Page 32 of The Holiday Fail

So when I heard his shower turn on, I slipped out of the house and headed to Dove’s Fountain to meet up with Jim and Austin. The place was filled with the regulars and tourists.

If this was any other day, I would be scanning the room to see if there was a hot stranger to chat up. Tourists were fine for hookups, but I tried only dating people from neighboring towns since it was easier, distance-wise.

Tonight, I couldn’t muster up the energy to even see which regulars were hanging around today. I went straight to the back and found the booth Jim and Austin had occupied.

They were practically sitting on top of each other, as usual. Seeing their mushiness had always left me wishing I could find myspecial person like they had. But tonight, the idea didn’t appeal to me.

I was just tired.

“Hey! We missed you last—are you okay?” Jim asked when I plopped down opposite them in the booth.

“I’m fine, more than fine! Just peachy!” I grumbled and accepted the glass of water Austin poured for me. And just to prove to them howjust fineI was, I stole one of his fries.

Jim and Austin shared a look of concern before Austin pushed all the appetizers closer to me. Jim topped off my water.

Great. Now they were going into papa bear mode and making sure I was being fed and watered like a child who couldn’t take care of themselves.

Well, I could take care of myself, thank you very much. I was just fine on my own.

I grabbed another fry, pointing it at them to emphasize my words. “I don’t need anyone. In fact, I’m done with the whole trying to date thing. From here on out, Levi Huxley only plays the field.”

Munching on the salty fry and the strong statement I threw out, I watched Jim wave down a waitress. “We’re gonna need something much stronger than water tonight,” he said with a glance my way, and then proceeded to order a round of shots.

Alcohol sounded like the perfect idea right now. Screw my vow to never get drunk again. That wasn’t nearly as important as the need to dull the ache inside my chest whenever I remembered the easygoing smile Andy threw at me earlier today.

He looked so collected and unaffected by last night’s kiss—a kiss that might as well have been the best one I’d ever had—and yet Andy acted like it meantnothing.

I drained a shot when the waitress brought them to our table, then snatched the second and third ones and drained those too.

The two men across from me stared at me with their mouths hanging open. Austin had his hand out toward me like he’d been about to stop me, but it was too late.

“What?” I asked, which had them instantly snapping their mouths closed.

“Nothing,” Austin squeaked, then pushed my full water glass closer toward me. I sighed and drank it just so I didn’t have to hear them nag me about staying hydrated.

“You know what we don’t need?Men. Berta was right. They only served to be used and thrown away, and I plan to live by that motto starting right now,” I said, slamming the empty glass on the table.

Austin and Jim gave each other a look again. They knew each other so well they didn’t even have to use words to communicate.

God, their love was just so…so infuriating!

I pulled the plate of fries toward me, wrapped an arm around it to claim it as mine, and started munching. At least that gave me something to focus on.

“So…I’m guessing you had a good week,” Austin said with a nervous chuckle.

“Yep. Just the greatest,” I deadpanned.

The thing was, my weekhadbeen great. The date with Andy was everything I didn’t expect it to be.

I had fun, and I felt like we had a connection with how he was opening up about his past. Everything had been great up until Andy sprinted away from me like I was poison ivy.

I squirted some mustard and ketchup on the side of the plate and used a fry to mix up the sauces. I usually liked my fries plain with salt, but since I was planning to become a new, reformed Levi, I figured why not?

Jim grimaced as he watched me make my concoction.I grinned at him as I gathered a big dollop onto the fry and popped it into my mouth. It didn’t taste as bad as it looked.

“So do you care to explain where all these,” he started, eying my ketchup-mustard disaster, “changesare coming from?”

“You know we’re always here to listen,” Austin added with a supportive nod.

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