AllFreeNovel
Share Us
11
Nora
“Thanks for the ride, Jana,” I said.
“Anytime. It was good seeing you out, girl. We should do it again!”
“Definitely.”
I waved at her as she drove away. Apprehension still rippled through my gut. I should have called West. He’d said I could call him for anything. I should have stuffed down my pride and given him a call. But I felt like a failure and also like I wanted to kill Bryan. What a douche.
The house was dark on the inside and I blew out a breath. West must have gone to sleep already. It was only just after midnight. I’d planned to be there until bar close. If only Bryan had been as nice as he’d first appeared. This was the part of dating I hadn’t been looking forward to. Why did a guy have to seem nice and then turn out to be a prick? Could save me all the time and trouble by revealing who they were at the beginning.
I stomped up the front walk and stuck the key into the front door. The handle turned easily. He must have left it open for me. I closed the door behind me and kicked off my heels. I squeaked when I found Weston seated on the couch, the light from his phone illuminating his face.
“You’re awake! Why are you sitting in here in the dark?”
“Couldn’t sleep and decided to wait for you to get home.” He checked the time. “It’s early.”
“Yeah, well, the night wasn’t exactly a Disney movie.”
Weston came to his feet, stretching to his full height. “How so?”
I shook my head. “It’s stupid. I don’t want to get into it.”
“Nora?” he said, stopping me before I could escape. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. He just…” I sighed and crossed my arms. But he waited right there for an explanation. “He’s friends with August.”
Weston frowned. “Ah.”
“Yeah. And I guess there was some kind of…bet.” I rolled my eyes. “I can’t even finish that sentence. Some of his so-called friends were trying to see who could bag me first.”
“He told you about this?”
“Well, no. He pressured me to go home with him and didn’t exactly take kindly to me saying no.”
Weston’s eyes went flinty. “I’ll kill him.”
I put my hand on his arm. “Just leave it. It’s stupid. It’s so fucking stupid and childish. Jana was the one who confessed to the bet. She’d thought they’d all forgotten about it since it’d happened right after the breakup. But I guess not.”
“What a fucking douche bag.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Why didn’t you call me? I could have come to get you. I could have handled Bryan.”
I waved him off. “I don’t know. I wanted to be able to handle it myself. Jana drove me home.” I bit my lip. “I should have called. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, don’t apologize to me,” he said at once. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I know. I just thought I’d succeeded at this next coaching session. And it turned out, I was someone’s stupid bet,” I ground out. “He felt entitled to sleep with me because he’d bought me a few drinks.”
“Fuck,” he growled. “No guy is entitled to anything from you, Nora. And any guy who believes he is, isn’t the guy you want to sleep with. He’d end up being a selfish prick in bed.”
I shrugged with a sigh. “Wouldn’t matter anyway.”
Weston tilted his head to the side. “What does that mean?”
“I’m difficult.” The words came out on barely a breath. I couldn’t even meet his gaze as I said them. I was so embarrassed by the admission.
“What does that mean?” West prodded.
But I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to confess this to him, too. I was broken up enough about what had happened tonight. At the fact that I even needed someone to teach me how to flirt or how to date. I should have known these things. It would be worse if he knew this about me, too.
“Nothing. Forget I mentioned it.”
“Nora, you’re not difficult,” he said plainly. “That’s bullshit language used by guys who are trying to control women. It’s fucked up.”
“Not…not difficult like that,” I whispered.
