“A coincidence is like bumping into an old friend at the movies or thinking about someone you haven’t heard from in a while and then seeing their name pop up next to a text.” Could it really be a coincidence that Kael and my dad and Austin and Mendoza and Phillip and everyone, literally everyone, were connected? I took a breath and continued, “The fact that my dad and Phillip and Kael are all in the same company feels like a bizarre circumstance.”

“It does, but you get to decide what that means for you, Karina.”

I stared at Elodie as she spoke, trying to take in how wise and comforting she was. People often underestimated her ability to read situations. Yes, she seemed young and bubbly, and adorably French, but her instinct and perspective blew me away.

Though I was ashamed to admit it, my first impulse was to lie again, to protect myself, but Elodie was trying to be a friend to me, and I desperately wanted to let her.

“Kael was here the whole time you were gone, and we’ve been seeing each other, well, not dating, but we were hanging out since the day we met.” My cheeks flushed, I barely had any energy, but the bit I did have was pure guilt.

“Did you sleep together? I’m not judging, only curious,” she asked me.

I shook my head. I couldn’t meet her eyes anymore, so I leaned my head onto her shoulder again.

“We didn’t. He didn’t even try.” I stopped mid-thought and had a realization. “Wow, that should have been my sign. He didn’t even want to sleep with me.”

“Be glad you didn’t, then,” Elodie said softly. I nodded in agreement.

A little corner, all the way in the back of my heart, the only part that hadn’t gone numb, began to ache again. Kael’s face flashed through my mind, him smiling at me, us in my kitchen, us falling onto my bed. The way he paid attention to the smallest things I said, the way his eyes lit up when we shared a favorite song.

“I think the other things we did were more intimate than sex. If we had only hooked up, this would be so much easier to get over.” I shuddered. How did I get myself into such a mess?

She took that in. “Yeah, the sex is the easy part, isn’t it?”

We nodded at each other.

“Do you want me to tell you that I think you shouldn’t see Martin anymore and that things sometimes don’t happen for a reason?”

I sat quiet for a moment.