“My friend,” I say, smiling as big as I can. “Him. I mean, Mac. I, uh, we’re on the Council, and we’ve got . . . Council stuff . . . so . . .”
Mac comes over, takes one look at me, and slides his arm around my waist before kissing me on the cheek. And then, horrors upon horrors, greets Sophie like they’re old friends.
Am I the only one in Annar who doesn’t know this siren?
“I’ve been looking for you,” I tell Mac. His dark eyebrows rise, so I rush to continue, my words too fast, “You know. Work stuff? We need to talk about work stuff. We’re supposed to meet today. For work stuff.”
He stares at me, hard, but relents, like I knew he would. “I was just coming to find you.”
I very nearly collapse in relief.
“But Chloe! What about your salad?” Sophie asks, taking a step too close to me.
Kellan returns to the table, not smiling in the least. Mac is, though. Mac is smiling like a Cheshire cat. His arm tightens around my waist, his head drops to lean against mine as he greets his friend. Or is it frenemy? Because Kellan looks like he could kill Mac right now.
“Chloe says she has to go,” Sophie tells Kellan. “I guess she and Mac have some sort of date?”
This goes over as well as a lead balloon with Kellan. He opens his mouth to no doubt say something nasty, but Mac cuts him off. “Dinner date.” He pauses before adding slyly, “A work dinner date.”
Sophie claps her hands. “We should all go together! And then maybe we can all go to the party afterwards?”
NO! “Work stuff. Boring!” I practically shout. My face hurts from the fake smile. “You’d be bored. Right Mac?”
He’s got his lazy grin on now. Even still, he winks at Sophie. Or possibly Kellan. Or the both of them, but for radically different reasons. “Right. Boring.”
I am so going to slap him for that later.
Sophie loops an arm around Kellan in a weird attempt to mirror Mac and me, which is painfully awful, because Mac isn’t my boyfriend. But she does it because she’s in love with Kellan. She’s not a hook-up. And then, because it can only get worse, her head falls against Kellan’s shoulder, her body so close that too many parts are touching his.
Silverware rattles on the table. I grip tighter to Mac, willing myself to calm down.
I have no right to feel like this. No right at all.
I made my choice.
Jonah, not Kellan.
I made my choice.
I made my—
“You Muses don’t deal well with boring,” Mac practically purrs to Sophie. “Am I right or what, Kellan?”
Kellan makes no comment. Sophie laughs, though. “You Council members are so cruel towards us poor Muses. We’re like second-class citizens to you all, or worse yet, the butt of your jokes.” She says this like it’s a joke, but there’s just enough of a bite to come across as genuine.
Kellan says quietly, “Lizzie Pinkston and Chloe are tight, Sophie.”
And . . . that’s got Sophie backpedalling. “Really? I adore Lizzie! She’s such a doll. As a matter of fact, we were out with her and her lovely Graham just last night! I love those two.”
I meet Kellan’s eyes and am glad he can’t feel the shock of betrayal shoot through me. “That’s . . . great.” Double dating with one of my closest friends. HOW COULD LIZZIE?
“Seriously, you two,” Sophie’s saying. “Let’s all go out tonight and—”
I manage to kick Mac in a way that hopefully neither Kellan nor Sophie sees. He says right over her, “Sorry, Soph. Like I said before, Chloe and I have business. See you two later?”
“Wait,” Kellan says, but I smile some more, even though my mouth hurts from doing so, and tell them how I hope they have a lot of fun tonight. And that I’m glad I got to meet Sophie, even though I’m not, not even in the tiniest bit, and I let Mac steer me down the street until they are no longer in my eyesight.
My friend doesn’t say anything as he walks me home, even though he must be confused and dying of curiosity over what happened back there with Kellan and Sophie. He just holds onto me, a friendly arm around my shoulder while I tremble, but he lets me be.
“Do you want me to come in?” he asks me once we get to my building. “Get Etienne over here with some of his tea? We could gossip, you know. About work stuff. Or make Jens Belladonna voodoo dolls. Lady’s choice.”
I shake my head and give him my first sincere, albeit wobbly, smile of the day. It doesn’t last long, though. In fact, it dies within seconds.
Lizzie calls me twice over the next couple of hours, leaving messages I’m too petty to listen to. I cannot believe she’s friends with Kellan’s girlfriend. I cannot believe she hangs out with Kellan and his awful, gorgeous girlfriend. I’m angry with Graham, too, even though I know he’s more clueless than Lizzie.