Page 33 of The Promise Of You

The one woman.

She throws her hands in the air. “What is wrong with you?”

And I shouldn’t want her. “She’s Murphy’s niece.”

She fires back, “So?”

“So!?” How can my own sister be so aloof?

Haley’s face softens. “Oh.” She takes two steps toward me. “Gosh, Justin, you have to let that go.”

Easy for her to say. “Don’t you have tables to wipe out there?”

She ignores my jab and plants herself on a barstool. “Is it a girl? Is that why you’ve had your panties in a tizzy since you came back from Boston?”

A girl? My panties in…? “The fuck you talking about.”

“I didn’t want to say anything, but I’m not the only one seeing it. Since you came back from Boston, you’re… not yourself.”

Not this. “I have a mortgage to pay. No rent coming in.”

“Is it because Alex broke up with Chris and went back to New York?”

What is she talking about? “Business is slow.”

She waves her hand around her. “Business will pick up after the Fourth. It always does.”

My eyes keep going back to the door, to the window at the back where I last saw Clover. I feel a pull. And a weight on my chest. “How would you know?”

“Ohmygod, don’t tell me you fell for Alex. Justin, she’s… she’s Chris’s, if he can get his shit together. Is that why she left? Is that why Chris is so depressed? He lost the love of his life and his best friend at the same time! That’s not how you treat—”

The fuck is she talking about? “It’s not Alex!” I boom.

“Ha!” She jumps off her stool and slams her hand on the bar. “I knew it! It’s a girl. I knew it!!!” She throws her head back and releases a demonic laughter. “Admit it.”

“No!”

She raises a victorious eyebrow. “Colton told Grace.”

“Colton?” I narrow my eyes. I might have had an argument at the reception desk, trying to extract Clover’s real name, seeing as I had to drive my friends back home and therefore couldn’t register for the freaking conference I assumed she was attending. And Colton might have been nearby. Who cares? Can’t a man have a private life? I wait 'til I’m in fucking Boston to get laid, and my friend tells everyone in town the minute we’re back? What fucking world do we live in?

“Grace extracted it from him. We’ve been sleuthing. It wasn’t easy.”

That’s more like it.

“You are… ohmygosh.” She breaks in a fit of giggles. “You fell for a girl! Where does she live? Come on! You can tell me. I’ll help you out.”

“Help me out?”

“Yeah. You need to court her. Romance her. You had a one-night stand with her, and now you want to see her again, but you don’t know what to do. That’s where your little sister comes in. Gimme your phone. Gimme, gimme, gimme.” She wiggles her fingers toward me.

I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“Justin, seriously. Tell me. What’s her name? I won’t tell anyone, pinky promise.” She plucks her phone from her back pocket. “Just need to find out where she lives, where she hangs out, what she likes. So we can hook you back up. Get this show on the road. Come on.” She does some come-on gesture with her free hand.

Fuck me. “Where’s the aspirin?”

Haley huffs and turns up her attitude dial. “I dunno. I got tables to wipe, ’member?” She whips around, then stops with her hand on the door and turns around again. “And when you’re done moping over some slut, you might wanna apologize to the perfectly nice woman next door!”

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