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It takes several moments for me to realize my friend Piper has spoken, because, yes, I know exactly who’s looking at me. And my gaze is fully captured by the one and only Tyler Astor.
“Hello? Earth to Olivia,” Piper says and laughs as she bumps into me.
Finally, I break eye contact with Tyler and look back toward my friend, feeling slightly dazed.
“Yes... um... yes, I know who he is,” I say as I lift my drink and take a long swallow.
“Do you care to share?” Piper asks with impatience.
Shaking off the shock of seeing the man who once was my best friend, then humiliated me almost beyond repair nine years later, I’m consumed with anger. How dare this worthless bastard look at me now as if he wants to devour me whole?
A lot has changed since the last time I saw Tyler. I’ve gone from gangly to womanly, with more curves than I care to have. I enjoy wearing a little makeup, and I really enjoy doing my hair, but even so, I’m still the same person on the inside.
I’m still Olivia Truman, and I still suffer from insecurity — hell, insecurities, plural — when it comes to men.
“Okay, let me rephrase this,” Piper says, placing her hands on my shoulders and shaking them to get my attention. “Youwilltell me who he is.”
“He was my best friend when we were children — until he realized he was too cool to play with a mere girl. Then, when I was in college and working...” I trail off. This isn’t something I want to talk about.
“You mean when you were going through your geeky phase?” Piper asks.
“Thanks for being so supportive,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Just tell me what happened and I’ll be nice.”
“There’s no time,” I tell her. “It looks like he’s going to walk over. Maybe it’s my turn for a little revenge. Why should he get away with being a complete douche without suffering consequences?”
“I don’t know, Livie. Revenge never ends well.” Piper swivels around and sees Tyler heading our way.
“For the loser it doesn’t,” I say. “It’s all a matter of perspective. Just have my back.”
“I don’t know,” Piper replies. “You’re acting a little crazy right now.”
“I’m fine. I wasn’t expecting to see him — that’s all,” I tell her before taking another gulp of liquid courage.
“I think you’ve had enough to drink, Livie. I also think you should abort this mission right now.”
“I’m fine. I promise,” I say, giving my friend a determined look, but put the drink down on the table.
“Look, Livie, it’s been a lot of years since you’ve seen this guy, right? Let’s try to think through this. Maybe he isn’t the monster he once was. People change.” Piper peeks across the bar. “But you’d better make a decision, and fast.”
“The panic in your voice isn’t helping me right now, Piper. And don’t let his looks or his charm deceive you. Tyler Astor does what he wants when he wants, and he doesn’t give a damn about who gets hurt in the process. There’s no way he’s changed.”
“What in the hell happened!”
“Stop talking about it. He’s almost here. Go to the bar and flirt with the bartender, and more importantly, have faith in your best friend,” I frantically whisper.
“I’ll be watching.” With that Piper walks away.
I only have a moment to compose my features before I feel Tyler behind me. I don’t need to turn to know he’s here. Damn, the man has been blessed with more charisma than any one person deserves. It isn’t right.
He even had it back when we were kids, and later in life, when I was gangly and he was perfection in the back seat of a limo. I hadn’t realized how little, how dismissively, he thought of women. It didn’t take me too many years to figure it out — or to blossom from the long-legged, too skinny, dirt-faced young tomboy I was back then.
I haven’t spoken to Tyler in eight years. This reunion is long overdue, and my dislike of him has grown fierce with time. His mean rejection early on, his meanness wasn’t good enough. No, he had to come into my life once more and humiliate me, take my virginity, and treat me like a whore. In theory, I’d been a woman for only one year by then, but I was shy and awkward, little more than a girl, and he made it so much worse.
Well, this time, Tyler will be the one to feel something other than smugness... to be humiliated and left wanting something he can’t have.
“Good evening.”
