Page 131 of Last First Date

I followed Waverly through the crowd, hoping I would get the chance to finally talk to her. She’d been doing one hell of a job ignoring me all night. I needed her to know the truth about the Benjamin situation. I couldn’t let her go another minute believing I would ever be a part of something like that. I had done a lot of shitty things in my life but never anything that horrible.

I caught up with her but it was then I realized what she had just done must have come at a huge cost for her. She had to expose herself all over again in front of a group of strangers. She couldn’t have known the outcome, but she did it anyway. She didn’t know if these people would try and go after her for speaking up, but she still said it. I felt a sense of responsibility for the turmoil she had just navigated.

“Waverly,” I called out, my voice catching her attention. She turned to face me, a mixture of emotions reflected in her eyes, anger, pride, and maybe a hint of vulnerability.

“What?” she snapped.

Yep, she was still pissed at me.

“I just wanted to say,” I began, unsure how to express the conflicting feelings within me. “I didn’t know you were dealing with any of that. If I had, I would have stopped it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

She turned around and started walking again.

“Waverly, when I saw you earlier tonight, I thought you were here with him.”

“Good,” she snapped. “That was the point. I wanted him to think that as well. He really thought he was going to get me in bed.”

“There wasn’t a bet!” I blurted out.

She kept walking toward the door. I had one chance to tell her the truth. I could feel it slipping away. “I don’t know why he said that,” I continued as I trailed behind her. “There was never a bet. The word bet was never mentioned.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she spat. “Birds of a feather. I want nothing to do with your kind of birds.”

“I had no idea he was crossing those boundaries with you,” I said and moved to stand in front of her.

She sighed. “Well, now you do. Benjamin is not the person he pretends to be.”

I nodded, a shared understanding forming between us. “I know,” I said with a small smile. “Trust me, I know. Thank you for exposing him for who he truly is.”

Waverly’s gaze softened, a hint of gratitude shining through. “You don’t have to thank me. It was long overdue. I just needed someone to see through his act. I can’t imagine how many other women he’s made feel like dirt. How many women have been fired from their jobs because of lies he told when in fact, he was the offending party.”

I felt a renewed sense of respect for Waverly. She was the strongest woman I had ever met. I was so impressed by her ability to stand up for what she believed. She knew how to say no. I wished I would have been like her when I was younger. I had fallen for more than one shitty deal with a slick agent. I just took it on the chin because I didn’t want to disrupt the status quo. Not Waverly. She was never going to back down.

“You’re right,” I said. “I’m glad you’re showing people they can stand up.”

She snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure you are.”

I was surprised by her anger at me. “I am.”

“Go back and comfort your bestie,” she quipped, a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

Confusion flickered across my face. “Bestie? Benjamin is certainly not my friend, and he never has been.”

“Yeah, right. He told me you guys knew each other in high school. I don’t care. You pick your own friends. That’s none of my business. I don’t have to like them. I don’t have to tolerate them. You do you.”

“We aren’t friends! Trust me, I don’t like him any more than you do. I never have.”

“Bullshit,” she snapped. “Don’t feed me a load of crap. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.”

“You thought I was just like Benjamin, didn’t you?” I asked, my voice tinged with frustration.

“It’s not what I thought. It’s what I’ve seen.”

“You didn’t see anything,” I said. “You heard from him. I have never said I was friends with him.”

Her lip curled back with disgust. “It doesn’t matter. I truly don’t care. If I’m fired, so be it. I would rather walk away with my integrity than deal with the disrespect you’ve doled out. I will talk to Richard and tell him I got a better offer somewhere else. I won’t tell him what a jerk you’ve been. Your reputation is safe for another day, but I can’t guarantee the next woman that has to fetch your coffee will be quite as naïve as I am. She might not fall for your smooth moves and jump into bed with you. You and your buddy are going to have to find someone else to screw with.”