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It was one of those fancy beers.
Craft beers.
It suited his personality, if I was being honest.
A little quirky, slightly pretentious, and even though you don’t want to admit it, usually better than the normal kind.
“You’re just going to be forever single?”
Bronson opened his mouth to answer, the grin on his face letting me know it was going to be the smart-ass reply I should have expected, but before he could speak, a woman’s voice from behind me cut him off.
“Are you Valen?”
Spinning around, I found a stunning young woman standing so close behind me that I had to take a step back to keep our noses from brushing. She had a model’s body and a Disney villain’s smirk.
“I am,” I answered, suddenly feeling Bronson a little closer behind me. “Can I help you?
She nodded, placing a hand on her hip and popping it out to the side. The couple of girls behind her doing much the same as they giggled and whispered amongst themselves. I knew who they were immediately—not by name, but by action. And theirs gave off the kind ofmean- girlenergy I hadn’t experienced since high school.
“I just wanted to let you know—”
“Trina, you better bevery cautiousof the words that are about to leave your fucking lips,” Bronson warned, his voice having changed dramatically from light and playful to sharp and serious. “You don’t want to know what Reed will do—”
Trina flashed Bronson a narrowed glare as she cut him off. “This is none of your business.”
“You better believe it damn well is,” Bronson threw back, inching forward a little farther as if he was going to step in front of me. But I held my arm out, stopping him from stepping past me.
“It’s okay. It sounds like Trina has something she would like to say,” I tried, meeting Bronson’s eye. I appreciated him wanting to stand up for me, but it would be a cold day in hell before I’d let another woman think that they could walk all over me.
I returned my attention to Trina. “Go ahead.”
This woman was already agitated.
And I was stirring the pot by treating her like she was nothing.
Because to me, she was.
I didn’t know her.
I didn’t give a damn what she had to say.
But I’d let her say what she needed to get out.
“I was with Reed the night before you were married.” She stood a little taller the second she was done, acting all proud of herself like she’d dropped some kind of bomb, and I was going to run out of the room crying.
“Okaaay,” I answered with a nod. “That all?”
Bronson laughed, and Trina fired a hard glare at him over my shoulder. “I just thought you should know what kind of man you have married.”
Had Trina come over and asked for a private moment to share this information with me, with the intention of doing another woman a favor by sharing what she thought was infidelity, I probably would have thanked her and explained the entire situation so there was no confusion. But the fact that she’d brought her friends and decided to try and one-up me by telling me she slept with my ‘husband’ in front of whoever was listening meant all she was going to get was indifference.
And probably sarcasm.
“Thankfully, I already know,” I assured her. “But next time you have the urge to interfere in someone else’s relationship to make yourself feel better, maybe you should reevaluate your life choices and think about how you can lift other women up instead. Feminism!”
“Come on,” Bronson urged, wrapping his arm around my elbow and turning me away from the stuck-up bitch. The amused smile on his face caught me off guard, and I instantly started laughing.
“Seriously, do people not want me to be happy? Is that a running theme?” I questioned with a light giggle, though the joke wasn’t much of a joke.
