Theo tapped his forehead. “I’m committing that to memory.”
The waitress stopped by and took our orders, then Theo and Luc fell into an easy conversation about her school and skateboarding. I’d made a mistake sitting here. First, she’d never let me hear the end of Theo from this point forward. But more importantly, Saturday breakfasts were a way for me to touch base and find out what our mom had been pulling during the week. So far, nothing alarming had gone down, but I spent a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had definitely dropped on me a few times growing up, and it had always been filled with lead, leaving me bloody and broken. But Mom knew I was watching. I hadn’t had anyone watching out for me—Luc always would.
Our food arrived, and Luc tucked in. Her omelet was as big as her head, and she’d devour every last bite. I cut into my stack of pancakes. Right as I stuffed a huge bite in my mouth, two blonde girls stopped at our table, and Theo stiffened.
“Hi, The.” Blondie One reached out and squeezed his hand.
“Hey, Theo.” Blondie Two tossed her hair behind her shoulder, giving me and Luciana her back, and since I was sitting, her ass.
Nice.
He nodded at them, but no eye twinkle. “Hey.”
Luciana elbowed me, but I was too interested in the show to look at her. Blondie One was still touching Theo’s hand. Interesting.
“How are you, The?” she asked.
“Good. Fine. You?” Theo was polite but curt.
“I’m okay. I was hoping we could talk. Don’t you think we should?”
His eyes didn’t sparkle. Instead, they hardened like stone. “I don’t think we have anything to say. But you can text me, and I’ll see if I have time. Right now, I’m having breakfast with my friends.”
“Oh.” She dragged her index finger from his wrist to his fingertip, then twisted her head to glance back at Luciana and me. “I didn’t even notice you had company.”
He exhaled heavily through his nose, his cheeks tinting pink. “I’m gonna guess my company is the only reason you walked into this restaurant, Abby.”
She sucked in a breath, the sound covering my own gasp. This bitch. I’d bet my hat Blondie Two was Zadie’s other roommate from last year.
“That isn’t true. Kayleigh saw you through the window when we were on our way to the café for coffee. We had to come in and say hi,” Abby explained.
Kayleigh nodded hard enough for her hair to swish around her shoulders. “She’s right, Theo. We were just walking by. I haven’t seen you in ages, so I made Abs come in with me.” Even though I could only see her ass, I imagined she was poking her lip out in a pout. “I miss you.”
Theo moved his hand from under Abby’s to grip the edge of the table. “You’ve said hello. I’ll text you when I’m not having breakfast with friends.”
That was a dismissal if I ever heard one. These bitches had to be dense because they didn’t leave, so I was done. They could stay or go, I didn’t care. I just wanted to eat my food. I looked at Luciana. She was staring at me with wide eyes.
“Eat, boo,” I whispered. “Don’t let it get cold.”
“You too,” she said softly.
I stabbed my fork into my pancakes, holding up the bite I was about to take. “Down the hatch.”
Giggling, she followed suit, digging into her omelet. The blondes lingered, but my ears were closed to them, and I had lifted my leg onto the seat to face Luciana, giving them my back. Abby was still murmuring to Theo, but I decided not to give a damn.
“I’m sorry.” Theo tapped the table in front of my plate to get my attention. “They’re gone.”
Luciana scrunched her nose. “Those girls were so rude. One of them stuck her butt in Helen’s face, and the other one was all smoochy touchy with you, then pretended like she hadn’t even seen us sitting here. God, who were those girls?”
I snorted a laugh, peeking at Theo from under my lashes. His shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
“Theodore has unfortunate taste in girls. The smoochy-touchy one is his ex. Although, I’m not sure she’s gotten the message that they’re broken up.”
Luciana’s gaze whipped to Theo. “Thatrude girl was your girlfriend? Ugh.”
He wiped his hand over his mouth, somewhat sobering. “I don’t have any idea what was up with her. Never seen her do anything like that.” His eyes flicked to me. “Considering she did the breaking, pretty sure she knows we’re through.”
Something about the knowledge that that beautiful, rude girl dumped Theo lodged in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t really explain it, except now I knew he’d still be with her if he’d had a choice.