The Way You Look At Me

Prologue

Kelenna Agu hadn't been on a date in six months. Not. A. Single. One.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't like six months was that long for a dating drought. So many things happened within six months. A trip to the dentist. An oil change. Daylight savings time.

Your ex-boyfriend getting engaged after a mutual breakup.

It was considered mutual if he was the one who suggested it and you went along with it, right? That way, no one had the upper hand. That way, you could save face. Because if it was left up to you, maybe you wouldn't have broken up.

Should it hurt more that the person he got engaged to was Amara St. John? An ex of his that he claimed to have broken up with because they were better off as friends? If he was going back to exes, why didn't he come back to you? Why was Amara the one he deemed worthy to spend the rest of his life with?

Perhaps the one thing that was amplified in Kelenna's mind, as she pretended to work in her office in the pharmacy at Preston Regional Hospital, was that she lost out on a great match for her. She fell for Will within a month of meeting him, and ten months later it was over. There were no arguments, no fights, no theatrics. That was the tricky part. There'd been nothing overtly wrong with them. According to him, they'd just grown distant. "But maybe we could stay friends?" he'd offered.

But that wasn't a real option. Because how well could you remain friends with an ex, even after an amicable split? What kind of friend blindsided you with their engagement announcement? And via email?! The picture in the save-the-date message was burned in her memory. Amara's long, manicured nails were resting gently on his chest. Her left leg was raised and bent at the knee in a way that meant she was either abandonedly in love, or was trying to show off the red-bottomed soles of her designer shoes. His hand was possessively around her waist. They looked like the very picture of bliss.

No, they weren't friends. You couldn't be friends with someone who'd slipped through your fingers. Not when in the deep recesses of your heart—so deep that you only permitted yourself to visit occasionally—you'd assumed the two of you would have one last shot. Maybe you hadn't even entertained the thought of dating other people for that exact reason. All that meant nothing though, because while he was embarking on this life-altering journey with another woman, you were left alone to languish in singledom.

William Perry III, was not her friend. He was The One Who Got Away.

There was only one thing she could do now.

She had to move on.