Before I could respond, Brandon Fletcher appeared behind her with his usual polished confidence and carefully practiced charm that always felt slightly artificial.
He placed a hand on her shoulder like he owned the moment and said, “Do not take it personally, big events create stress and you tend to read into things more than you should.”
I stood slowly and felt my heart pounding, but the feeling was not the same kind of hurt I used to feel because something sharper and colder had taken its place.
“I do not understand,” I said quietly, looking at Aubrey instead of him.
She let out a short laugh that carried irritation more than humor and said, “You always complicate everything, and you bring heaviness into moments that are supposed to be happy.”
She continued speaking as if she had rehearsed it, saying this was her time and her chance to build a life without the weight of old grief and responsibilities.
That word stayed with me longer than anything else she said because I remembered another time when she used that same tone.