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“I’m not interested in the whole one-night-stand thing, Hunter.”
“Then find yourself another long-term goal, and this time remind yourself to stay away from her damn best friend, dude.”
I groaned as I pressed my head back into my car seat.
“You know I’m right. You might not like it, but you know I am. Camilla made her choice, and it sounds like Ava has, too. It sucks, and I can hear the hurt in your voice, but you have to move on, man. Groveling is beneath you. It’s beneath anyone, really,” Hunter said.
But I wasn’t sure I could do that. I wasn’t sure I could simply move on. I wanted Ava. I knew that now more than anything. I wanted her in my arms and against my body. I wanted to wake up to her and cook breakfast with her like I hadn’t been able to. I want to cook her more dinners and peel more clothes off her and discover more things about her body, then teach her all the wonders, kinks, and fetishes of sex.
I wanted to do it all, and I wanted to do it all with her.
“Thanks for talking with me,” I said.
“Anytime. Whenever you’re ready to go celebrate your newfound freedom, hit me up. Drinks will be on me,” Hunter said.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Well, don’t sound so excited on my account.”
“If you didn’t have a dick, I’d swear you were a woman, Hunter.”
“It’s why you love me, man. Gotta go. Talk soon?”
“Yep. And drinks even sooner.”
“Atta boy.”
“Boy?” I asked
“Shut up. Get off the phone. Go do something with your life that isn’t sulking in your car in some parking garage.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” I asked.
I looked around my car as Hunter laughed at me over the speaker system.
“You’re predictable as hell, man. Catch you soon.”
Then the phone call was over and I was left with only one thought on my mind. It caused me to crank my car, speed out of the garage, and drive myself across town to work in my favorite restaurant just so I didn’t do anything else idiotic.
Ava
I walked into the strip club Camilla worked at and paid the cover charge. She wasn’t going to stand me up the way she had and get away with it. I was angry. I was hurt. I wasn’t walking away from this bar until we had an adult conversation. I took a seat in a corner chair, belly-up to the bar, and rested my forearms on it. I didn’t see her immediately. In fact, another bartender I didn’t recognize served me. I ordered an appletini and sipped on it, keeping my eyes peeled for my friend.
And when I found her, I shook my head.
The door to the back room of the bar opened, and I caught a glimpse of her. Her leg was hiked over her boss’s hip and their lips were locked in a way that made my stomach turn. They were practically devouring one another. Camilla kept swirling her tongue on the outside of his lips, and her boss was one tick away from whipping his dick out right there and fucking her against the wall. I sipped on my drink and watched as the door swung open and closed, open and closed. People were walking by them as if they were completely used to the sight, like they’d been watching it for weeks.
The revelation made me ache for Logan.
She had apparently moved on. She’d found herself someone else. And she obviously had no remorse for the things she had done. I sipped down my entire drink, watching the show as the door continued to open and close. I didn’t know what to think. Well, I did, but it was terrible. What I really thought was that she had no right to unload on me the way she had. If she and Logan had broken up and she still had feelings for him, that was one thing. If there was a chance for reconciliation, things would be different. But considering the way she was lip-locked with her boss in the back room with no apparent resolve to actually work her damn job, it was obvious she didn’t give a shit about Logan.
So why run me through the ringer over it?
I asked the bartender for another appletini just as Camilla finally came up for air. Her boss kissed down her neck, and she lobbed her head to the side. I sipped my drink and watched, just waiting for her eyes to connect with mine. When she finally fluttered them open to move back toward her boss, she saw me sitting there at the bar, watching them and waiting for her to finally come to her damn senses.
The anger in her eyes was enough to set me on edge. She marched away from her boss and tossed a rag over her shoulder before she planted her hands on the bar in front of me. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
