I sighed but then went back to looking at myself in the mirror. “Fine. I’m a bad bitch who doesn’t need male validation.”
“Say it again. Louder.”
“I’m a bad bitch who doesn’t need male validation!” I didn’t yell it, but I did make my voice just loud enough to hopefully make Matt wonder what was going on downstairs.
“Yes! That’s what I like to hear. Okay, now, is this a guy you’re going to see again in the near future?”
I laughed. “Probably.”
“Then you need to make sure you look so hot the next time he sees you. Make sure he knows what he’s missing, but remember if he comes crawling back, he isn’t worth your time. You hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you. Thanks Michelle. I knew you’d be able to cheer me up.”
“Anytime, Steph. I’m always here for you.”
ChapterSixteen
MATT
Isat on my bed after Stephanie left the room and let my head hang heavy.
I had no idea how things had ended up this way. I had thought for sure she and I were in agreement about what we wanted. Sure, I didn’t ask her point blank what she was looking for, but I didn’t think I had to. I went over the conversation we had in the restaurant a few times in my head, and no matter how many different ways I twisted her words around, I couldn’t figure out where the miscommunication had started.
Not that it really mattered anymore.
She hated me, and that was that.
And frankly, I was not too thrilled with her either at the moment. I saw the judgment behind her eyes when she called me out for going to meet another girl. But who was she to judge me? It’s like she’d said, I told her that I didn’t date! I told her that I only had casual flings, and she didn’t seem all that offended by my lifestyle when we were having sex. What did she want from me? I had been upfront with her since day one, and it’s not my fault she developed feelings for me.
If I had known she liked me this much, I never would’ve let things progress the way they did. I’m not a tease. That’s not what gets me off. I didn’t like hurting people’s feelings, and I sure as hell would not like to piss off the people I have to live with for the foreseeable future.
Yet, here I was.
I rubbed my temples and laid back on the bed. “How could I have been so stupid!” How many times did I tell myself since Stephanie started working here that I couldn’t let anything happen between us? I knew it would end terribly, but I did it anyway. And after all this she was probably going to quit, if not now, somewhere down the line, and then what would I tell Will? How was I going to explain to him that his nanny, and all around favorite person in the world, had to go because I didn’t want to be in a relationship with her?
It was all such a mess, and deep down, I knew it was mostly my fault.
But I didn’t want to admit that to myself. I was too angry, and I really didn’t want to turn any of that anger inwards, so I projected it onto Stephanie, and ended up having a really bad night. I barely slept a wink, and when my alarm went off early that Saturday morning, I was in a worse mood than when I had gone to bed. I took a long, hot shower in an attempt to wake myself up, and for one distracted moment, I thought about Stephanie, about how it felt to be inside of her, and was immediately aroused. I forced the thought from my mind as quickly as I could and got out of the shower.
In my bedroom, I saw a text from Will saying that his friend’s mom was going to give him a ride home. It was only a little after nine, and usually this would be the time that I would go downstairs and have my coffee with Stephanie, but I had a feeling she didn’t really want to see me just yet. So, I got dressed and walked down the stairs as quietly as I could. Either Steph had already left the house, or she was holed up in her room waiting for me to leave.
Not wanting to rock the boat, I decided to get out of there as quickly as I could, but once I was out the door and getting into my car, I realized I had nowhere to go. I had no plans, no work. The whole day was wide open, and yet I couldn’t think of a single thing to do to fill it. I decided to call up my brothers and see if they were doing anything. Starting with David.
Who didn’t pick up.
I left him a message, but right as I was hanging up the call I remembered that his wife was either about to give birth or she had very recently given birth, so obviously he was a busy man. Next up on the list was my younger brother, Adam. But he was out of town.
The two youngest, Jeremy and Ezra, were both, as far as I knew, in town and didn’t have soon-to-be due pregnant wives so I texted them both. Jeremy answered right away and said I was free to come around his restaurant and have a cup of coffee after the breakfast rush. I didn’t know when the breakfast rush ended, but I went over there right away.
There was a line out the door when I arrived, and I forgot that a local magazine had listed Jeremy’s restaurant as the perfect ‘brunch spot’ a couple months ago, and ever since then, weekend mornings there had become a bit of a nightmare. I wasn’t sure what else to do except get in line, so that’s what I did, and not two minutes later, I felt someone clap me on the back and turned to see Ezra.
“Hey,” I said. “I didn’t know you were coming. You never said anything in the group text.”
“You know I don’t respond in group texts,” he said. “It’s a general rule of mine.”
“Oh right, I forgot.” I shook my head at him. “You and your weird rules.”
“Speaking of weird rules, another rule of mine is that I don’t wait in line to get into a restaurant that my brother owns. Why are we standing around like dummies?”