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Poor guy. It wasn’t his fault the idiot had a hold of him, yet I’d ditched him twice already.
I tried to gently tug the leash from Wes, but he only glared at me and held firm.
“Sure, uh…outside, I’m assuming?” Jules asked with a soft laugh, sliding another menu behind the first.
Wes nodded, and we followed her outside. We were seated at a table for two. Max found a bowl of water, where he drank the thing dry then plopped down next to me with a groan.
“Do you want your usual drink, Wes?” Jules asked, leaning over the table. Her cleavage was conveniently on display, and it seemed like she’d popped the top button of her shirt sometime between when I walked in and now.
“Yeah, thanks, and can we have the brisket special, two plates, and an order of onion rings?”
Jules glanced at me briefly, as though she didn’t want to bring attention or awareness that I was actually here, then she gave us a quick nod before walking off.
I grabbed the cutlery and began untying the little string. “So, you come here often?”
Wes lifted the glass bottle of water and began pouring us each a cup while he smirked.
“Red, she loves this place. I come here with her and Brooks and whatever date they usually set me up on. They’ve been trying to get me to be a little more human and a lot less pissed off. They say I work too much and don’t have a personal life.”
That made me smile. Red and Brooks were adorable, and the image of Wes wedged around one of these small tables with those two and some date while they all awkwardly talked was simply hilarious. You couldn’t take Brooks anywhere, and if you added in Red, and an awkward situation, you had pure mayhem.
“What?” Wes asked, smiling at me over the brim of his cup.
“Just picturing that. I bet it was a bit much to have them set you up on dates. Did any of them stick?”
He smiled, and all that sunshine I had been missing suddenly came back, making my heart skip a beat.
“No. Red and Brooks would argue over the dumbest shit in front of the poor girls, and it always made them uncomfortable. They also never got a word in edgewise to ask me any questions. I had one girl ask me for my number afterward, just to see if I wanted to hook up.”
It wasn’t my business to know how that ended but I still asked.
“Did you say yes?”
His eyes found mine and it felt like a rock had landed in my stomach. I had fucked other people over the span of time we were broken up, it would only make sense that he had as well. Still, the idea of him with anyone else nearly sucked all the air from my lungs.
“Do you really want to know, Callie? I sure as fuck don’t want to know a single thing about anyone you’ve been with. I don’t want to know if you have someone waiting for you in DC, or if you got engaged or married. I don’t even want to know if you had some stranger kiss you on New Year’s.”
I sipped my water to help loosen the knot in my throat, letting his words wash over me and help me reassess what I wanted to say next, but it was pointless. My brain and heart were flipping me the bird tonight and saying whatever the fuck they wanted to say.
“Why? If you more than got over me like you said you did, then why would it bother you to hear about any of that?”
Wes leaned in closer, leveling me with a glare.
“Because as far as I’m concerned, they all belonged to me. Every kiss. Every moan. Every touch. Whatever you chose to do over the past seven years was all owed to me. You robbed me of an entire life, Callie. Forgive me if I don’t want to hear about some guy named Craig who showed up at your apartment at midnight, only to show up at your doorstep two more nights after that.”
Wait a second…My spine straightened as goosebumps moved down my arms.
“Or some fucker named Joe who picked you up at a farmers’ market and took you to his place, where you stayed until midnight. I certainly don’t want to know about some asshole with a cowboy hat who found you at a rodeo and thought he had the right to fuck you in the bed of his truck.”
Oh my God.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes as my nose flared.
How had he…
“Wes…” My voice cracked right as Jules showed up with our onion rings, breaking the moment. I ducked my face to hide my emotions. The tears were clouding my vision at this point, and his confession had muddied my thoughts.
Once she left, I glared up at him, my jaw tight and my face stern.
