“Look, I’m not a psychic, I don’t know what happened. But the fact is that Blake is a fuckboy you should never fuck and I’ve got daddy issues now and so the two of us are better off in here, with each other, getting drunk.”
I eye her dryly, knowing very well that she’ll be leaving this place with someone and it won’t be me.
Half an hour later, I’m right. She’s slowly applying pale lip gloss to her lips and looking over at three guys by the bar. The cutest one, slim, tall, tattoos, is going wild with eye contact. Another one, a trim beard and big arms, waves at her. Man, they’re forward.
“Do you know them?” I ask her.
She grins slyly at me. “Dated them both. Not at the same time though but it’s the same circle of friends.”
This doesn’t surprise me but still. “What?”
She shrugs and flips her crazy hair over her shoulder. “You want to meet men, go hang out at the marina bars. Those guys with boats sure know how to use their hands. They rigged me up six ways from Sunday. Once again, not together,” she pauses, running her tongue over her teeth. “Though who knows tonight. Why don’t you come over and I’ll introduce you? You know you need to get laid.”
“I’m not having any part of your exes or your orgy.”
“The other guy might be single.”
“I’ll pass.” I sigh and bring out my phone to call a cab and leave her to this wicked web she’s spun. “Please don’t bang two exes at the same time or I’m going to get confused.”
She wiggles her fingers at me. No promises.
With my cab on the way, I make my way to the door, a light rain coming down and making the brick alley shine in the night. I look back at Rio inside who so easily sits at the bar with her exes and smiles like she doesn’t have a care in the world and wonder why it can’t be that easy for me.
I blow a wayward strand out of my hair and walk down the street to catch the cab.
***
“Good luck today,” Ana says to me before she darts off to her school. “If you need his balls ripped off, you know who to call.” She makes a clawing motion with her bright pink nails and heads out the door, her makeup case in tow.
I nod, wiping my brow on my sleeve. After waking up with an aching head and knowing I’d have to see Blake today, I went for a long run along the water, trying to get out my frustration. I’m exhausted now but still have this uneasiness in my stomach that I’m really hoping doesn’t translate into me getting sick. The last thing I want is to puke in class. Or, really, ever again.
I haven’t spoken to Blake since yesterday, nor have I texted or emailed him and he’s responded in kind. Because of this I know that class is going to be completely awkward and I have no idea whether I should address what happened or not. I mean I’m sure other classmates blow off their assigned partners too from time to time but this just happens to feel so personal and I’m not sure why.
Luckily once I get to school, I spot Rio about to head up the stairs.
“Hey,” I call after her and hurry to catch up. “What happened with your exes last night, you never texted me.”
She gives me a dry look and I realize she’s still wearing not only her makeup from last night but the same clothes. “Ugh. I can’t wait to shower all this regret off of me,” she says, sounding wrecked. Then her eyes grow round as she looks over my shoulder. “Heads up, Hugh Grant Jr. is coming your way.”
I turn to see Blake coming toward me. Shit.
I quickly whip around just as Rio is abandoning me, running up the stairs.
“You bitch,” I mutter under my breath and try to inhale deeply.
“Amanda,” Blake says crisply to my back.
I slowly turn around, raising my brow. “No nickname this time?”
His gives me a wary smile. “Oh I’ve got plenty but they’re all very inappropriate during a proper grovel.”
“This is you grovelling?”
He chews on his lip for a moment and looks away, his eyes shifting from dark grey to dark blue in the dim light of the hallway. “I’m sorry I cancelled last night,” he says, focus on me again, brows raised in offering. “You forgive me?”
Shit. He’s got one hell of a sweet face when he wants to be sweet. Those dimples, the puppy dog eyes. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
“Maybe,” I say. “That really pissed me off. You’re not the only who has a life you know, I put off things so that we could work together.”
He runs his fingers along the stubble on his chin. His fingers are something else. I’ve only really noticed them as we’ve been working together but my mind has gone a few places imagining what else he can do with them.
And now I know I must be blushing. I clear my throat and stare at him expectantly.
“I know,” he says. “Something came up.”
“Two blondes with, I’m guessing, big tits is what came up.”
He raises his finger. “Actually one had small tits and I never went on a date with them. Her or her tits. That was my mate Heath who did that. At least I assume he did, I actually never heard back from him.”
I guess Rio was right. Not sure why that bothers me. “Then why did you lie?”
He coughs out an incredulous sound. “Because you assumed already that I was cancelling because of some girls.”
“And you weren’t.”
“No,” he says adamantly. “Look, darling, I know this may come as a surprise to you but I have a life that involves more than getting my dick sucked.”