Tonight the Streets Are Ours

“People do already read it, though,” Arden pointed out. “Whether or not it becomes a book, it’s out there.”


“I know. And she freaked out at me about that, demanding that I take down the whole website. She’d never looked at it before, and once she took the time to read it, she immediately hated everything about it. She said I had to take down Tonight the Streets Are Ours, and I had to tell the agent that I didn’t want representation, and I wasn’t allowed to publish a book that mentioned her in any way…”

He started picking apart his veggie burger, not eating it, but separating out each onion ring, ripping up the lettuce leaves. “I offered to change her name if she was worried about privacy, but she said that wasn’t good enough. And then I asked her to just understand. I’ve wanted to have success as a writer for my whole life. And if she really loves me, even a little bit, couldn’t she just try to want for me the same thing I want for myself?”

“Couldn’t she help you get the thing that would make you happy?” Arden supplied.

He nodded vigorously. “Exactly. But the answer was no. She couldn’t. Or wouldn’t. And I won’t take down the blog, or give up my chance at becoming a published author. So she broke up with me.” He paused, and swallowed hard. “I feel like a jerk saying this about her, but I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it was true: I think she’s jealous. I think she couldn’t stand to see me achieve something that would fulfill me and that didn’t involve her at all.”

“It did involve her though, right?” Lindsey asked. “Since you talk about her in there and stuff?”

Peter stared at Lindsey blankly. Arden grimaced and gave her a little poke in the thigh.

“Are you going to eat the rest of your fries?” Lindsey tried.

He considered it for a moment, then said, “No. Too heartbroken.” He shoved his plate across the table, and Lindsey dug in.

“Trust me, she is a jealous person,” he went on, his words rushing out like they had been pent up inside of him for too long, like laying out the whole story for Arden was helping him fit together the pieces. “She’s constantly jealous over other girls, for example. Which is ridiculous, since I’ve told her so many times that she’s amazing and I’m crazy about her. But whenever someone else even remotely female is nearby, she gets all, ‘Oh, I see you checking out that chick. Do you think she’s hotter than me?’”

“You never mentioned that on the blog,” Arden said, not sure how she felt about this sudden chink in Bianca’s armor. Arden had been led to expect an angel. And what kind of angel felt threatened by mere mortals?

“It was such a small part of our relationship,” Peter explained. “It never seemed important enough to write down. I never imagined it would balloon in this way. Anyway, I don’t write down every single thing that happens on every single day. I write down the bits I want to think more about, or want to remember later. And Bianca making snide comments when I’m nice to the cashier at Starbucks?” He shrugged. “Not really something I want to think about.

“And isn’t that a problem, that she can’t trust her own boyfriend? I’m telling you, she could come in here right now and see us together and leap to conclusions about what’s going on between us, even though there would be no reason for her to be concerned.”

“That’s crazy,” Arden got out weakly.

Even though there would be no reason for her to be concerned.

Because, of course, who would look at Arden sitting in a diner with Peter and think there was something going on, something worth noticing? Only a crazy girl would think that.

She took a deep, calming breath and reminded herself, You didn’t come here to seduce Peter anyway. He just lost the love of his life. And you have a boyfriend.

Thinking of Chris, Arden did a quick phone check. One new text.