He seems at me then. “Humorous. Contemplating you’ve been in right here crying on my bar each evening since then, I figured she was a free agent.”

Someone else requires a drink and Beck walks away, leaving me to stew in my very own rage. I would nonetheless need to kill him, however he’s made his level. Bailey’s not mine. She and Drew are free to see different individuals. Or one another. Or any mixture thereof. The thought makes me wish to hurl.

“Drew, alternatively,” says Beck, coming again like he was by no means interrupted in any respect. “That man is precisely my sort.”

“You’ve made your level,” I say, gritting my enamel.

“That ass,” Beck says with real enthusiasm.

“I’m going to kill you.”

Beck meets my eyes, his gaze degree.

“Then perhaps you get what I’m saying,” says Beck.

“I bought it,” I say by means of my enamel.

“So why are you sitting right here sulking in my bar and driving away my enterprise?”

“Title on the constructing says Rusty’s.”

“Semantics.” The nook of his mouth turns up a little bit. I really feel the final of my aggravation seep out of my shoulders and put my head on the bar.

“I’m an fool,” I say, not bothering to sit down up.

“I do know,” he says. “However seems that exact situation isn’t at all times deadly. The query is, what are you going to do about it?”

I feel lengthy and onerous earlier than I reply. I’m nonetheless fascinated about it twenty minutes later, when Beck’s lengthy since stopped ready for me to talk and helps care for a thirsty group of sports activities followers on the opposite facet of the eating room.

Bailey advised me she wouldn’t beg, that she was finished taking scraps from males. I didn’t catch on on the time, however I’m fairly certain she wasn’t speaking about me, and even Drew. She’s had a number of critical relationships previously, and whereas I don’t know a lot about why they ended, I do know that Bailey mentioned she at all times felt unseen, like her boyfriends didn’t respect her sufficient to see her for who she actually was. If that’s the case, me calling it off when issues bought onerous most likely simply strengthened each unhealthy feeling she ever had, placing me firmly within the camp along with her exes.

That thought doesn’t sit properly. In any respect.

Bailey deserves higher. For the primary time in nineteen days as an alternative of being indignant or unhappy, I’m pleased with her for strolling away. She deserves higher than being flaked out on by some drunken asshole, even when that asshole is me.

Even Drew had the balls to face as much as his household and make them acknowledge her. He respects our relationship sufficient to place himself on the road in additional methods than one.

Our relationship. The thought feels unusual and new; each time I flip it over in my thoughts, I sit a little bit bit taller. The espresso cup in entrance of me by some means by no means goes empty, although I’ve misplaced observe of what number of occasions I’ve picked it up for a drink.

Drew deserves someone who’ll rise up for him the best way he stood up for us. They each do. So what if his household doesn’t approve? And so what if it prices me that contract with Sizzle? It hasn’t value me my viewers—not less than, not all of it. I’m nonetheless making sufficient cash to pay the payments, although these days issues have gotten a little bit skinny.

However so what? I constructed a profession out of skinny air earlier than, simply these final couple of years. I can do it once more. So the TV gig door is closed. So what? It’s finished.

Is it price closing the door to the very best relationship I’ve ever had? To the 2 finest individuals I’ve ever met?

To not point out the intercourse.

For the primary time in nineteen days, my physique stirs with curiosity, inflicting me to shift in my chair. Possibly not the very best time for that, nevertheless it’s sort of a aid to know I’m not lifeless inside. Not lifeless in any respect.

“You look higher once you’re caffeinated,” says Beck the following time he comes across the bar to high me off.

“Higher than you, that’s for certain,” I quip. Beck does a double take, then smiles.

“You would like,” he says. I snort.

The person’s bought some extent. He’s significantly sizzling. If I weren’t taken—

However I’m. And damned if that thought doesn’t carry a smile to my face for the primary time in weeks.

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