Page 18 of Seven Year Itch

Now, hours later, back in her comfortable leggings and tee with a pitcher of margs in her stomach, she was feeling almost—well, mostly—better.

"For a white boy that man canmove." Mia took a large gulp of her drink, her eyes never leaving the screen.

Ali polished off her own glass and nodded vigorously in response to Mia's statement as she reached for the pitcher. She fell off the couch with a thud then started giggling.

Mia tore her eyes from the screen. "How'd you get down there? No more happy juice for you. Don't want to wake up with a hangover tomorrow."

Ali held up her glass. "Careful of the first step, it's a woozy." She started laughing uncontrollably, but soon her laughter turned into sobs. She buried her face in her knees and moaned. "What am I going to do?"

"No-no-no-no-no! We are not sad," Mia said.

Ali looked up at Mia through her alcohol and tear-blurred vision. She blinked a few times then got unsteadily to her feet, slamming her glass down on the coffee table. "You're right. I'm pissed. How dare that no-good, two-timing, backstabbing, um..."

"Douche-nozzle?" supplied Mia.

Ali gave her a grin. "Yeah, okay, douche-nozzle." Her grin faded. "Anyway, how dare he think he could get away with cheating on me, and I would just roll over and play dead." Ali stomped her foot and lost her balance, catching herself with a hand on the coffee table. "In fact, I'm going to call him and tell him that right now!"

"Whoa." Mia grabbed her shoulders, stopping her mad dash to her cell phone. "That's not a great idea in the state you're in. Maybe wait until you're sober. Late night drunken phone calls never end well."

Ali's shoulders slumped, and she exhaled on a sigh. "Yeah, you're right."

"I know I am. Now, sit down. You never did tell me exactly what you saw."

Ali took a deep breath. "Well, Garrett and the woman were standing really close, laughing, and he leaned in to hear her better and..." she trailed off, realizing that was the extent of her knowledge.

"And what? Did he kiss her?"

"Well, no, not exactly."

"What do you mean not exactly?"

"Well, I guess he could have kissed her. I don't know. I stopped watching because I fell into a bush."

"So you don't even know if he actually cheated?"

The alcohol wasn't helping Ali's thought process. "I don't know, ugh." Ali pulled at her hair. Was she making too much out of it? She hadn't thought so at the time, but now, looking back on it, she wasn't so sure.

Mia draped an arm around Ali's shoulders. "Things will look better in the morning. You can call Garrett and get everything straightened out."

Ali sighed. "Okay."

"Come on, let's finish our movie marathon. I'm excited to see Chris Hemsworth getting his Thor on."

≈≈≈≈

Ali groaned as she slowly opened her eyes then promptly closed them again when the sun glared into her eyeballs. She weakly brought her hand to her forehead and took a minute to get her bearings.

She remembered she was at Mia's house, which in turn had her recalling why. She moaned, rolling to her side and curling into a fetal position. She didn't think the ache would ever go away.

Garrett was her life, the other half of her soul and now she had a big empty spot in her chest she didn't think could ever be refilled.

Garrett's face flashed through her mind, his cocky smile filling her vision. She remembered the first time she'd seen that smile. She'd been a freshman and he a junior, and they'd literally run into each other at the campus bookstore. The pile of books she'd been holding had spilled to the floor, and after he'd helped pick them up, he'd given her a smile. A smile she would never forget. It hadn't taken more than a few weeks for her to lose her heart.

And he still had it. She didn't think she'd ever get it back.

With a sigh, she sat up. The house was quiet, too quiet. She saw her phone on the coffee table. Reaching for it to check the time, she saw she had a missed text.

The text was from Garrett. Her finger hovered over his name. She was scared to open it and see what it said. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tapped the screen. She counted to ten before slowly opening her eyes and after a quick scan, saw red. Heart thundering in her chest, her eyes moved back to the top to reread it slowly.

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