She was perilously close to feeling sorry for herself when her phone rang. Pulling it out, she flipped it open where she stood on the sidewalk.
“Okay, what happened?” Lena asked without any kind of preamble.
Shelly sighed, trying to push Josh’s parting words and the thought of him going back to Melissa from her head.
“I need to get drunk.”
“Tell me what happened,” Lena requested again.
“Josh Daniels happened, and I need alcohol to recover.”
There was silence, and then Lena suggested. “Rachel has been bugging me about this place she goes to. She says it’s off-the-chain wild.”
See, this is what I need—a night with the girls.
“If it’s Rachel I’m sure it will be, count me in.” Shelly paused, and then asked, “What’s this place called?”
Lena laughed, and Shelly groaned, knowing it was going to be some crazy place no one had ever heard of.
“I believe she said it’s called Whipped.”
Shelly paused. What the hell?It could be fun. “Okay, call me with details.”
“Will do. Hey, Shelly?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Sure,” she said in a soft voice. “Just don’t ever fix me up again. You suck at it.”
With that, she hung up, wheeled her bag to the lobby door, and went inside to try and sleep the horrible morning away.
Josh was fuming while he made his way back to his house. He couldn’t believe Shelly had reduced their weekend to a fling.
A fling!
The woman was so pig-headed and stubborn that she couldn’t even see what was in front of her—which, of course, was him. Well, not anymore. He was not going to be one of those guys who waited around for a woman, who in the end said no, thanks and wiped her hands clean. He wanted a partner—someone to share his life with.
The problem was he also wanted Shelly.
Turning into his street, he saw the blue car still parked in his driveway. He had been hoping that maybe, just maybe, Melissa would have left.
He parked the truck into the spare space beside his home and got out, opening the door for Mutley. Melissa smiled over at him as she got out of her little car.
Josh walked over to her and demanded, “Okay, what do you want, Melissa?”
She smiled at him, reaching out to touch his arm. It was almost strange how much he wanted to pull away.
“I told you, Joshua. I want to try again.”
Josh looked to the sky and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and then looked back to Melissa, focusing on her.
“I don’t understand. It’s been months, Melissa. Why now?”
He watched as she stepped closer, and he just waited, not moving.
“Can’t we go inside?”
Clenching his jaw, Josh shook his head once. “No, we can’t go inside. You can tell me why you’ve turned up here. Did you run out of money?”
Josh watched as her brown eyes widened in feigned shock, and he couldn’t help but compare them to a startling blue pair he had come to adore. Melissa’s were suddenly lacking.
“No. What a horrible thing to say to me!”
Raising a hand, Josh ran it through his hair. “Look, Melissa. I’m tired, annoyed, and just want to go inside and get some sleep. Stop jerking me around and tell me what you want.” He paused, and then added in an annoyed tone. “Or leave.”
She looked around, and then finally her eyes came back to his. “Fine. A friend of ours saw you the other day with the blonde.”
Josh blinked once slowly, trying to comprehend what she was telling him, and then he shook his head again. “Are you serious? You came all the way here because someone told you I was out with another woman?” Beyond incredulous now, Josh demanded, “Where did they even see me? No, wait a minute. Who cares? Tell me you didn’t come back here because of that.”
She bit her bottom lip in a gesture that had once worked every time, but suddenly, all Josh could think of was a certain man-eater.
What the fuck is wrong with me? He internally berated himself and his poor choices in women. He was obviously delirious from lack of sleep.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while—how much I missed you—”
“That must have been when Dave was at home with his wife, right?” Josh asked coolly.
“Being an asshole doesn’t suit you, Joshua.”
“Well, I didn’t think being a cheater would suit you, but you made it work,” he told her, watching as she registered his words. Then, he said what he had wanted to say for years. “I wanted a life with you, Melissa. I wanted to make it work. Hell, I moved across the country to try and make it work.” Shaking his head, he looked over his shoulder and whistled at Mutley. He watched his dog’s ears prick up, and then he trotted over and sat by his legs. “It was you who chose otherwise. So, please don’t come back here, pretending to care because you heard I might be moving on. Get in your car, drive away, and please don’t ever look back.”
“But, Josh—”
“No,” he said, effectively cutting her off. “There’s nothing else to say except goodbye.”
He spun on his heel without waiting for an answer and made his way to his door. When he got there, he turned and watched as Melissa, the first woman he thought he had loved, reversed down the driveway. As she pulled away from the curb, he realized he felt nothing as she drove away. He wondered if that had anything to do with the fact that he’d left his broken heart at a certain blonde’s feet as he had driven away from her not even an hour earlier.
It had just turned 10:00 p.m. when Shelly’s intercom sounded.
Buzzing the girls up, she applied one last coat of gloss to her lips, and then headed to the door to unlock it. Several minutes later, the door opened and in walked Lena and Rachel. Shelly tried to smile at them both.
With her hair flowing over her shoulders, Lena was dressed in a tight black dress and bright red shoes. It was her go-to dress as Lena liked to joke. Hey, it works, and she looks gorgeous.
Then, Rachel moved from behind Lena and shook her head as she looked over Shelly. “No,” she told her pointedly.
“No?” Shelly questioned, looking down at her black strappy top and flirty pink skirt. “What’s wrong with it?”
Rachel rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
She was dressed tonight in a black backless halter top and skintight black leather pants. Her dark hair was pulled up in a tight, high ponytail, and the purple tips were brushing the nape of her neck.
As Rachel walked around her, Shelly noticed for the first time a wicked-looking tattoo, running vertically along the length of her spine and disappearing beneath her leather pants.
Shelly looked over to Lena, mouth hanging open, and her friend shook her head.
“I didn’t know she had it either.” Lena paused, and then chuckled. “She has a whole bunch. She was showing me on the way over here.”
Shelly turned back to look at Rachel, who was still frowning at her.
“What’s wrong with my outfit?”
“You look like you’re going to a high school dance,” Rachel told her with a smirk.
Shelly tried not to be offended. She decided if Rachel was going to turn up looking like the sexiest version of a goth dominatrix, then she needed a drink to deal with the fashion advice.