AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’ll be in tomorrow. Led Zeppelin on full volume. Just for you.
Dean Hargrove
Senior Associate, Novak & Novak
CHAPTERFIVE
Taylor
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”
I glanced up from my coloring book of curse words to find Kennedy wrapped in a towel with her wet hair pulled off her face by a thick headband.
“I’m sure.”
“But it’s New Year’s Eve.”
I pointed to my sushi rolls and glass of wine with my fine point aquamarine marker. “I know.”
“Come on. It’ll be fun.” She’d finagled an invitation to dinner and drinks with some vague acquaintances she knew.
“I have absolutely no desire to hang out with a bunch of twentysomethings who post TikToks all night long.”
“Don’t be so snooty. They’re my friends. And you’re not even thirty yet, don’t pretend like you’re some crotchety old lady.”
“I am,” I said, switching my marker for a petal-pink to start on the E inasshole. “And I like it.”
She plopped down next to me with a makeup kit and squirted moisturizer onto her fingers before blending it into her face. “I thought you might be going out with Axe again.”
“Ace,” I corrected. “And no.”
She hummed curiously and lifted the lid on the kit, tilting her face side to side in the reflection of the small mirror. “Why not? He was really hot.”
“Yeah, but…”
Kennedy paused in dotting foundation along her forehead to turn to me, waiting, and when I only shrugged, she circled her makeup brush in the air. “But what?”
Capping my marker, I leaned back against the couch with my wineglass. Sex had always been an outlet for me whenever I was feeling extra stressed and needed something to take the edge off.
Which was exactly what had happened.
Until it wasn’t.
Until I’d kept hearing a voice in the back of my head, one that Ihated. Until I’d combed my fingers through Ace’s hair, and the voice taunted, “Him? Seriously?” I’d closed my eyes, and all I saw was his blue gaze watching me, a bristly jaw, and a stupid crooked smile, like he knew exactly what he was doing to me.
Ruining everything.
“It was a one-time thing, that’s it,” I said eventually.
“That’s too bad,” she said, absently blending the makeup under her jawline.
I hid my huff in a sip of wine. “Not everyone falls in love in the first five minutes of meeting someone.”
“What about Dean?”
“What?” I nearly spat out my Sauvignon Blanc. “I’m not in love with Dean!”
She eyed me suspiciously. “I was asking what his deal is.”
