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You should come. Mia is bored up here without you.
Looking down at my phone, I laugh. The last thing my stepsister is, is bored without me. At peace, maybe. Soaking up the undivided attention from our parents without me around, definitely. But the last thing she is, is bored.
Tempting,I respond.But if I wanted to be hissed at every ten seconds, I’d get a cat.
Be nice.
Ha. Nice? Mia and I haven’t beenniceto each other since the day we met a decade and a half ago, when she was only eight. I was in my early twenties. We really shouldn’t have had a problem with each other, considering the thirteen years between us, but as Mia grew up, she found ways of getting on every last nerve I had. She’s been nothing but an entitled brat, who isn’t content unless her presence is a constant source of torture for me.
Luckily, I can dish it out just as much as she can. And she’s not eight years old anymore.
Besides, I know Paul really wants to see you.
Dammit. She’s going to play the Paul card. My stepdad has been in and out of treatment for bladder cancer for the past couple of years. One minute he’s doing great, and the next…she says stuff like this. And it makes me worry. I should go over there more and stay in the loop, so they know I care, but life just gets in the way.
“Meet you at the bar?” Hunter asks when he comes back around, pulling my attention away from my phone. “It’s Maggie’s turn to watch the club this week.”
“Ahhh…and be the only single guy in the group again? Sounds fun. I assume Drake is bringing his flavor of the week.”
“Not sure he has one this week,” Hunter throws back. “So you’ll have him.”
I tilt my head back and raise my brows, forcing a tight-lipped smile. Hunter’s best friend, and the head of construction for the club, Drake, is a known ladies’ man and won’t be at our table more than five minutes before he declares open season on the single girls at the bar.
Thursday night drinks have been a decade-long tradition for us, but I really don’t have the energy for another couples’ night with the team. I hate to cancel on them again. It’s just…the dynamics have changed so much. It was fine when Hunter and Isabel got married because I still had Emerson. But now, he’s blissfully entangled with his secretary, Charlie, which is great. I’m happy for him.
I am.
* * *
But when I pull open the door of the bar we frequent every Thursday night, and the first thing I see is the man I have looked up to and idolized for nearly a decade sucking face with a twenty-one-year-old, like they’re in the last row of a movie theater, the bitterness starts to creep in.
“That’s enough.” I groan as I approach the table to find my best friend and his new, very young girlfriend consuming more of each other’s mouths than they are the drinks in front of them.
Charlotte blushes as she turns away from Emerson.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he says, picking up his drink, “I thought you liked to watch.”
I roll my eyes. “I like to watch sex,” I clarify. “Not whatever romantic canoodling that was.”
Charlotte’s eyes widen as she leans forward. “Wait, is that your…thing?”
“My thing?” I ask.
“Yeah…your kink.”
A lighthearted chuckle erupts from my chest. A bit simplistic, if you ask me, but I’ll humor her. “I guess you could say that. I’m a voyeur, but I thought you already knew that.”
She shrugs. “I just wanted to hear you say it.” She lifts up her hazy IPA and takes a sip, and I watch her for a second. Charlotte is one of those girls who doesn’t hold back. If she has a filter, I’m not sure she knows how to use it, which isn’t something I thought my best friend would be into, but he’s currently looking at her with the most smitten expression I’ve ever seen on that smug face of his.
It’s hard to take this shit seriously. In fact, I don’t. Call me cynical, but falling in love has to be the most delusional thing a person can do. Emerson looks happy, I’ll give him that, but honestly, how long does he think this will last? Enjoy the sex and companionship now, friend, because a few years from now, she’ll probably resent him for the way he chews and he’ll be wishing he could still prowl the club with me.
I just don’t believe that once you see the deeper, darker side of a person, you can still spout this romantic bullshit. People are flawed as fuck, and relationships are better kept short—or in my case, not at all.
And no, for the record, I am notjealous. I’m perfectly fine keeping my head on straight, without having to throw it all away for some young pair of tits and a bright smile. Just because my best friend has been hoodwinked, doesn’t mean I ever will be.
When Charlotte puts her drink down, she squints her eyes at me. “So does that mean you want to watch us?”
Emerson laughs, but I do my best not to react. “You’re the first one of my friends’ girls to ask me that. I’m still waiting for Isabel and Hunter to offer,” I joke.
