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Although Dominic Fontana getting his ass kicked by a beaver would be worth the lifetime ban from my favorite bowling alley.
I turn and somewhere in the background the clatter of pins as someone gets a strike provides the perfect soundtrack to my heart breaking.
Mina’s got her hand on Dex’s forearm, a big smile on her face. They laugh at something he says, but her hand lingers before falling away.
How is Dex doing this?
Watching her tease him as they take their turns is worse than being set on fire and I was set on fire yesterday, so I know this for an absolute fact.
It’s time for me to face reality. She’s never loved me as anything more than a friend, and I’m an egotistical asshole for feeling entitled to her heart.
Nic’s fucking the ghost of his demonic ex-wife out of his system…maybe I need to try that strategy again. Maybe it’ll work this time.
The woman with the rose gold hair drops into the seat next to me, flashing me a smile, and I know exactly where the look in her eyes leads.
Chapter three
Mina
Myteamwon.Ididn’t have to strip to my undies, and I got the phone number of a hot twenty-five-year-old who might be Timothy-lite. Instead of feeling on top of the world as I prop a drunk Lexi against the limo and cover a drunker Charlotte’s head as she stumbles into the back, I’m miserable.
Tonight is not supposed to be like this. I’m supposed to be letting go and having fun, and this is neither.
Screw Timothy for disappearing with some random woman on our friendiversary night. He’s supposed to be with me, making me laugh, helping me forget the past and the tedium of my day-to-day life. Maybe I’ve been trying to get a little space from him tonight because I’m freaking out, but he wasn’t supposed to give me more. He wasn’t supposed to go off with someone else.
He danced with me, made me feel things I haven’t felt in years, and I don’t know what that means or what almost happened at the bar before Danny showed up, but Jesus, how fast he forgot about me when another woman came along is insulting. It meant nothing to him.
Not that I want it to mean anything, right?
I don’t know…maybe?
God, I’m a mess.
The party’s still going at the bar, but Lexi’s about to drop, and if Charlotte has one more drink, things are going to turn ugly, so we’re going home because I won’t be able to manage both of them alone.
And I am alone. It’s better this way. I want to scream at the night sky “I am perfectly happy.” Tomorrow I’m going to my boxing gym and spending an hour pummeling imaginary Timothies and I will be fine.
Just. Fucking. Fine.
“Mina!”
My heart rockets to my throat as Timothy bursts out of the bowling alley. I press a hand against my chest, taking a deep breath. I am not made for adrenaline.
Timothy makes it to me in about four long strides.
“You’re leaving without saying goodbye?” The lights from the bowling alley behind him cast his face in shadow, but I can still see the hurt in his eyes.
I turn away to help Lexi into the limo and lie. “I was going to find you once I got them in the limo.”
“Oh.” He runs a hand through his hair, glancing around. “I’ll grab Nic and we’ll go.”
Nic left an hour ago with a pretty brunette, which Timothy would know if he hadn’t disappeared with the woman with rose gold hair. “Stay.” I don’t sound half as bitter as I feel. “You were having fun.”
Timothy looks away. “Yeah,” he says absently before turning back to me. “Sorry, nothing went to plan.”
“Nothing ever does,” I say.
The grin that slips over his lips erases all the tension he’s been holding. “Let me make it up to you. Let’s do this night over. How about Friday?”
