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A couple made out in the corner, the guy skimming his hand up the girl’s thigh until his fingers disappeared under the hem of her short skirt.
I rolled my eyes. There was absolutely no guy I’d met on campus this year that I could even remotely consider hooking up with. I had a bad feeling the cowboy I’d been chasing last year must’ve graduated because I hadn’t spotted him once this semester, and it was November. So that crossed all possible plans of hanky panky off my list.
There was no reason for me to hang around here at all, except I didn’t want to go home.
They were home. All disgustingly happy four of them.
My roommates.
I couldn’t even express how excited I was that my two best friends—along with their perfect, superhot boyfriends—and I were now living together under one roof so I could continually watch Paige and Tess snuggle with their men non-stop morning, noon and night for seven days a week with no rest for the weary.
The joy. Really. It was too much to even contain.
It didn’t matter that it’d been my idea for the three of us to rent an apartment together, or to sweeten the pot, I’d said, “Sure, invite your guys to live with us too.” How the devil was I to know I’d find myself existing in a hell filled with a perpetual Valentine’s Day? I mean, seriously, those two couples were so freaking in love it was maddening.
They might as well just tack a neon flashing sign to my bedroom door that said, “The Loser Loner Sleeps Here.”
It was supposed to be awesome that I’d snagged the master bedroom, which had its own private bath and walk-in closet plus a sweet view of the park across the street. But really it just felt extra huge and lonely in there all by myself while I would lie awake at night staring up at my ceiling and listening to murmured voices seep through the walls on either side of me as my coupled up best friends snuggled in for the night with their soulmates.
Plus, it also felt kind of selfish to hog the biggest room to myself since I obviously needed the least amount of space. Tess and Paige insisted I keep it, though, so each night it just stretched bigger and emptier and lonelier.
Not that I actually wanted my own boyfriend. Ick. The one time I’d tried that in high school, it’d been a disaster of epic proportions. So, yeah, no permanent man for me, thank you.
But still.
There was just something about being left out of the couple club that made me cantankerous. That made me feel lacking. This evening had been particularly unpleasant. They’d wanted to rent a movie together. Paige and Logan had curled up on the couch, Jonah and Tess had snuggled together on the love seat, and I’d been left with the lazy boy and a bowl full of popcorn to keep myself company, which I’d polished off within the first ten minutes.
Watching the two couples tangled together, kissing every few seconds, constantly touching their other half, and so obviously in love, had made me puke a little in my mouth (and made me so jealous I’d wanted to ax someone), so I’d abandoned them about five minutes after that and found my way here to this dreadfully dull frat party.
Okay, dull might be a bit of an understatement. I mean, no one else around me appeared bored, so it was probably just me, and it only seemed lifeless to me because Tess and Paige weren’t around.
I wandered into a new room as if I was searching for something or someone, though I wasn’t. I’d never felt so restless and solitary in my whole damn life. I missed hanging with my two besties.
But I was happy they were happy so I’d stop whining about that. Really. I just needed, I don’t know, something. Not a man. But something to give me a reason to wake up each morning, something to make all this living business worthwhile. A goal maybe.
Yeah, a goal sounded good, like something to work toward and keep my mind busy, aside from school and my part-time job. Something that actually interested me.
Yes, perfect. I was totally going to come up with a cool, stimulating goal. Like…some goal. I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of goal exactly, but—
When I spotted a cowboy hat from the corner of my eye, I paused everything.
Because cowboy hat? Cowboy hat!
I did a double take and my mouth fell open.
There was my goal. My cowboy.
Holy hedgehog on a Friday at church, he was here! The cowboy I’d first seen a year ago and had been hunting ever since just so I could introduce myself to him and see if the rest of him turned out to be as good as my first impression had been was standing twenty-freaking-feet away. Right in front of me.
Decked out in a cowboy hat, long-sleeved checkered top, big-ass shiny belt buckle, snug Wranglers, and perfect leather boots, he was it, everything I’d ever dreamed I wanted in a guy. His hair was dark and just long enough for the ends to curl out the edges of his hat and make him even more deadly gorgeous. And he was smart enough to be drinking from a longneck bottle, not that stale keg swill they were serving.
Had I just said I didn’t want a boyfriend? Well, forget all that, because this guy, yeah, this guy was my soulmate. I just knew it.
I know, I know. No one likes all that love at first sight BS. But just work with
me here. In my fantasies, it could be so. In reality…well, let’s not go there, because I was operating purely in fantasyland at the moment.
As I blinked repeatedly, simply gaping at him, my legs decided they no longer worked, because they weren’t moving, weren’t hurdling drunken idiots or karate kicking dancing girls out of my path to get to him. They were locked and frozen in place, unable to do much more than knock my knees together unsteadily.
