Page 31 of Charming my Best Friend

The bartender looked over his shoulder at us as he jammed some Corona’s into a bucket of ice. “Well, you know what they say about that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You know I’m good for it.”

Lucy looked back and forth between us. “What? What do they say?”

I smiled. “They say those who drink to forget pay in advance.”

She laughed. “I see.”

The bartender lifted the packed bucket with two hands. “That policy is the only reason we’re still in business,” he said, excusing himself to deliver the Coronas.

Lucy turned towards me and tilted her head. “So you want to tell me what happened?”

“I didn’t love her,” I said. “And to be honest, I don’t think I ever did.”

She nodded and turned her attention to swirling her drink.

“Plus, I think she was cheating on me.”

Lucy looked up. “Really?”

“I wasn’t positive before I confronted her about it, but she didn’t exactly deny it.”

“I’m so sorry. That sucks.”

“I’m mostly irritated because she said it was my fault.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What?”

“I know. Apparently it’s my fault for being too trusting and making it really easy for her to go behind my back.”

“Aiden, that’s terrible.”

“I know,” I said. “My Mom thinks it’s my fault, too, like I’m defective because I can’t keep a girl happy or find someone.”

“That’s ridiculous. That’s not your problem at all.”

I laughed. “Oh really? What’s my problem then?”

“Your problem is that you set yourself up for disappointment by dating women who are really hard to please.”

“By hard to please, I’m assuming you mean high maintenance?”

“Yeah,” she said. “What you need is to find a girl who’s really busted. That way, she’ll be happy with whatever you give her and she’ll never stray or get greedy.”

“Where am I going to find a catch like that?”

Lucy looked over her shoulder at the packed tables behind us. “This looks like it might be a good place to start.”

I looked around to see if she was on to something, but all I noticed was that Lucy was by far the best looking woman in the bar.

“And if I decide I don’t want to alienate the people in my local, I suppose there’s always Tinder,” I said. “Isn’t that where you find the creeps you go out with?”

“They’re not all creeps.”

“If you say so,” I said. “Seriously, though, has anyone ever met someone they were actually compatible with using that?”

Lucy shrugged. “Fiona might have.”

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