going to scream or slap him.
Or cry. There’s a chance I might cry, and that’s the worst thing I could do.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” I say. “I can handle myself.”
“Are you so sure about that?” he asks. “How are you going—”
“If you were worried about my making it back on campus, maybe you should’ve waited to blow up at me and break up with me until we were there instead of here. But I’m not your problem now.”
I walk away.
And force myself not to look behind me.
The waitress finally looks at me as I walk past her, and when I spy the help wanted sign in the front window, I feel like I’m going to hurl. I turn about and change course.
“You can stop following me,” I say, turning to call over my shoulder. “Unless you want to go into the ladies’ room.”
Rob halts. “Katie.”
“What?” I ask, facing him with my arms crossed.
“Here.”
And he hands me my box of food.
I am tempted, so sorely tempted, to open it and dump the contents on his head, but I don't. I'm more mature than that, and besides, I really do think that something might've happened. Maybe he checked in on his mom recently. Maybe he learned that she's in rehab or just got out, or maybe she's in jail. I don't know, but I think he's hurting.
Or maybe I'm delusional. Maybe I'm seeing something that isn't there. It wouldn't be the first time.
I mean, I get it. It was stupid of me to ask, especially because I know everything that is going on as far as his mom is concerned. I just know that I miss my mom, and I'm sure he does, too, and sometimes, it's too hard to go on by yourself. A word of encouragement, knowing you haven't been forgotten, maybe it would mean the world to his mom, make her try rehab again. Maybe it would stick this time, maybe not, but if there's any chance of her getting back on her feet again, why not go for it? Yes, she has to want to change, but maybe seeing her son again, seeing him happy, might be enough to make her willing to try again.
Then again, seeing her son in a happy, loving relationship might set her off down memory lane and cause her to go into an even dark downward spiral.
I stare at the box, nod, and turn back to the bathroom. I enter, and I have to admit that I don’t know how I haven’t started to cry.
But I don't. I hold myself together, and I call for an Uber. I linger in the bathroom until my phone says the driver's arrived. The driver's a guy named Joe.
I peek outside the bathroom door before opening it wide. Rob’s nowhere in sight, and when I make my way to the front of the diner, his bike is gone.
He really did leave me here.
I mean, I told him to go, but still, my stomach twists into knots. I’m not happy with how things have gone, not at all.
We’re done. We really are.
What the hell?
Two weeks of bliss, and now, nothing. I mean, two weeks is nothing. I realize that, but considering we basically spent all of our time together outside of our classes, it sure as hell felt like a lot longer.
Plus, he had been the man in my dreams for how long before we reconnected? He wasn’t even the only man of my dreams, but I gave up the others. For him.