Page 43 of A Lucky Shot

Cass tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Are you allowed to be ordering me around like this? That has to be against some union rules, right?”

“No exceptions.”

“But what if?—”

“No. Exceptions.”

“—I really like a guy?”

“Fish in the sea and all that bullshit. Besides, if he really likes you, he’ll be around when your homework is over.”

“No second dates. No exceptions.” Cass nodded and gave a helpless shrug. “What do I have to lose?”

CHAPTER NINE

CASS

“It’s not a walk of shame if you had a good time,” Jill said. She curled her legs under her in the nylon chair and leaned closer. “Who is he? Are you going to see him again?”

Cass, Libby, and their friend Rachel sat around the fire pit in Jill’s backyard in the late summer evening, sipping a now warm rosé and fishing out the dregs of potato chips from the bottom of the bag.

“No one you’ll see anytime soon,” Cass replied, truthfully. Ish.

Omissions weren’t lies.

“You should look happier if you’ve had orgasms,” Libby said, stoking the fire. “Unless he was shitty in bed and you didn’t have any.”

“No, that wasn’t an issue.” It would have been easier if it had been. He had answered her “it was good to see you, want to grab coffee?” text she’d sent the next morning with a “I’ll get back to you” hours later, then nothing else. She checked her phone again. Not like she’d reply if he’d finally said anything. “But I definitely won’t see him again.”

“If you like him and he makes you feel good, what’s the problem?” Rachel asked.

How about a hundred problems, starting with he only calls when he wants to get laid and ending with I chase after him like a dog in heat, topping it off with a healthy dollop of he might have screwed over my friend’s business.

Cass stayed silent and waited for the wine made its way to Jill’s tiny bladder, and Rachel followed her inside for more snacks. The moment the patio door closed behind them, Libby swivelled her head to Cass with narrowed eyes.

“You’ve been weird for days. What’s going on?”

Dang. She wasn’t getting out of this. Cass drew a fortifying breath.

“It was Nick,” she spewed out in a rush.

There. Done. Like ripping off a guilty little Band-Aid.

Libby paused with her glass halfway to her mouth. “Pardon?”

“I slept with Nick.” Cass sighed. “He’s back in town.”

“Oh, honey. No.” Libby mirrored Cass’s hunched posture and looked at her with imploring eyes. “Why do you do this to yourself?”

If she had the answer to that, she might be able to say no to him. She’d never been able to yet. Cass snuck a peek over her shoulder to make sure the coast was still clear. “Please don’t tell Jill.”

“Cass, don’t put me in this position …”

“Please,” she begged. “I swear that was the last time.”

Libby raised her eyebrows with the disbelief of someone who had heard that line way too many times to believe it. Cass didn’t blame her.

The patio doors swished open. Cass wiped the guilt from her face and gave Libby her please don’t say anything look. Libby just shook her head in resignation.

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