Page 68 of The Quit List
She’s smiling, joking around, but I find myself wanting to tell her that that’s not quite accurate. In fact, since Seb and Maddie got together, I’ve seen how marriage can almost be a good thing. Can take a totally screwed-up situation and create something beautiful, instead of the opposite.
“He’s an idiot,” Maddie declares. “So, Jax said you were on a date tonight?”
“Yup, but I don’t think there’ll be a third date. He wasn’t my guy.”
For some reason completely unbeknownst to myself, I cut in. “Holly’s looking for something long term. Someone who’s ready to settle down, but who will also challenge her. Someone who makes her laugh and goes on adventures with her and makes her feel butterflies.”
Maddie gives me a strange, slightly unnerving look. It’s a long look that stretches for several uncomfortable seconds before Holly pipes up. “Jax has been helping me out. I was kind of a hopeless case, wasted way too long on a guy it wasn’t going anywhere with.”
“Oof, I know the feeling. That cheating ex of mine was like that—it wasn’t going anywhere, though I didn’t see it at the time. He even broke up with me on TV.”
Holly looks positively outraged. As I was too, at the time. “He what? That’s awful! And I thought drunkenly kissing my boss at a work party and then having him pretend it never happened was bad.”
I just about drop the glass I’m holding. “Wait, what did you say?”
Holly blinks at me. “What?”
“You two kissed?” I ask. “When?”
In my periphery, I see Maddie giving me the side eye. I can almost picture her thinking the word “jealous” all smugly. But I’m not, I’m… confused.
“Well, many times,” Holly replies, which does nothing to lessen my confusion. “But the particular time I’m talking about happened last Christmas, you know, before I put my list of resolutions into motion.”
Didn’t she say her crush on Dylan was completely one sided?
Maddie waves a hand, impatient. “Who cares when? The point is, some men suck and some don’t.”
I ignore her, looking straight at Holly. “What am I missing here?”
“Well, I didn’t think it was relevant to tell you before, because I’m meant to be moving on, but Dylan and I used to date back in college.”
I can almost feel the ice traveling through my veins at this revelation. What the actual hell.
“I thought you said you read the situation wrong,” I say, calmly as I can.
“Yeah,” she replies with a shrug. “I must have. I was so excited after we kissed again, thought that we might have a real second chance at being together. But I was wrong. The next morning, he acted like it never happened, and I realized that kiss meant something different to me than to him.”
I study her face, so sincere—like this is somehow all her fault when to me, it sounds like he very much led her on. For years. While in a position of power as her boss.
I’m completely floored. To the point where I have no idea what to say.
Maddie, meanwhile, smiles. It’s not a smile I like.
“I have an idea!” she exclaims as she turns to Holly. “We should set you up with Aaron.”
“Aaron?” Holly asks.
“Like Seb’s teammate?” I choke out at the same time.
“Who else?” Maddie shimmies excitedly. “Holly, you’ll love him. He’s really hot, but a total sweetheart who would never kiss you then pretend it never happened.”
“With a hobby of picking up redheads,” I mutter before I can stop myself.
“Nope.” She looks at me, her expression all too innocent. “He’s turned over a new leaf. Keeps telling Seb that he wants what we have.”
Holly seems to be mulling this over. “Hot, you say.” She peeks at me, for some reason, before her gaze shoots back to Maddie. “Like, sparks and fireworks hot?”
“Definitely.” Maddie nods. “The guy’s got hella charisma and charm.”