She was mine. Nicky was mine, and now I’m sitting miserably at the bar, trying to keep the images of her with Bradley out of my mind by filling it with booze. Just the thought of him with his manicured fucking fingers on her body – my body – makes me want to smash my glass.
“Gimme a break, Chase,” Lexy says, rolling her eyes. “Two days ago you were as single I am. Now you’ve got a broken heart?”
“Single?” I ask, surprised. “What happened to that girl you were dating from out of town? Jenny…Gina…”
“Genevieve,” she says with a shrug. “I guess she decided the small-town life wasn’t for her. She moved to Los Angeles.”
“To be a model?” I ask with a groan as I take a sip of my drink.
“An influencer,” she corrects me with a laugh. “Anyway, this isn’t about me. What the fuck happened to you, bro? I’ve never seen you like this before.”
“Never been like this before,” I tell her, taking another swig. “But I guess this is what happens when you forget your place in life.”
“Place?” she frowns, scrunching her nose. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You ever see a guy going for a girl that you know is just way out of his league?” I ask. “Like…he’s five foot three, and she’s a six-foot-tall supermodel?”
“Sure,” Lexy nods.
“Well, let’s just say I did the equivalent of that, but just swap the height thing with the money thing.”
“Ah,” she smiles. “Went for the Watson girl, huh?”
I look up at her and frown.
“How did you—”
“Oh, come on, you big idiot!” she laughs, wrapping her knuckles on my skull. “This is Greenville! You think we didn’t hear about the house on Cherry Lane finally being sold?”
“I didn’t hear about it,” I grumble.
“That’s because you’ve had your face buried in car hoods more than I’ve had mine buried in pussy,” she replies, wiping the bar with a rag. “If you paid attention at all, you would have known that girl was already engaged.”
Just hearing the word “engaged” makes me clench my first so hard around my glass that I wonder for a moment if it’s going to shatter. I’m all wound up inside, and it has nothing to do with the fight.
I let her play me. I thought I actually had a chance with her, like a broke guy out of one of those romance movies. But this is reality, and reality bites.
“Enough, Lexy. All right?” I groan, finishing my drink. “I fucked up, okay? I know that. Now I just want to try and forget about it.”
“Good luck with that,” she replies. “You look like you’ve been hit by Cupid’s arrow; it’s going t
o take more than a couple of Jack and Cokes to get you right again.”
“Yeah?” I smirk. “How about a roll around in the sheets then?”
She knows I’m kidding. Lexy may be cute as hell, but she’s batting strictly for the other team, and as much as I have joked with her in the past about me being her first, we both know she’s keeping her gold star.
“I get off at one,” she kids back, flirting her eyes at me. “Should I wear lingerie?”
“And heels!” I call after her as she chuckles and heads over to serve another customer.
I growl down at the rest of my drink, then knock it back and get to my feet. I’m not that drunk, but I shouldn’t be driving, so I decide to walk home. The whole way, I can’t stop thinking about what Nicky is up to. She stuck me good – it’s like I’ve been transported into a Shakespeare play or something, and the wound in my back still stings, but as hard as I try, I can’t help but think about her.
He doesn’t deserve her.
“Fuck you!” I growl at myself.
What the hell do I know about her anyway? She treated me like a plaything. I was just a little fling for her, and not even that; I was just a guy with good fingers and a warm mouth who she knew wanted to please her, so she let me. I should hate her…