Page 7 of Unraveled

Layla’s laugh came again as she gracefully got to her feet and took Russ’s vacated chair beside me.

I immediately missed the warmth of her on top of me, but this vantage point did give me a better opportunity to study her. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Mm, I’m not sure. I didn’t mean to crash your boys’ night, but when I told Russ I was dying of boredom at our parents’ house and he offered me the chance to come play a fake girlfriend, I couldn’t resist.”

Did that mean she was leaving? “Stay. Or I’ll go with you somewhere else.” Jesus. I sounded desperate.

She quirked her perfectly arched brow. “Aren’t you in the middle of a fantasy football draft?”

“You’re right. I am.” And as a reminder, it was my turn to pick. I shouted out my next name and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget later.

Thankfully, she only smiled at my brain taking a hiatus and grabbed my beer bottle to hold it up. “May I try yours?”

“Of course.”

Her taking a sip of my IPA had to be the hottest thing I’d ever seen. She didn’t even make a face at the bitter brew.

“I’ll have the same as you’re having, then. But I’ll only stay on one condition.”

Name it. It almost came out until I realized I’d be doing myself no favors if I came off too eager. “What’s that?”

“You have to dance with me later.”

I looked beyond our group to the dance floor where a half dozen couples shuffled along to the country music. Although I wasn’t much on dancing, I wasn’t about to deny this woman anything. “You got it.”

The first order of business was to flag down the waiter to get the lady a beer. The second was to find another chair for Russ, who happily joined us a couple minutes later. I wasn’t sure if he’d be annoyed that his sister was staying, but the affectionate hug he gave her showed he didn’t mind her presence.

She took a sip of her freshly delivered beer. “So, tell me about this ex?”

Carly was the last person I wanted to talk about. “There’s not much to tell.”

Humor etched her features. “Messy breakup?”

Russ almost spit out his drink. “God, you’re nosey.”

She shrugged it off. “I call it curiosity. But you don’t have to tell your new fake girlfriend about your breakup with your ex-real-girlfriend if you don’t want to.”

Her out would’ve been easy to take, but I decided to get it over with. That way I wouldn’t have to waste another minute thinking about a college ex-girlfriend. “I don’t mind. We dated for close to a year during my senior year of college. I came home early from work to find her naked and on top of my roommate on the couch. I broke it off. She blamed me. I was in love with her enough that it hurt, but not as much as the sting of my pride. Not sure what she thought would happen tonight, but I haven’t thought of her once over the last five years.”

That wasn’t entirely true as getting cheated on had left a bitter taste and given me wariness around relationships. But Carly’s betrayal had been nothing compared to the betrayal of the person she’d cheated with.

“Why did she blame you?” Layla’s tone was light, but the question seemed deeper.

Unlike other kids in college, I’d had to work to help offset the costs of tuition and housing. Although supportive, my parents were middle class and couldn’t afford to pay for everything without my pitching in. I figured the experience helped shape my work ethic. I appreciated that my job helped pay for every credit, every grade, and every class. This motivated me to take it very seriously. Carly, on the other hand, had come from money. She’d had little respect for the fact I had to earn every penny or that my job necessarily took time away from spending it with her.

“She blamed me because she felt I wasn’t paying enough attention to her. I was working part-time while going to school.” To my mind, I’d been doing everything I could to juggle things, putting her first whenever I could. Nowadays, I made work the priority and didn’t apologize about it to anyone.

Russ snorted. “Clearly, that made Carly trip and fall on your cousin’s penis.”

I grinned. “Clearly.”

Layla picked up on the new piece of information. “Your cousin?”

Shit. The last thing I wanted was to get deeper into this conversation.

Luckily, she left it light. “That must’ve made for an interesting family dynamic.”

“You could say that.” One which would never be the same, thanks to that night.