Page 1 of Silver Lining Love

1

WHITNEY

“Even gray clouds have silver linings. Sometimes ya just gotta squint to see them.” ~ Gamma Mary

6 MONTHS AGO

“Seriously,I don’t think this day could get any worse!” I exclaimed dramatically from the passenger seat of the Uber as huge tears slid down my face. “I walked in on my best friend and my boyfriend. In the bathroom. Having sex!”

The visual of Jasper banging Talia against the wall caused me to begin to sob uncontrollably. Again. In the short fifteen-minute drive from downtown, I’d broken down crying at least five times.

A little voice in the back of my head, asobervoice of reason, suggested my emotional breakdown might have more to do with the five tequila shots I’d had after catching my best friend having sex with my boyfriend of three months in the bathroom of the club and less to do with feeling betrayed. It also pointed out that I wasn’t actually all that surprised at discovering them in the compromising situation since they were two of the most narcissistic, self-serving humans on the planet.

But I quickly dismissed that voice. I’d been dismissing that voice all night.

If I listened to that voice, then I’d have to admit the distress I was feeling had started well before I’d walked in on Talia and Jasper doing the nasty, which it had told me right after I’d made the X-rated discovery. The voice had pointed out the only reason we’d all gone out tonight was to cheer me up after I’d lost a major brand deal due to poor engagement on my Instagram page.

Over the past year, the engagement on all my social media platforms was down thirty percent. As an influencer, if my decline continued, I was done.

It wasn’t that I needed the money. I’d been left a hefty inheritance when my Gamma Mary passed away five years ago. It was the humiliation of not being relevant anymore that had me spiraling. My entire identity was wrapped up in being Whitney in the Wild. I’d built an empire vlogging my life, and now no one seemed to care.

Pete, the driver, remained silent as the voice navigation instructed him to make the turn into my neighborhood which was in an upscale suburb of D.C. I watched as we passed the mature trees that grew in the front yards of houses that were filled with families, something I had no interest in having.

I shifted and pointed my finger at the driver. “Do you have kids, Pete?”

“Phil.”

“You has a kid called Phil?” The question sounded clear in my head, but out in the air, it sounded like I was slurring my words.

Weird.

“No, my name is Phil.”

“Oh, okay, Phil, do you have any kidses?”

His eyes sliced in my direction as he sighed. “A daughter.”

I cringed. “I don’t want kids. I’m a good aunt, a great-good aunt, a kickass aunt, but I like my niece and nephews insmalldoses.” I leaned over the console and slapped his arm. “Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes,” he said flatly. “I do.”

Hmm, that sounded a little rude, I thought as I pushed off his arm and sat back up, wondering what his problem was. My head was spinning, so I closed my eyes and leaned against the cold glass of the window. I was just starting to forget about the brand deal I’d lost, my cheating boyfriend, and my shady best friend as I drifted off into unconscious bliss when I heard a voice.

“We’re here,” Pete declared loudly as he pulled the car to a stop.

I opened my eyes and saw that we were parked in front of my house. But that wasn’t all I saw. My arm was heavy as I lifted it and pointed my finger against the glass at my next-door neighbor, Wyatt Briggs, who was lying flat on his back on a weight bench in his garage.

“I mean…Is he not the hottest thing you’ve ever seen in your life?” I hiccupped.

“He’s a very attractive man,” Pete stated flatly.

Yes, he was.

He was areal man, something I didn’t have any experience with. I’d been with boys, not men. I’d never dated amanin my life. Case in point, it was two-thirty in the morning and I was coming home, alone, from the bar, and Wyatt was working out.

We might be neighbors, but our similarities ended there. He was in his mid-thirties, and I was in my mid-twenties. In the five years I’d known him, he’d had several long-term relationships. I went through men like deodorant.

I sighed as I watched Wyatt bench-press a bar with several large weights at each end. His physique rivaled that of a gladiator. He was sex on a stick. And his stick was something I’d been fantasizing about since I’d moved next door to him five years ago. I’d done everything short of sunbathing nude on his front lawn to get his attention, but he showed zero interest in me.

---