Chapter One
Charlie
There wasno way to escape.
Trust me, I’d checked. The small half-bath had nosecret doorways, and the window was so minuscule I couldn’t fit through it even if I lost the pesky freshman fifteen I’d packed on two years ago. I opened it despite my misgivings and despaired at the slow progression. The air filtered in, clammy and thick, but my desperate lungs drew it in greedily. My fingers dug into the windowsill and I prayed for the first time in ten years.Please, God, don’t let me faint.
The knock at the door made me screech, and I clapped a hand over my mouth.
“Charlie,” came a familiar voice. “You okay in there?”
“Liam, how many times do I have to tell you not to interrupt me when I’m on a date?” I washed my hands and gave a quick look in the mirror. I frowned at my reflection. Limp dirty blonde hair that fell rain-straight to my shoulders, plain brown eyes opened so wide I nearly scared myself.
Get it together, Charlie.
I opened the door and peered beneath Liam’s raised arm. “Andrew didn’t follow you, did he?”
“Why?” He sounded amused. I narrowed my eyes at him as I straightened. How could he be amused at a time like this? “What? I thought you got off on this part.”
“What part? I don’t get off on anything!” The screeching continued, and it was definitely coming from me. There must be something in the water. It wasn’t like me to be so frantic and…unhinged.
Liam merely smiled that one-sided smile that made me want to sucker punch him. It made the dimple in his right cheek peek out to say hello. It was a tease, that dimple. It made most girls swoon, but it made me want to deck him because he only shared it with me when he was trying to piss me off, which he did with infuriating regularity. “Now, Charlie, you should know better than to keep breaking it off with these puppies if you aren’t getting laid on the regular. Maybe that’s why you’re so uptight.”
I looked to the ceiling. Maybe I’d find patience there. But there was no spiritual aid to be found, unless you counted the water stain that kind of looked like Jesus if I squinted just right. I’d grown sick of water stains. My dorm had them. My first apartment had them. What was it with college haunts and water-stained ceilings? One day I’d own my own home and there wouldn’t be a water stain in sight.
“Focus.”
I glared at him. “I am focused. Focused on not planting my fist in your face.” I shoved around him, which wasn’t easy considering how bulky he was. For a bartender-slash-veterinary student, he sure packed on the muscle. I guess it was hauling around all those kegs and delivering…I don’t know calves or whatever it was he did at his family’s farm that made him want to be a vet.
“Don’t let your anger out on me because you aren’t getting any.” Liam followed close behind as I squeezed through the packed hallway of girls in skimpy dresses trying to get to the bathroom. Most of them side-eyed me until they caught onto the fact that Liam was much more interested in checking out their racks than paying any attention to me. After a lifetime of friendship, I was used to their reaction.
“I’m not angry.”
“If I weren’t getting laid,I’dbe angry. Andrew must not be doing it right.”
I spotted Andrew at the standing table where I left him, but paused instead of going to his side. I really hated this part. As I weighed my options, I said distractedly, “Then how do you explain the fact that you’re a dick to me 24/7 if you’re always getting laid? And Andrew is perfectly…nice.”
“I’m not a dick,” he said. My snort caused him to smile again, dimple twinkling. “Okay, well not all the time. Besides, I’m only like that with you because, you know, we’re friends. The only time you shouldreallyworry is when I turn on the charm.”
“You, charm? I doubt there’s anything you could do that would ever make me forget what you were like at twelve with all your acne and that high-pitched voice. Sorry, buddy, there’s no coming back from that.”
Liam coughed and eyed a bombshell redhead who was giving him a sympathetic look. He leaned closer to me. “You promised me you’d never mention that again.”
“Andyoupromised you’d never interrupt another date.”
“You can’t be calling this a date,” he replied, disbelief coloring his voice and expression. “Especially not if the sex is onlynice.”
My thoughts ground to a halt and I reached up to tug at my hair. “What do you mean by that?”
Redhead forgotten, Liam reclined against the wall next to me and jerked his head to where Andrew stood checking his watch. “You only bring a guy here when you’ve reached the dumping phase and I’m not about to give you a sex education lesson.”
“Dumping phase? How did—what do—how did you know I was going to break up with him?” I stumbled through my response, my voice nearly giving out several times in my attempt to speak. “I don’t need a sex lesson from you.”
“Really? We’ve been friends for ten years. I think I know how this is going to go.”
I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea how it’s going to go.” I paused, biting my lip. “Do you?”
Liam waved at his manager when he began to shoot him impatient looks. That was Liam, totally unconcerned about the fact that he was supposed to be actuallyworking. It drove me almost as insane as his ability to see right through me did. “This isn’t the first time you’ve brought a guy here when you want to break up with him and I doubt it’ll be the last. What’s the reason this time? You two have been kicking it for longer than usual. He do something stupid like propose?”
