Free Wanderlust by Thea Dawson Page B

misunderstanding?”
    “Who knows? People move on, breakup. Maybe it’ll be like that scene in The Graduate, where you run into the church at the last minute—”
    I rolled my eyes.
    “Okay, maybe not. But seriously, are you going to see him again?”
    I shrugged, trying to look like I didn’t much care one way or the other. “He said he’d call.”
    “He won’t,” Stephen said.
    “You just said this was destiny!” I objected. I’d said the same thing to Sarah, but it bothered me to hear someone else say it.
    “Gotcha! You’re dying for him to call, aren’t you?” He looked triumphant.
    I glared.
    “Look, he’s a guy. Trust me. A gay guy knows men like women never will. He’s engaged or married or whatever, he thinks you’re getting married, which to the primitive, masculine, lizard brain basically means you’re some other guy’s property, and the situation’s just too awkward for him to wrap his mind around. If you want to see him again, you’ll have to make the first move here.”
    “Huh. Okay,” I said.
    Stephen gave me a hard stare. “So do you want to see him again or not?”
    “I’d kind of like to see him again. You know, just to catch up.” I tried to sound casual.
    “Uh huh.” He shot me a quick, skeptical glance, then resumed tapping his chin thoughtfully. “I’d start with a friend request on Facebook, since you know he’s on there. You don’t want to ask about his fiancée because then he’ll know you were stalking him. Let’s keep it simple. Just ask if he’s free for coffee, and say you’d like to catch up. Then when you meet him, you tell him about the ring—ha, ha! Hilarious misunderstanding! Bat those gorgeous brown eyes at him a few times and see how engaged he really is.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
    “Be serious for just a minute, okay? I don’t actually want to break up a serious relationship,” I said. “And anyway, I’m going back to Bangkok in a few weeks, so it’s not like this could really go anywhere anyway.”
    “So what’s your motivation for wanting to see him again?”
    I hesitated over my last bite of sorbet. “Well, he’s nice, and I’d like to be on good terms with him. I don’t know. I just want … resolution, maybe?”
    “There you go.” He nodded sagely. “You never got resolution. You never truly called it quits, just drifted apart. So now you’re looking for a way to put this to rest, once and for all.”
    I sat in silence for a moment. There was some truth to that. “You should have been a shrink instead of a financial consultant,” I said.
    He shrugged. “It’s the same thing,” he said. “But I’ll warn you, sunshine—once he finds out you’re single, he’s even less likely to stay in touch with you. He’ll feel weird about having an old flame around now that he’s engaged. So make the most of this meeting with him. No pussyfooting around, thinking you’ll have a chance to go deep later.”
    “Um, actually, I was thinking I’d just let him keep thinking I’m engaged,” I added, feeling my face get hot.
    There was a rather long silence. “Why’s that?”
    I paused. The Plan was hard to put into words. “I just … I wouldn’t want there to be any complications. If we’re both engaged, then all we can be is friends. No one gets hurt.”
    “In other words, you want him to think you’ve forgotten all about him and moved on, preferably by being engaged to some completely fabulous dude, and rubbing his face into it.”
    “I have moved on.”
    “Uh huh.”
    “I am over him.” I got up and began clearing the dishes. “Look, I’m heading to Thailand in a few weeks, and I’ll be in Southeast Asia at least until summer. We’re not going to be BFF, see-each-other-every-day-forever friends. We’re just …” I gave up. “Fine. You’re right. I want him to think I’ve moved on. If he’s engaged to some cute California girl, I want to be engaged to some hot, handsome dude myself.”
    “Well,