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“Because I didn’t want to watch you do that,” Jared said, pointing at her as she spun in an exuberant circle. Andrew and Patrick kept snickering; it was rare to see Olivia really let loose like this. Normally she was so dignified, seeing her do a happy dance like Jessica or Hilary sometimes did was highly entertaining. “Do you have to be so damned happy about it?!”
“Honey, you should be glad I’m not throwing a party. So when is she calling next, so you can dump her ass?” Olivia finally sat back down, although she was grinning from ear to ear and practically bouncing in her seat. If Patrick were prone to giggling, watching her would make him giggle. Instead, he just kept smothering his laughter. Damned if he was going to let anyone accuse him of giggling.
“No idea. She hasn’t called in a week, and I haven’t bothered to call her,” Jared said with a shrug. “She obviously doesn’t care enough to call, I don’t care enough to call her to find out why… and I’m done with this shit.”
“You know we’re going to start a betting pool on whether or not you actually do it,” Andrew said. Olivia groaned.
“No, he’s not allowed to change he’s mind, he’s doing it!”
“Yeah, I am. Probably.” Jared sighed at Olivia as she glared at him. “I am, I am.”
“I don’t understand why you’re not more enthusiastic about this,” Olivia said disdainfully. “She makes you fucking miserable.”
“I still don’t like hurting her.”
“A person has to have a heart to be hurt.”
“Just shut it, Olivia,” Jared said, sounding weary. “I know your opinion, and I’m breaking up with her, so just leave it alone.”
“Fine,” Olivia said, turning her attention back to Patrick. Jared sighed, loudly, in relief, which she ignored. “Do you know what you’re going to do about Lexie?”
Patrick shrugged. “I’m going to talk to Jake on Sunday, tell him Lexie’s been training at the club and I want her. Then I’ll see if I can get her to talk to me. She didn’t answer any of my calls or texts today.”
“You mentioned that,” Andrew said, giving him a lopsided smile. “A couple of times. Are you going to tell Jake that you’ve been the one training her?”
“Maybe when he gets home,” Patrick said, wincing. He didn’t like keeping things from Jake, but he really didn’t want to go into too great of detail with her brother. “The important thing is giving him a heads up that, hopefully, by the time he gets home, Lexie and I will be in a relationship.”
“At least Skype lets you do it face to face,” Jared said, sympathetically. “It could be worse.”
“I still would have preferred to wait till he was home,” Patrick said, groaning. He leaned his head back against the couch, closing his eyes. The room was still a little out of focus, even though he hadn’t done more than take a couple sips of the beer Olivia had gotten him. “At least he’s only got a few more weeks of being overseas, and I’ve got a pretty good idea of what kind of submissive Lexie is. I think we’ll work. As long as I teach her not to pull shit like running out on me just because she’s upset, and then not talking to me afterwards. It’s going to fucking suck if I talk to Jake and then by the time he gets home, she’s still not talking to me.”
“That’s on her if she’s going to act like a child,” Andrew pointed out. Which was true, but it didn’t help the ache in Patrick’s chest. “She shouldn’t have left the club last night, and she sure as hell should have gotten back in touch with you today after you called her. Twice.”
“And texted her three times,” Jared chimed in. Even with his eyes closed, Patrick was pretty sure the other man was grinning.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I’ve mentioned that a lot,” Patrick muttered, groaning. “You guys suck.”
A companionable silence fell over the room, broken only by the ice cubes clinking in Olivia’s glass. The kind of quiet that said everyone was lost in their own thoughts for the moment. Patrick couldn’t help but fantasize about how he’d like to tan Lexie’s pert little bottom for her behavior last night and today. His phone stayed silent and still in his pocket, making him want to growl.
“I’m glad ya’ll are here,” he said, finally.
Andrew patted his leg.
“No problem, buddy.”
Not only had Patrick not come over, he hadn’t called her again either. Lexie couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for herself when she woke up on Saturday, with a giant crick in her neck from falling asleep on her love seat, and an empty phone. She really thought he’d make a bigger gesture to make things up to her, and it hurt that he hadn’t. Even so, she was still tempted to call him back now. Just to hear his voice.
Ugh.
She’d been so wrong with everything she’d said to Leigh. Had she really thought it would be so easy to hate him and be angry with him for a while, simultaneously acting like everything was normal? If only her emotions were so simple.
Yeah, she was angry. Part of her hated him a little, mostly for making her feel foolish for chasing after him for so long just to be rejected when she thought they were really getting somewhere. But that wasn’t all she was feeling. She was still wistfully engaged, fantasizing about how things could go from here, how he could make it better. Another part of her was still yearning to reach out and try to fix things herself; call him back and accept whatever he was willing to give, even if it wasn’t as much as she wanted. The anger and depression were there, but they were tempered by so many other emotions.
Groaning, she gingerly pressed her fingers to her neck where it was sore. Which, of course, only made her think about all the times she’d gotten a neck or back rub out of Patrick. He had freaking magic fingers when it came to smoothing away knots and aches. She could really use that now.
Twisting her head back and forth, being as gentle as she could, she tried to loosen up the muscles. Ow. That hurt. A lot. She could really use one of Patrick’s neck massages right now. Damn him.
Deciding a hot shower would help, she picked herself up and stepped over the mess she’d made on her floor as she headed towards the bathroom. Some tiny part of her still wanted to stop and clean everything up, make it the way she knew Patrick would like it, but she didn’t. Which was kind of dumb, because she’d found she also liked having a nice, neat apartment, so she was cutting off her own nose to spite her face, but oh well. Back to the complicated emotions, since it made her feel a strange kind of vindication even as she wanted to clean it up.
