Jack walked out of the arrival gate of Indianapolis airport, searching the crowd with his eyes. He spotted Felicity at once; she was holding an iPad with “Mr. Sullivan” handwritten on the screen. He looked at her with fondness. His ex-girlfriend and oldest friend wasn’t classically beautiful—short, with squashed features, and a little on the chubby side—but her impeccable grooming and bubbly personality made her attractive. Jack was home because he hadn’t seen his parents at Christmas. As for Felicity, Jack suspected she’d come home to spend spring break with him.
Felicity insisted on denying it, but Jack was sure she still loved him. No matter that their relationship had ended more than three years ago. Her feelings for him had always been fiercer and, apparently, longer lived.
She saw him and her entire face brightened. Jack’s heart sank a little. Every time he saw her, he couldn’t help remembering the day he’d broken her heart. The way she’d cried and screamed how much she hated him. The way his chest had exploded with guilt at causing her so much pain. And the solitude that had followed that summer after he’d lost his best friend.
“Jack!” Felicity waved a hand above her head and ran toward him.
She barreled into him and he scooped her up in his arms, lifting her feet off the ground.
“It’s so good to see you,” she said.
“You too, Felix.” Jack ruffled her blonde hair fondly.
“I can’t believe you’re here. It’s been forever!”
“When did you land?” Jack asked.
“Early this morning. I caught a late flight last night.”
Felicity was studying at Berkley. After their breakup senior year, before they’d somehow patched their relationship, Felix had gone to school as far away from Jack as she could.
“But I still look fresher than you,” Felix added, eyeing him sideways as they walked toward her car. “What’s up with you, Sullivan?”
Jack grimaced. What was up with him was that Ice had decided to spend spring break in Miami with Peter. But Jack wasn’t comfortable discussing his feelings for another woman with Felicity. Especially not in person when he could witness all the tiny giveaways of her discomfort in the creases on her face.
Jack shrugged. “Nothing. I’m just tired.”
Felicity didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t press him. They reached her car and spent the rest of the journey in silence, with Felicity driving and Jack staring out the window. She dropped him at his parents’ house, and they agreed to meet up later for a beer.
***
Jack was in his parents’ garden in front of the rock fire pit. The sun had set a while ago and Jack had lit the gas fire to keep warm. He was staring at the flames, sipping beer from the bottle, when Felicity walked out from the house and sat on the chair next to him.
“You’re worrying your mother, you know,” she said by way of greeting.
“My mom?” Jack raised his brows, still looking at the fire. “Why?”
Felicity wrapped herself in one of the outside blankets and dragged her chair closer to the fire. “Maybe because you’re sitting outside when it’s fifty degrees?”
“I have the fire to keep warm.”
“Or maybe it’s that you’re drinking beer alone, looking sadder than when your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went missing.”
Despite his bad mood, Jack’s lips twitched. Losing his favorite action figures had been the biggest tragedy of his childhood. He turned to face Felix. “I’m not alone. You’re here.”
“Open this.” She handed him a beer bottle. “Your dad said you kidnapped the bottle opener.”
Jack took the bottle, cracked the cap open, and gave it back.
Felicity took a sip and sighed. “Is this brooding still about that girl at Harvard?”
No point in lying. Jack turned toward the fire again and nodded.
Felicity scoffed. “Have you talked to her?”
Jack shook his head.
“Jack Sullivan, look at me.”
He did.
“Tell her how you feel.”
“What’s the point? Ice has a boyfriend.”
“That’s because she doesn’t have all the information.”
“You haven’t seen them together.” A flash of Alice and Peter making out on the bed in Hawaii appeared in his mind’s eye. “She’s in love with Peter.”
“Or maybe,” Felicity said in her I’m-spelling-it-out-for-you voice, “she’s in love with you and is using this Peter guy as a distraction because she thinks she can’t have you.”
Jack glared at his friend. “You don’t even know her.”
“Believe me.” Felicity turned red. “It’s very difficult to get over you.”
Guilt gnawed at Jack again. It was clear Felicity was projecting herself onto Alice. But Ice wasn’t Felicity, and she wasn’t in love with him. “Listen, Felix. She’s been with Peter for months. They’re in Miami now on a romantic getaway. Trust me, she’s not in love with me.”
“How do you know? Have you ever asked her?”
“Ice wouldn’t be dating Peter if she loved me.”
“Again, she doesn’t have all the info.”
“What difference would it make?”
“Jack, can’t you see?” Felix sounded exasperated. “She tried to kiss you, and you said you wanted to be her friend. She has no idea how you feel.”
“But why date Peter?”
“To make you jealous?”
“Even if she did at the beginning, now they’ve been together too long.”
“Okay, maybe Alice likes this Peter dude, but do you know for sure if she’s in love with him?”
“No.”
“So stop being such a crybaby and talk to her. What are you waiting for?”
“Peter graduates in a few months.”
“So your plan is to wait for him to be out of the picture?”
Jack shrugged. “Maybe.” Actually, that was exactly his plan. Peter would get a contract with some big team and move away from Boston. And, yes, Jack imagined himself as the shoulder for Alice to cry on.
“That’s a losing strategy.”
“Why?”
“If you want the girl, go get her. Don’t wait for her to fall into your lap. Fight.”
“And what if I lose?”
“You wouldn’t be worse off than now. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain from talking to her.”
Jack’s eyes reflected the fire’s dancing flames. Could Felicity be right? Had he wasted all these months brooding instead of fighting for what he wanted? He had to at least try. Jack pursed his lips in a determined pout. Peter had had it easy so far, but that was about to change.