Three worlds that shouldn't have held any power over her emotions after two years, no calls, but they did. Twice now, Peri felt her chest cramp and threaten to cave in.
There'd been a foolish little part of her, even if only for a second, that thought maybe—just maybe—he was there for her. That he'd spent all this silent time apart fixing his life and pulling all the fraying threads back together again so that they could... something.
When it became clear his position there at the bar wasn't a dream, or a joke, she'd thought he'd gotten on a plane and headed straight for the only place he could hope to find her, even against all odds and promises she'd made against ever returning home.
She thought. Maybe. But he was meeting someone. This wasn't a grand gesture, or even a serendipitous twist of fate.
"Oh." More breath than response, Peri blinked away the bitterness and the pang of heartache that settled in from the explanation that still hung in the air between them. "That's ni—" Wait. What? "A client? You're here to meet a client?" What client? How the hell did he even have a client in Briar Ridge?
Her mouth popped shut, sealing off any chance for her to continue parroting back his words. And with so little information, that was probably for the best.
She eased closer to the bar's edge, if only to be out of the way, and committed herself to actually letting him finish, and to actually listen. By the time Cem finished she wasn't sure if she felt any better for the extended version, or if the truth of it still hurt.
Maybe he wasn't there with a date, but it was clear he also wasn't suddenly there, in her hometown, for her.
Not that she should've assumed he was, considering the fact that he'd also clearly been for a while and never, not once, picked up the phone to call.
It was so strange—unsettling, almost—to face him now, two years after the end, and question if she'd ever meant as much to him as he'd meant to her. Peri knew how she felt about Cem. She knew he'd been the first and only person to ever get through her walls and decide to stay regardless of what he saw behind them. She knew she'd loved him, knew she wanted an entire lifetime, or ten, with him.
But he'd had an entire purpose outside of their relationship and, even when that was apparently put to rest, he still hadn't come back to her.
Maybe that was expecting too much. Maybe she couldn't blame him after the way she left. Both might be true, but it didn't change the churn of deflated disappointment in her gut.
Although, she had no right feeling more and more out of sorts with each revelation spilled from Cem's lips when she, herself, was there for a date. Inconveniently, or conveniently, she'd kind of forgotten all about him. Or maybe it was the other way around? A quick glance at her phone proved Blake still hadn't called, or answered a single one of her 'here, where are you?' texts.
"Uh—" Peri sucked back a breath, fidgeting with the device still in her hands. "Yeah. I mean, sort of. I don't... know?" Way to clear that up. "I mean, I am here on a date, but I can't really say how hot he is considering I've never met him."
An official passenger on a runaway train to rambling, if only to push through how awkward it felt to admit as much to the man she thought she might marry someday, Peri rushed out, "It's stupid, really. My friend Mari set me up on a blind date with this guy she met in Nashville who just moved to town. He's some kind of musician, I guess. Or, at least, he plays the guitar...? I haven't seen any pictures of him, 'cause that sounded a little fun, but I know that much. Mari, uh, she thought we might... get along."
Lush lips tucked around teeth. Grateful for the full stop it put on her word vomit, Peri tried (a little unsuccessfully) to breathe. "I'm not so sure he's coming, though. We were— Well, I got here twenty minutes ago, and that was already running at least five minutes late."