"And now you're having second thoughts, aren't you?"

He avoided her accusatory glance by spearing a tomato from his salad. "This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to avoid. Megan's nice, but she doesn't stop. And if she gets it into her head that I need to be at more than the concert, she's going to dog me until I cave."

"What are you, five? If you don't want to do something, just tell her to back off."

"I can't."

With a frustrated sigh, Tatum dug into her fries, cutting them with the side of her fork to nibble at one. She always ate like she was sitting opposite the Queen of England, rather than sticking to a vinyl booth in an aging diner off the Broadway beaten path.

"I don't get it," she said. "You are one of the most intelligent, capable people I have ever known. There is no logical reason for you to be acting like this."

"There is. It's called high school."

"It's called sabotage," she shot back. "You're doing this to yourself, acting like some spineless jock who only wants to follow the pack, when you are not that person anymore."

"That person's always been a part of me. He's just been buried for the past fifteen years."

"You've been out of high school for thirty."

"Which just goes to show how strong he was since it took me that long after graduating to get the best of him and make a decision based on what I really wanted and not what I was afraid of." Tatum was the only person he could talk to like this, her special talent working its magic on him. "I'm not going to change my RSVP again," he said, though he wouldn't go as far as admit that his biggest reason for that was because he didn't want to look like more of a flake than he already did. "But it did get me to thinking about why I'm going."

"Because of closure."

"Because of Trev."

Her chewing slowed. "Don't you dare."

"What?"

"I know what you're thinking, and don't you dare."

It had been a half-baked idea in the first place, too ephemeral for Jett to really articulate before he'd asked Tatum out to dinner. Hearing her put the kibosh on it before he'd even told her what it was raised his hackles as much as hearing Megan's accent on the phone had. "Why shouldn't I go see him? You're the one who Googled where he lived nowadays. If anyone's the stalker here, it's you."

"The word stalker never left my lips."

"Bullshit. It's taken up residence there ever since I told you about him in the first place."

"If you show up on his doorstep, he's going to ask why."

"So I'll tell him."

"That he was the idol of your unrequited high school love and now that you've discovered where he lives, you've decided to pick up where you left off? He's only going to have one answer to that."

"What?"

"Restraining order."

"Then I guess it's a good thing my best friend is such an excellent lawyer."

She let him eat in silence for a few minutes as his intentions sank in. He could see it from her angle. He could. If Tatum came to him with the same ridiculous idea, he would lock her in a closet until she signed an affidavit she wouldn't follow through on it. Frankly, Jett wasn't convinced she wouldn't try something as equally extreme to keep him from going.

"You can't go by yourself," she said. "When we're done here, we'll stop by my place so I can pack a bag."

Her capitulation made no sense. "What're you talking about?"

"The only way to guarantee you don't do something stupid is to be at your side when you see him."

"What happened to not wanting to be my beard?" he tried to joke.

Slowly, she set down her fork and leaned forward. "I'm going as the person in this world who loves you most. The fact that he gets my solid, dependable friend so twisted up into knots that he's morphed into Gilligan worries me. I care too much to let you run off and do something that gets you shipwrecked."

He didn't know if he was relieved or annoyed she'd just invited herself along on a road trip he hadn't completely committed to yet anyway. "Technically, that was never Gilligan's fault."

"Whatever you say, little buddy."