HER EX KNEW OF SERENA’S FEELINGS FOR ME

“Claire wants to have a discussion.”

I repeated Serena’s words to her while gripping my phone tighter. “With me?”

“Not exactly,” Serena replied to me, while I heard the hesitation beneath her calm voice. “She asked to talk to you.”

My stomach twisted. “Why would Claire want to talk to me?”

Serena slowly exhaled. “Because she knows something I think you deserve to hear.”

The answer she gave me made everything worse. I slowly pushed away from the kitchen counter, staring at the photograph again as jealousy came back into my chest. “What does she know?”

I disliked that answer, but I failed at the thought of Serena knowing something about me even more. “But first, are you okay with this?”

“I’m not sure I am okay with anything right now.” The honesty from her caught me off guard.

Serena normally carried herself as if nothing could shake her, but recently, every conversation between us seemed to strip another layer of certainty from her. “When are we meeting her?”

“She’ll be at Velvet this afternoon.”

I ended the call with Serena and stood alone in the kitchen as my mother watched me from the stove. “I’m going out with Serena,” I muttered.

I saw the hidden smile on my mother's face. “I gathered that.”

By the time Serena arrived to pick me up, I had changed my outfit twice just because I wanted to look beautiful for Serena, but knowing I was facing Claire made me wish I could disappear.

Serena opened the passenger door for me. I caught her gaze move over my face when I climbed inside before she started the engine. “You look nervous.”

“I’m not.”

Serena’s eyebrow lifted. “But you changed your outfit twice.”

I soon stared at her in shock. “How do you know that?”

“Wasn’t it you who texted me asking which one looked better?”

Heat rushed into my cheeks because I had actually forgotten that detail. Serena smiled and then reached across the console and squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to prove anything to Claire.”

Her fingers were warm against mine. “What if she tells me something I don’t want to hear?”

“It’s better you hear it from her and not your imagination.”

I looked at our joined hands. Serena first withdrew even though the warmth remained. 

Velvet was quieter in the afternoon, with the usual music turned low while Serena’s staff prepared for the evening. My gaze caught Claire near the bar wearing a cream blazer with her dark hair falling neatly over one shoulder. My jealousy returned before she looked at me.

She smiled first at Serena and then looked at me. “Hi, Maya.”

I forced myself to give a smile back. “Hi.”

Serena moved toward the bar, but Claire immediately stopped her with a gentle touch to the arm. “Give us a minute.”

Serena’s eyes immediately found mine, and I soon nodded. Clare was waiting until Serena stepped away before she folded her arms. “I’m really not here to compete with you,” she muttered. 

The words from Claire disarmed me. “I never mentioned you were.”

“No, but you’ve been looking at me like I had stolen something from you.”

My face burned. “I just don’t know what you are to Serena.”

The expression of Claire softened instead of how I expected it to harden. “That’s exactly why I wanted this conversation.”

Claire pulled out a stool and sat on it while leaving one beside her for me. I slowly sat on it, keeping a distance between us.

“Serena and I had something real,” Claire began, turning the ring on her finger. “But real doesn’t always mean forever.”

I looked toward Serena, where she was speaking to one of her bartenders. “Then why are you still around this place?”

“Because of Velvet, and we cared about each other after we stopped being lovers.”

The answer came as a surprise to me as Claire also leaned closer. “While we were together, there was always someone else standing between us.”

My chest tightened. “Who?”

“Now… you.”

I almost had to laugh. “Me? How?”

“Yes, you.”

Claire watched the disbelief on my face. “Serena always talked about you.”

I stared at her harder. “While I was away?”

“Yes, especially while you were away.”

The room seemed to shrink around me, with Claire tracing one of her fingers around her glass. “She would tell me stories about you. Your stubbornness and the way you used to follow her everywhere. She even told me how you once told her you were going to marry her.”

My throat tightened immediately. “She remembered that?”

“Yes, babes. She remembered every damn thing.”

I looked down as my eyes felt too hot for me. “Why would she tell you those things?”

Claire’s voice had softened. “Well, maybe because she missed you.”

My heart slammed heavy against my ribs. I had totally believed that I was the only one carrying that weight for four years, and now Claire was telling me Serena had carried something too. “What else did she say?”

Claire hesitated, and I got tense with the hesitation. “She told me other women never felt quite right to her, which hurt me inside till I couldn’t take it.”

My gaze met her immediately. “She never compared their faces or their bodies,” Claire continued. “She compared how they made her feel to how she felt when she talked about you.”

My fingers curled against my palm. “But that doesn’t mean she loved you,” Claire added immediately. “But one thing I know is that it means you were never just Ethan’s little sister in her mind.”

I literally struggled to breathe when Serena looked over where we were, and our eyes met.

For one long second, none of us looked away. Claire followed my gaze and sighed. “That is why I wanted to speak to you before this goes any further.”

My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”

“You need to understand something about Serena.” I waited calmly, watching Claire’s expression change. “She has been trying to keep you at a distance for years.”

My heart cracked hard at those words. “Not because she didn’t care,” she continued, “but because she cared enough to know wanting you could destroy more than just her relationship with you.”

I swallowed. “So what changed?”

Claire’s took a glance at Serena again. “Well, you came home.”

I felt my entire body go still as Claire reached for her bag and then stood. 

“And Maya,” she went on, giving me an almost sympathetic look, “if you think Serena is the only person who has been afraid of what happens next, you’re wrong.”

I frowned as Claire held my gaze for another second. “Wait until Ethan finds out.”