His head jerked back so suddenly his whole chair moved with him, making an awful sound against the wood floors. People in our immediate vicinity turned in our direction. I wanted to melt into a puddle at the floor. I should have waited until we were in a private place. It hadn’t even occurred to me he could make this into a scene.
“What?” I’d never heard his voice quite that high before.
I lowered mine in response, hoping to smooth his ruffled feathers before he got upset. “The ring. The engagement ring? I found it when I was at your apartment last week.”
Silence filled the space between us and my ears began to ring, blotting out the sound of the bad karaoke from a couple of sorority girls in the corner. But over the ringing, I heard Liam’s voice berating me for my love ‘em and leave ‘em attitude.
“You thought I was going to propose to you?”
Then it was my turn to gape at him like a fish. “Weren’t you?”
His eyes flicked back and forth as he studied me. He leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You were going to break up with me, weren’t you?” He actually laughed and then leaned in across the table. “You were going to break up with me even though you thought I was going to propose.”
The warmth from the alcohol curdled in my stomach. I swallowed hard and pressed my hands into the table for balance. I wasn’t going to throw up in public. I didn’t even do that when I was fresh out of high school and acclimating to the constant flow of booze as a frosh. “You could do so much better than me, Andrew. I’m leaving this summer for a volunteer opportunity overseas. We wouldn’t even get to spend a lot of time together.” All my carefully rehearsed reasons now sounded pathetic and flimsy in light of Liam’s accusations and the pure disbelief on Andrew’s face.
He shook his head and got to his feet. “You’re a real piece of work, Charlie. But for the record, I was never gonna propose to you. That ring is a family heirloom. My mom gave it to me last week for my twenty-fifth birthday.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but he was already walking away. I downed the rest of the cosmo to wash out the bad taste in my mouth, but not even it could drown out the sound of Liam’s words and Andrew’s accusations.
Chapter Two
Liam
I keptan eye on their table as best I could, but the bar was packed on a Saturday night. By the time I looked up, I’d lost sight of them and their table was empty. As I filled drink requests for person after person my gaze flitted around the room trying find either of them. I cursed under my breath. Never should have let her do this on a night when I was working so I couldn’t keep a close eye on her.
A half-hour later, it seemed half of the university had decided to show up so I hadn’t been able to tear myself away. My eyes are gritty from the flashing lights and lack of sleep. I wish I could say it’s because I’ve spent it with a woman, but I picked up extra shifts here and the pet rescue where I work as a vet tech for extra cash. If I was being honest it’s been a hot minute since I’ve even hadtimefor another woman.
The next girl in line, a pretty brunette with skin-tight jeans and a killer smile, didn’t even do anything for me. “Sex on the beach,” she requested.
But it did nothing for me. Not even when she perched on the bar stool and arched her back to thrust her pretty breasts in the line of my gaze. “Coming right up,” I told her. I was still focused on scanning the crowd to try and spot Charlie and her latest guy, so I only gave her breasts a cursory glance. The brunette pouted until I placed her drink in front of her and she flounced off for another target.
Normally, it didn’t bother me that Charlie chose my job as her dumping ground. It kept her close in case something went wrong that way I could be there to handle things for her. But something about this particular one was making me twitchy.
“The hell’s wrong with you?” asked the other bartender on duty. He was a pretty chill dude who played ball for FSU named Tripp. I wasn’t as into sports, but we got along well enough. He and Charlie lived in the same apartment complex with her friends and they always ended up hanging out together.
“What do you mean?” I leaned around the next customer to study a flash of blonde hair.Not Charlie.
“You’re being twitchy.”
I turned to him and grabbed the vodka for the drink I was making. “I’m not being twitchy.”
“If you were any twitchier, I’d think you took one too many balls to the head.”
The mental image produced by his words made me wince. “Charlie broke up with another one of her guys tonight. I’ve got a bad feeling about it, that’s all.”
Tripp snorted. “Are you sure that’s the real reason?”
I started cleaning the counters between customers to keep my hands busy.Twitchy, my ass. “Of course it’s the real reason. What else would it be?”
He elbowed me, knocking me off balance. He may be leaner than me, but it’s all muscle, the little shit. “Can you think of another reason why you’d be so worried about who she’s dating?”
“Aside from the fact that she’s my best friend and I want to make sure she’s okay?”
Tripp rolled his eyes as he prepped his next drink. “If that’s what you want to tell yourself.”
“Thatisthe reason.” I was pretty sure.
“I’m friends with Charlie and I’ve never been that concerned with her love life, let me tell you.”
