HOW TO BE SINGLE | SIDEMEN

TWENTY

t w e n t y
" fake it 'til you make it "
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Simon couldn't keep himself from looking over to where Adela, and very soon afterwards the man with her, had disappeared to. Clearly, she was upset and that wasn't nice to see, but what could he even say to her to make any of it better?

Catherine seemed annoyed as they sat down. She sighed, looked over her shoulder once and then looked back to him.

"If you're that desperate to see how she is, just go after her," She snapped.

"It's not that easy," Simon said, looking down at his hands. If he could've just gone after her, he would've, but that guy went after her instead and he wasn't about to get in the way of whatever Adela had going on. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to 'moving on'.

"Yes, it is. Go in there and tell her exactly what we're doing here," Catherine persisted, her temper getting the better of her as she put her foot down with him.

"What are we doing here?" Simon questioned, tracing his finger through the spilt sugar on the wooden table. "Besides, I don't think she wants to see me anyway. If she did, this wouldn't have been the first time we'd seen each other since the last."

"We are here as co-workers, nothing more, nothing less." She took a drink of her coffee, enjoying the warmth and the break from talking to someone who clearly had something more important on their mind than her.

"I'm not here to talk about an ex-girlfriend, even if that's what's ended up happening. If she'd content with whoever that guy is, then fine, whatever. I'm happy for her."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"I don't think that matters," He snapped, then relaxed into his chair as he realised how worked up he was getting over something that might not even be true. For all he knew, Adela was doing the exact same thing as him: getting coffee with a friend. It's just that he thought he knew all of her friends and he had never in his life seen this man before. She was probably thinking the same thing. "Sorry," He apologised, tapping his fingers on the side of the mug.

"I guess we're even," Catherine replied, clearly not hurt by his outburst. "Besides, they do say fake it 'til you make it."

"What?"

"Fake it 'til you make it. Pretend you're happy for her until you really are happy for her." Catherine's phone buzzed, but she ignored it. Looking right at him until he nodded.

"Right, yeah," He said in response, but all that went out the window the moment Adela and the man emerged from the toilet, where they had been for a considerable amount of time. He handed her the jacket she'd left hanging on the back of the chair and called over one of the employees to put their coffees in to-go cups.