Half Baked Hearts | ✔

30. I'm Not Wallowing

Without Cake Me Up or being a receptionist for my dad, my days seemed never ending and completely boring.

Baking didn't even seem appealing to me. Every time I stepped into my kitchen, all I could think about was Nate in his dumb "Kiss the Cook" apron. Did he already own it, or did he buy just for the baking lessons?

Why does it matter, I thought to myself.

I face planted into the couch two hours ago and hadn't moved since. Episodes of The Great British Bake Off played on the TV. The plan was to stay another hour or two.

Then the doorbell rang.

Nessa was the only person who ever visited and she was at work, so whoever it was, they weren't important. I focused my attention back on the TV.

Unfortunately, whoever was at the door didn't want to be ignored. They rang the doorbell again and shouted my name.

I sat up then. "Liz?" When I opened the door, sure enough, she was standing on my porch. Letting her in, we went back to the living room. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She held out a small gift bag. "Delivery."

It had been a few days since my birthday and Disneyland, and Liz already gave me a gift—jumbo hair clips with little cakes and sweets on them. "What's this?"

"It's from Nate," she admitted sheepishly. When I didn't make a move to take the bag, she added, "Look, I'm not taking any sides, but whatever he did, he's extremely sorry."

After Nate and I had our talk, there was no way our friends wouldn't notice the tension between us.

I told Liz and Daisy that Nate and I decided to go our separate ways. They didn't need any more information than that. But I had a feeling if Liz knew exactly what Nate did, she wouldn't have been making deliveries for him.

"I'm not interested in his apologizes," I said, sitting on the couch and grabbing the remote to let Netflix know I was still watching.

Liz sat next to me, a solemn look on her face. "Is this about Janae being back? Because if it is, you should know that she's with Andrew now."

That got my attention. Those text messages she sent Nate the other day made me think she wanted him back. "She is?"

Liz nodded, settling onto the couch. "Yeah, according to Daisy, Janae was with Andrew before she got with Nate. I guess he was the one that got away."

What Andrew said to me at Nate's party weeks ago came back to me. He told I had nothing to worry about with Janae. Did he say that because he was dating her? Of course he was. How else would he have known I liked the picture? only Janae would've been notified.

Was that why she wanted to meet with Nate—to tell him she was dating one of his friends?

Did it even matter at that point? No. Because the Janae thing was tiny compared to the fact that Nate had been lying to me for weeks.

"No, it has nothing to do with her," I said, eyes glued to the TV. "And, I really don't want to talk about it."

"Consider the subject dropped," she said, holding her hands up. "I'm also here because Nessa told me to make sure you weren't sitting here wallowing."

Her eyes roamed the living room. Embarrassed was an understatement as I took in all the empty water bottles and chip bags on the coffee table.

"I'm not wallowing," I said, hopping up to grab my trash from the table to throw away.

Liz scoffed. "Right. I'll pretend to believe that."

When I returned to the living room, Liz was getting up from the couch. "I just came to check up on you and drop off the gift. I'd stay, but I have...this thing."