Page 86 of The Quit List
“Hey, bro,” I say in a friendly, almost jovial tone. He looks like the sort of guy who takes great offense to being called bro. “Willan, was it?”
More like Villain.
“Dylan.” His eyes flicker with contempt and I keep on smiling at him.
Holly suddenly steps forward between us. “My shift just ended, and I left the reports on your desk that you asked for. We’re heading out now.”
“Yes. Probably best we don’t linger in the lobby while not dressed appropriately.” Dylan’s voice is stiff, even as his eyes do a slow sweep up Holly’s body. I suddenly want to cover her up for entirely different reasons. “Where are you off to?”
“Taking Hol backpacking for a few days. We’re driving out to my cabin to spend some quality alone time out there.” I let my voice linger suggestively on the words alone time, and watch as old Dyl barely disguises a wince. I shoot him a wink. “But don’t worry, I’ll bring her back in one piece. Promise.”
Dylan’s cheeks turn an unhealthy puce. He clears his throat. “Right.”
Meanwhile, Holly sticks a finger into my side. “Let’s go, Jax. Bye, Dylan. Bye, Raq.”
I give a jaunty wave to Raquel while Holly quite literally pushes me towards the hotel’s doors.
“Yes, lovely to see you again, Raquel,” I say pointedly as I’m manhandled—no, womanhandled—out of the place.
As soon as we’re outside and around the corner of the hotel, Holly turns to me and places her hands on her hips. Her pink lips are pursed and she looks… bemused. “What was that all about?”
“What do you mean?”
She sighs impatiently. “You know what I mean. Wanna tell me why every interaction between you and Dylan is like a shoot-em-up showdown in an old western movie?”
I don’t, really. But I know Holly can handle herself, know she should hear this, so I level with her.
“Your boy Dylan is jealous.”
“I highly doubt that,” she replies.
I pop open the van’s back door and place Holly’s backpack beside mine, then help Rick up so he can get cozy in his dog bed. He usually rides shotgun, but that’s Holly’s seat for this trip. “Look, Hol, don’t you think it’s weird that he’s your ex-boyfriend, yet he compliments you every chance he gets? That he refused to promote you into an opportunity you would shine in? That he freaking kissed you at a work party and then pretended nothing happened?”
“Of course I do. But I guess I thought, up until the morning after that kiss, that this was all playing a part of our love story. I believed he was my Prince Charming, waiting for the right time for us to be together.” She screws up her face. “As I now know was very stupid.”
“Not stupid.” I push my fingers through my hair. “Thing is, I don’t think you read anything wrong with Dylan. I think he kept you waiting on purpose.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you’re good at reading people, Hol. Better than you think you are. You just… were made to doubt yourself.”
She considers this for a few moments, seeming more thoughtful than sad. “I wondered that a few times. But I trusted him. We had a history together. He was my first love—and when he broke up with me back when he graduated college, he said it was because it wasn’t our time and promised that we’d be together when the time was right.”
Wow. He’s even more slimy than I thought. Stooping as low as he needed to to get what he wanted.
It’s all too uncomfortably familiar. A story I’ve seen play out before, with no happy ending for anyone involved.
“He did you very wrong,” I reply. “I have no idea what his end goal was, but I know he’s manipulative and strategic, and he figured out how to get you in his clutches and keep you there.”
“Just out of reach.” She bites the inside of her cheek as she peers back towards the hotel doors. “So all those times that he seemed to be flirting with me…”
“He probably was,” I finish for her.
“I bet he kissed me for a reason, too,” she says, her eyes flickering with indignance. “Basically kept me on the backburner like a good little responsible back-up plan to use when and how he saw fit.”
I follow her gaze back towards the hotel as I choose my next words carefully, not wanting to add insult to injury for her. “I think the guy has a classic case of wanting what he can’t have. He strung you along, and now that he thinks he can’t have you—now that he thinks he might be losing you—he wants you more than he did before. Pathetic, when you think about it.”
“Super pathetic.” I expect Holly to follow this up with something sassy, or even go into denial, but instead, her eyes cloud over in thought. “Hmm.” She turns to face me. “But how did you see all of this in him without even knowing him?”