Page 84 of Wildly Inappropriate

“Right,” I say, pulling my credit card out of the wallet that is magnetized to the back of my phone.

Caleb must realize I’m going to have to wait to pay by card, and with another look at his phone, he stands up. “Well, I’m going to take off. See ya around, Lila.”

I manage to offer him a small two-fingered wave, even though everything inside of me wants to drop my index finger and just leave the middle one. Unfortunately, I’ve felt every pair of eyes on us since we got here—small-town dating at its finest. I highly doubt anyone would blame me for the reaction, but that doesn’t mean I should be flipping my date the bird in the middle of the restaurant. For all I know, his grandma is at the table behind us.

As I walk out, I see a couple of people I know at the tables. Janice, the queen of gossip, is at a table in the back, and I know word will be out about this disaster of a date before I even get home. But honestly? I’m not even mad. I’m just relieved it’s over.

***

“How was the date?” Jameson asks from Bryn’s phone where it’s propped on my new coffee table in the house I’m renting. Bryn just arrived, bringing phone-screen Jameo with her. The gossip mill hit must have let her know I was done with my date—if we can even call that snoozefest of a dinner a date.

“Horrible,” I sigh, burying my face in my hands. “He thought you were going to stop by and was disappointed when you didn’t.”

“I’d be disappointed too if I thought I was going to see my pretty face and then I got stuck looking at you all night.”

“Blech. Caleb is all yours. The two of you can compete to see who is more obsessed with themselves.”

“So the dating isn’t going well?” Jameo asks.

“Well, I’ve been on exactly one date and it was horrible, so no. I would say it’s not going well.”

“Do you still love JT?”

“Jameo!” Bryn yells, turning the phone so he can see her disappointment.

“What?” he asks.

“We aren’t talking about you-know-who,” she chides.

I roll my eyes. “It’s fine. You can talk about JT. I stopped crying whenever someone mentioned his name like three whole days ago.” I’m joking—mostly.

“He was in the group before mine today, and while he still wouldn’t even look me in the fucking eyes, I could still tell he looks like shit. I’m worried about him.”

“Jameo!” Bryn says again. “How is that helping?”

He sighs. “I’m not really trying to help. I’m worried about my friend, and I wanted to see if Lila is okay with me spending time with him again.”

“Of course,” I say automatically, wanting to beg him to bring me with him when he does, but knowing it’s a lost cause. “I thought he was going out of his way to avoid you, though?”

“Yeah. He is. Unfortunately for him, I’m done playing that game. I’m really fucking pissed at the way he treated you, but I do believehe thinkshe’s doing it for the right reason. He’s just a fucking idiot.”

“Most men are,” Bryn says. A snort of laughter breaks through my lips, and it feels so good to finally feel an emotion that isn’t sad or angry. Or annoyed, I suppose. I definitely felt annoyed during my date tonight.

“I saw he’s going into tomorrow tied for fifth. He’s clearly been playing just as well as before.” There is a part of me that’s sad his game hasn’t suffered from our breakup. Not because I want him to do poorly, but because I want him to be as torn up by our breakup as I am. Though, maybe those couple of weeks we spent together were just that—a couple of weeks. He always meant for it to end; I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he’s not suffering because our fling followed his anticipated trajectory.

“Have you watched him play?” Bryn asks.

I shake my head. “No. I’ve just been watching Jameo’s highlights at night. I haven’t turned on live coverage of an event since Vegas.”

“He doesn’t look—” Bryn starts, but Jameo cuts her off.

“He looks like he hasn’t eaten or slept since Vegas.” It’s like he knows he’s dropping a bomb on me. Because as frustrated as I am with the man, I do still love JT, and hearing that he’s suffering is hard, especially when I know I can’t fix it. Look at what happened the one time I tried to help him—I failed epically.

I look between the concerned faces of Bryn and my brother and am not sure how to respond. I know Bryn has been sticking around Wild Bluffs at my brother’s insistence. They’re worried about how I’m handling everything, and Jameo feels bad he can’t stay with me. My parents have both called me so much that I’m worried they’re going to show up on my doorstep any day now, a midwestern care package in hand. Kelsey has brought me in on every meeting she’s had in the past three weeks, and I know it’s her way of helping me keep my mind off things. To be fair, she’s not wrong. We are in the final stage of landing this huge client, and I have been staying at the office until ten or eleven most nights, working on figuring out all the proposal schematics I don’t understand.

I’m definitely not staying late because I can’t sleep without JT next to me, so I have to be dead on my feet to have any chance of dozing off.

“I don’t know what to say.”

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