“The latter. I’m actually a giant poser. I don’t even play baseball. It’s all a front.”
“Screw you,” I snorted.
“Speaking of screwing, I want to check out this suite they gave me and see if the guy at the front desk was bullshitting me or not.”
“What’d he say?”
“That there are mirrors in the bedroom,” Drew laughed as I rolled my eyes. But I bit my lip as he brushed a wisp of hair from my face and cupped my cheek. “He also said there’s a pretty spectacular view of the East River and Manhattan if you’re interested in that. I know you have a pretty weird boner for the city skyline.”
“You’re the worst.”
“You love me,” he said with a cocky grin, sending heat to my cheeks. He traced my dimple with his thumb as he looked down at me for several seconds, and when he spoke again, his voice came back softer. “At the very least, I do think you like me now.”
“You’re slightly above tolerable to me now.”
“I’ll take it,” he laughed. “Now are you going to come with me or are you going to stay down here?”
Without hesitating, I chose Drew.
Unfortunately, anytime Drew went somewhere, everyone followed.
By now it was past 1AM and the group had dwindled to six, but everyone followed – including Hillary and Mike. Definitely a bit of a surprise to me, though to be fair, Hillary resisted as much as she could, taking another shot before letting Mike drag her away from the bar.
Yeah, enough of this, I decided when they joined us to wait for the elevators. I saw one descending a floor behind the other and when the first arrived, I let everyone pile in before pulling Hillary back last second.
“Hey!” Mike snapped just as the door closed in his face. Hillary’s eye went wide.
“Evie…”
“Hillary.” I pulled her into the next elevator and hit the door shut button before facing her. “How long?”
“How long what?” she practically whimpered.
“You and Mike. How long?” I reiterated my question, feeling suddenly ready to leave this bullshit behind me.
Had anyone told me two or three weeks ago that I’d lose Hillary to the breakup as well, I’d probably fall to my knees and mourn the loss of these people who’d been so important to me. But tonight, despite the initial hiccup, I was ready to take a page from the Drew Maddox playbook and just cut these two out of my life.
Trust existed but not with them, and I was ready to end this chapter and move on.
“About a year ago,” Hillary finally whispered, looking up at me with wet eyes. “A little longer. I kept telling him to make it right though, I promise. I kept telling him to just break up with you.”
“But he didn’t, and you stayed.”
“He said he needed time to transition.”
Oh my God.
He needed time to wean himself off me before going to Hillary. That was probably the most pathetic and despicable thing I’d ever heard.
“I told him to at least stop sleeping with you to make it somewhat okay,” Hillary protested.
Nope. Maybe that was the most despicable thing I’d ever heard.
Once the elevator reached the floor of the suite, I stalked out without a word and followed the sound of the group laughing and chatting down the hall. The door of the suite was open, and the group was marveling at everything from the view to the bedroom, which indeed had mirrored walls in front of and behind the king-sized bed.
But the laughter stopped the second I walked in, and the second Mike sneered and said, “I take it she told you,” everyone slowly looked at each other then trickled out of the room.
Ignoring Mike, I went straight to Drew and put my hands on his chest.