Hector laughed and laid his baseball mitt palm on my shoulder. “No rest for the wicked, am I right?”
I grinned at him. Even with face tattoos and a skull on his bald head, he managed to be cute. “Exactly. I keep telling the Blue boys to be less popular so I don’t have to work so hard, but they refuse.”
Hector nodded toward Jude. “I’m assuming you’ve met by now?”
“Yes.” My eyes flicked to his. I had a decision to make: tell them we had a history or pretend we were newly acquainted. I opened my mouth to speak, but Jude beat me to the punch.
“We knew each other a long time ago.”
Michaela sat forward, intrigued by this bit of information. “Oh really? Old school chums, or…?” She raised her eyebrows, eyes darting between us.
“Or…” Jude said.
I frowned. “It’s really not interesting.”
His eyes stayed steady on mine. “It’s not?”
“No,” I said firmly. “Ancient history.”
Hector cleared his throat. “I’m heading to the bar to grab a beer. Anyone else want one? Tali, I know you do.”
I flashed him a grateful smile for getting me out of this uncomfortable conversation. Michaela asked for a beer as well, and Jude volunteered to go with him, giving me a chance to breathe.
“You realize the two of you are only making me more curious, with the intense eye thing you have going on,” Michaela said once they were gone.
I rolled myintenseeyes. “I hadn’t realized you were so into gossip.”
“Is it gossip if it comes straight from the source?”
I sighed, deciding to end the suspense. “We dated in college. Well, I was in college. Jude was doing the rock star thing. It didn’t work, we broke up, we’vebeenbroken up for thirteen years, and now we’re both here.”
She sat back in her chair. “Huh.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, first of all, it’s just occurring to me who exactly Jude is. Never Again, right?”
“Yep. That’s him.”
I wasn’t sure if he was keeping his former rock star status a secret, but I trusted Michaela wouldn’t spend a lot of time spreading the information around. I’d worked with her enough to know she really wasn’t a gossip, current situation notwithstanding.
Resting her elbow on the table, she tapped her lip, considering me. “He had a pretty intense drug problem. Is that what broke you up?”
“It was a confluence of events. The perfect storm of bad decisions and tragedy.”
“So...what’s it like to see him after all these years, looking fine as hell and healthy?” She asked her question gently, like she cared more for my feelings than the answer. The thing was, I didn’t have a great answer. I’d had boyfriends since Jude. I’d lived a pretty full, rich life. What we had, itwasa long time ago, and if you’d asked me two weeks ago how I’d react to spending time with Jude Goldman again, I might have shrugged. Jin had been right—Judedidhave a spot reserved just for him in my mind, but it wasn’t a spot I visited often anymore.
Since his reappearance in my life, I’d been poking around in that corner, dusting off old memories and letting them scatter around my mind.
“To be honest, I’m somewhat reeling.”
She twisted her lips and nodded. “I get that. Well, if it’s any consolation, given the slack-jawed look Jude had when you walked in, the man is also reeling.”
“I don’t exactly feel consoled by that.” I pushed away from the table and stood. “I’m going to go chat with the boys for a bit, if you don’t mind me leaving you here alone.”
Michaela waved me off, so I started for the table filled with the members of Blue is the Color and their wives, then detoured to the bathroom, not quite ready for more talking or the possibility of more questions.
The mirror showed I still looked like the confident, grown ass woman I’d become, even if my insides had traveled back in time. After swiping on a fresh layer of nude lip gloss and washing my hands, I took a deep breath and got myself together.