I glanced at her.
“You wanted Andrew to prove that your relationship wasn’t the only one that could fall apart.”
She nodded.
“Maybe.”
“And if he had?”
Kayla stared at her hands.
“Then I could have told myself it wasn’t me. It wasn’t my relationship. It was just how things worked.”
I pulled into our driveway and turned off the engine.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Kayla spoke again.
“I wasn’t trying to take Andrew from you.”
I looked at her.
“I know you may not have planned to.”
She swallowed.
“I just wanted to know whether he would look at me differently. Whether he would flirt back. Whether I could still make someone want me.”
There it was.
Not an excuse.
Not a justification.
Just the truth she had been hiding beneath the playful smiles and teasing comments.
“I wanted to feel attractive again,” she whispered. “I wanted to feel like I still had something to offer. Eric made me feel like six years of my life had become worthless overnight.”
