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I hadn’t listened to her first warning. I certainly wasn’t going to listen to this one either.
I attempted to take a long, deep breath, and I began to skim the Celebrity Alert.
Grayson Tanner, 30, cofounder of Hooked and inventor of the marriage division of the app, has been seen cruising the Mediterranean Sea aboard a 150-foot yacht, owned by Royston Wild, 36, founder of the largest restaurant group in New England. A well-deserved celebration for the cofounder as his app just launched internationally, instantly earning him the top slot of the most downloaded and used dating app in the world.
One would assume Royston would be enjoying the waters of Saint-Tropez with his good friend, Grayson, especially given that it’s Royston’s yacht. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The only people in attendance look to be Grayson and the women he’s Hooked.
Six, to be exact.
Some like to celebrate in style. Some like to celebrate in large numbers.
Grayson appears to like both.
Our only question is: Why didn’t you go for a whole dozen?
To use his own words, looks like bachelorhood is paying off ...
. . . in many, many ways.
Have fun for us, Grayson.
Above the article was a series of photos, and I flipped through them, showing Grayson aboard the yacht in slightly different poses, wearing only a pair of swim trunks, his ripped abs on full display. The six women were in string bikinis, lying on lounge chairs, and ogling him.
I felt like I was going to be sick.
I didn’t know why, because I’d definitely seen enough, but I clicked on the video below the article and the feed instantly showed a zoomed-in image of Grayson, holding a drink in the air, a cigar in his other hand, and a smile covering his face. That grin grew even larger when he shouted, “To bachelorhood. Who needs marriage when you can have all of this.” The video lasted a few seconds past his toast, where he was walking toward the group of women before it cut off.
The second it stopped playing, I shoved my phone back into my pocket.
“Drink this,” Sloane said, handing me a shot glass that overflowed with a clear liquid. When I hesitated, she searched the floor for our manager and said, “Don’t worry, you’re in the clear. He’s in his office.”
I brought the drink up to my lips and quickly swallowed, wiping my mouth as the liquor scorched the back of my throat. “Ugh, that was awful.”
She held the bottle of vodka toward me. “Does that mean you don’t want another?”
“What I meant was that the article and the pictures and the damn video were awful, and now they’re burned into my head.” I took the bottle from her and poured myself a refill, shooting that back before placing the glass in the sink. “Why did I read our situation all wrong and make the worst mistake ever?”
“It wasn’t the worst mistake ever.”
My brows rose. “How can you say that? I slept with a man who goes on vacation with six women because one isn’t enough. I was dumb enough to actually think he was interested in me. But no, he told me instead that he’d never date me and things wouldn’t extend beyond our one night together.” I rolled my eyes. “Who does that?”
But he’d also told me he didn’t compromise, yet he had.
That was something I couldn’t make sense of.
Or why he would take me to his home—a place that had to mean a lot to him, where he wouldn’t just want some random woman to know the address and location of—rather than just fuck me in the restroom or in the alley outside the bar.
Or why he looked at me with so much emotion behind his stare.
Grayson didn’t gaze at me like I was something he wanted. He gazed at me like I was something he couldn’t live without.
There was a difference.
And I felt it.
“Here’s the thing about you that I love the most,” Sloane said. “You have the biggest heart, and you trust so easily. But what that also means is that when it comes to men, even though it’s only happened a few times in the past, you tend to fall fast and hard.” After drying her hands, she tossed the rag over her shoulder, where it stayed and rested across her spaghetti strap. “So, when it came to Grayson—who we now know is a giant asshole, but how were you supposed to know that at the time?—you were just following that big heart of yours and seeing where it led you. You didn’t know he was going to treat you that way, nor did you have any idea who he was.” She paused. “Me on the other hand, I know, so I’d have no excuse”—she held up her hand before I could say a word—“not that he would ever try anything with me. He hasn’t. I’m just saying I know his reputation, so I would know what to expect going in. You didn’t and that’s not your fault. Maybe if you’d gotten a warning or if I’d been working that night, things would have gone down differently.”
I remembered the conversation I’d had with the other server that night when she saw Grayson and me kissing in the hallway outside the restroom. I’d thought she was questioning me about it because he’d dated someone at the bar and I was stepping on someone else’s territory. What she was really doing was waving a handful of red flags in my face.
