Page 58 of Resisting the Grump

What was that bullshit I’d said to Kayleigh when I was up on my high horse thinking I’d finally nabbed one of the last decent bachelors and earned the right to give other women advice? Ah yes. “The truth will set you free.” What a load of crap. Turns out the truth only sets you free if you tell it the right way. And at the right time.

Whatever. Surely, she knew better than to take advice from me. I just hoped she knew better than to mention Oliver’s name again because I dreaded how discussing this disaster would go.

“How’d your date with Oliver go?” she’d ask.

“Fine until I found out he was a lying sneak.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he used to have a stalker, but now he is one.” I shook my head. Boy did I know how to pick ’em.

To make matters worse, I didn’t deserve any sympathy. It was public knowledge that the guy gave donkeys a bad name. There was mounds of evidence! Hundreds of hours of TV footage. Thousands of scathing tweets. Countless cruel articles. He was literally known for leaving wreckage in his wake.

And I willingly ignored all of it.

Because apparently I had learned nothing since I was a teenager. Oliver Harrington was just another bad boy I fell for because the scraps he threw me made me feel special.

The thought of going to the press with his sexy texts crossed my mind, but I’d never betray his trust like that. Then again, did he ever really trust me? If he did, why wouldn’t he tell me he was my next-door neighbor?

Okay, so I get that he might’ve been embarrassed about the whole situation. Lord knows I was. That first note I sent him should’ve been signed PMS instead of Number Seven. In hindsight, I could clearly see that, but… embarrassment was no excuse. We’d slept together, for crying out loud.

Which I had. Quite enthusiastically. Frankly, I would’ve cried even louder if I’d known it was going to be the last ti—

A knock at the door interrupted my stewing.

I sat up like a shot. Had he been there the whole time? Did he think I was going to let him back in?

Another knock.

“Go AWAY.”

Silence.

Why do I not hear footsteps?

“I’m falling in love with you, Avery.”

“Don’t you dare spout nonsense right now.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Get off my stoop!” It wasn’t really a stoop, but I was too stressed to worry about semantics.

“After seeing you in that negligee. You’ll need wild horses at the very least.”

I almost smiled.

“This isn’t over.”

“Wrong!” My tone rang out more juvenile than I intended. “It is very much over.”

“We can’t be strangers.”

I set my elbows on my knees and put my head in my hands. If he’d known what I had planned for him, he definitely would’ve scarfed that cupcake and kept his mouth shut. But now, because of our mutually terrible judgment, I was busy choking on his bullshit instead of on his—

“We already aren’t.”

I stared at the peephole from across the room, realizing my adrenaline had turned to exhaustion. I’d been planning this seduction for days, and for what? For a man who obviously saw me as a mouse he could dangle over his smacking lips for sport. Thank God I found out who he really was before things went any further.

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