Page 78 of My Last Fling

Layna

Once I start talking, I can’t seem to stop. I tell Piper and Harlow everything. I tell them how I’d had sex with Cole the night we met and how we had sex again every time I came into town to visit Piper. I tell them about our conversations and how we both agreed it was just sex. Friends with benefits and nothing more.

I tell them about how I ended it over a month ago, before I started dating again. I even tell them about Cole agreeing to be my wingman the night we created my online dating profile, and how he’d rescued me from Dillon. My words finally trail off as I try to decide how to explain the events of last night. The last thing they knew, I was still dating Michael and planning to take him to the wedding. The thought is repellent now.

I glance back and forth between Harlow and Piper, surprised and grateful that neither of them has interrupted me to ask questions the entire time I’ve been talking. Beyond the twin looks of shock on their faces when they’d realized just how long I’ve been lying to them, they’ve kept even their opinions to themselves. Taking a deep breath, I go on.

“I broke up with Michael last night. After the boudoir shoot.”

When even this news doesn’t gain a response, I turn to Piper.

“You don’t have anything to say?”

“Michael was never the guy for you,” she says with a shrug.

My mouth drops open. “That’s it?That’swhat you’re choosing to focus on right now?”

“She’s right, though,” Harlow says. “He’s nice enough, and not bad to look at. But he’s boring. And he doesn’t want what you want.”

I turn to face Harlow now. “What do you mean, he doesn’t want what I want? How do you know?”

She makes a face. “He was always going on and on about how much he loves his place in the city. How much he loves his job and his car. It was slightly obnoxious. Plus, he didn’t seem to mind it when you weren’t around.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

She shrugs. “Just that, when you weren’t around, he wasn’t wondering where you were. He didn’t ask when you’d be back. Most people in a new relationship who are suddenly thrown into a new group of friends will want to stick beside their partner. They’re uncomfortable in the new dynamic and want to be near the person they know best. But Michael didn’t seem to care. It just seemed like he was networking all the time.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know. But you can definitely do better than that guy.”

I smile for the first time since that disastrous fight with Cole. “Thanks, Harlow.”

“Breaking up with Michael isn’t what had you crying this morning,” Piper says. We’re both aware that it’s not a question.

I shake my head. “No. It’s not.”

I suck in a deep breath and tell them the rest of it. I leave out the more sordid details from last night, but there’s no mistaking what happened between me and Cole.

“But then this morning we had a fight,” I say, my voice breaking on the words.

Had I thought I was finished crying? Turns out there are more tears left in me, after all. Piper’s arm comes around my shoulders, and she hugs me against her.

“It’s going to be okay,” she murmurs.

I know it’s what I wanted to hear, but somehow the words make me cry harder. Because she’s wrong. I don’t think I can fix what I broke this time.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I think I fucked things up for good.”

“Why don’t you tell us what happened, and we’ll be the judge of whether or not it’s fucked up,” Harlow says.

I recount the argument with Cole, including his angry words just before he’d stormed out. When I look up to meet Harlow’s gaze, she looks more thoughtful than shocked by Cole’s behavior.

“What?” I ask, nervous to hear what she thinks.

She sighs. “Well, that’s definitely out of character for Cole. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him truly angry.”

The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach grows larger, threatening to swallow me whole. Harlow has known Cole since they were children and she’s never seen him angry enough to shout the things he shouted at me this morning.

“I broke him,” I say. “I took a perfectly good man and broke him. With my vagina. What kind of a person does that?”

Harlow snorts out a laugh, but I’m feeling far from amused.