Page 114 of Tame Me

The bubbles danced around us, we sipped our cocktails, and the hours of nibbling yummy food and sipping potent drinks made me feel contented.

“So, babe, I feel like we haven’t had a girly chat in ages. Did you finish your challenge with a bang?” She giggled.

I must have screwed up my face or something because Lolly stopped laughing and raised her perfectly formed eyebrows. “Oh, wow. It looks like you have something juicy to talk about.”

I rolled my eyes. “Do you want the good news or the bad?”

With her cocktail glass held above the spa bubbles, she nodded, suddenly all serious. “Let’s start with the bad.”

I sighed. “Henry broke it off with me,” I said calmly, and to my surprise, it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.

“What?” Her eyes bulged.

As I sipped the entire Mojito, I told her everything from the mind-blowing sex with the TingleTip to Henry’s final words to me.

“You know what?”

I put my empty glass on the edge of the spa and lowered my shoulders beneath the water. “What?”

“A little piece of me just fell in love with Henry for doing that.”

“Huh?” I cocked an eyebrow at her.

“He truly is a gentleman. His selflessness saved you, babe. Many other men his age would do anything to keep a gorgeous young woman like you hanging off their arm.”

I blinked at her.

Cal placed a jug of Mojito at the edge of the spa and slipped into the water with us. He had a glass tumbler with a ginger-colored liquid that I assumed was Canadian Club, his favorite spirit.

“Come on, Jane. It’s not all bad.” Lolita frowned at me.

“I’ve wasted a whole year.”

“Like hell you have. You’ve had the best fucking year of your life. That’s not a waste. That’s just the beginning.”

Cal held his glass up. “Hear, hear, to that.”

Lolly raised her glass to me. “To new beginnings.”

“Yeah, new beginnings,” Cal said.

“Not you, stupid.” Lolly playfully slapped Cal’s arm.

“Of course, not me,” he said. “I’m happy with the same old thing.”

“Really?” Lolly jumped onto his shoulders, and when she pushed him under the water, he managed to save his drink by holding it above the bubbles.

As we refilled our drinks several times and I made the cheese platter my new best friend, the ‘crab pot’ lived up to its name.

It was nearly two in the morning when Lolita and Cal helped me out of the spa and into their spare room. Lolly shooed Cal out the door, then dressed me in one of Cal’s long T-shirts. She pulled back the bed covers, and I fell face-first into the mattress.

Giggling, she rolled me onto my side and tugged the sheet up under my chin. “Good night, babe.”

“I love you.” My tongue was like a strip of leather.

She kissed my cheek. “I love you, too.”

I closed my eyes and was pretty sure the last thing I heard before I drifted off to sleep was my own snoring.

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