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Time for another drink.
25
Mackenzie
“That’s it. We’regetting drinks tonight.”
I blink, remembering where I am, noticing Parker grimacing at me mindlessly stirring my soup. “What?”
“I actuallycannotsit here and watch you space out like a depressed zombie for another day.”
“I’m not depressed,” I lie, frowning down into my soup as I stir more aggressively.
Parker rolls his eyes. “You’ve been giving me ‘Anne Hathaway inLes Misérables’ vibes for the past week, Mackenzie.”
“I don’t understand that reference,” I mumble.
“Well, I can’t help it if you refuse to culture yourself.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m serious. You’re makingmedepressed. I’m worried about you.”
My brow knits. “I’m seriously fine.”
Ifseriously finemeans crying myself to sleep like some downtrodden heroine in a romantic comedy after being viciously dumped counts as fine, that is. But Parker doesn’t need to know about that.
“Whatever. You don’t have to cry on my shoulder or anything, but you can admit that you’re hurting.”
“What’s there to hurt about? It was a fake relationship.”
“Most people don’t take heat leave with their fake relationship,” he accuses. “And they don’t call me crying from outside a café because their fake relationship broke things off.”
“I wasn’t... crying.”
He rolls his eyes again. “Right. Sure. Regardless—We are getting drinks tonight.”
“I don’t really feel like going out,” I protest feebly.
“Well, I don’t really feel like watching you wither away in front of me because of that asshole.”
It’s strange; my first instinct is to defend Noah, even now. To tell Parker that he’s not an asshole, he’s just delivering all the things that we expected from the beginning. Why is that? Maybe it’s because I had (quite literally) just opened myself up to something more, to trying out somethingreal—only to have my entire heart stomped on in an old booth of a café I used to really enjoy. Which is a double whammy, because now I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back.
“I’m sure it’s just some hormonal bullshit,” I offer. “It’ll pass.”
“Mackenzie,” Parker sighs. “You can feed that shit to someone else, because Iknowyou. I saw you with him that day when you were going into heat. I don’t know what the fuck happened between you two when I wasn’t looking, but something changed. And it’sokayto admit that you’re hurting.”
I say nothing, setting my spoon on the cafeteria table before running my fingers through my hair, which I didn’t bother washing today. Come to think of it, I’m not really sure when I last washed it.
“Just come out with me,” Parker urges. “We can forget about men for a night.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I grumble. “Yourrelationship is going just fine.”
“And I will be happy to make up several shortcomings to bitch about over cosmos.”
My lip twitches despite it all. “Fine. Whatever. We’ll go for drinks.”
“Perfect,” Parker says happily. He checks his phone. “I have to go back. I’ll meet you when you get off?”
