Page 100 of Accidentally Amy

When I’d come home in the middle of the day, crying and carrying my small box of belongings, my cousin had gone into full-on supportive bestie mode. He’d taken me shopping to try to help me forget about my joblessness, and then he’d called all of his nerdy friends to meet us for an epic dinner.

It’d been a good distraction, but not good enough to make menotthink about Blake.

Because how could he not have told me?

I kept rethinking everything that’d happened between us, and I just couldn’t find a way to make it okay that he didn’t warn me about the layoffs.

“Drink it, Iz!” Josh yelled over the noise of the bar, and Idid. I tossed back the Vegas Bomb, happily allowing my tipsiness to catch a buzz that I hoped would morph into full-scale drunkenness.

Because it’d been averyshitty day that I’d like to forget.

Josh and his friends forced me to play darts with them, then cards, and it wasn’t until I was sleepy and close to drunk, on the way home, that the conversation turned 100 percent in my direction.

The whole group was piled into the back of their DD’s minivan when Josh’s friend Chuck turned around in his seat and told me over the headrest that I was too good for Blake.

“I like ethics as much as the next guy, but you can’t keep a secret like that. Not if you really care about the other person.” He stroked his pencil-thin mustache and said, “You deserve better.”

Josh nodded in agreement from his spot beside me in the back row, his words just short of slurred when he said, “And he should’ve asked you before he told his boss about your relationship. Total dick move, not talkin’ to you first.”

I nodded. “Honestly, I’m dying to know what he said. Like, word for word, I want to know.”

“Ask him,” Chuck said, gesturing to my phone. “Make the asshole tell you.”

That made me giggle. “Should I?”

“Yes!”

I gnawed on my lip before unlocking the phone and texting,What exactly did you tell Brad about us?

His response was almost immediate.

Blake:I told him that I started dating you the second I saw the updated org chart because I finally could.

That sounded really good to me, even though Chuck and Josh were talking about how douchey of a move that was.

Blake:Can I please call you?

I was about to textyeswhen Josh yelled, “NO.”

“Give me that,” he said, snatching the phone from my fingers. “No matter what your ultimate decision is, you have to be aloof in the meantime. You can’t let that pecker think you’re too easy.”

I pictured Blake’s face and felt melty.Yeah—I am definitely too easy.Still, I said, “I don’t want to lose him, though.”

“You won’t,” Chuck said. “Just let him spend the night thinkinghemight loseyou.Trust us on this.”

I looked from Chuck to Josh and decided that yes, I would trust them. I sucked at love and relationships, so they had to atleastknow more than me, right?

“Fine. Keep my phone and don’t let me have it back, even if I beg.”

“Donezo.”

•••

I regretted that the minute I woke up the next morning. I reached for my phone, only to discover it’d never been returned.

Awesome.

I sat up and looked out the window, and sure enough, his car was gone. Josh had gone to work and left me phoneless.

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