Page 105 of Third Wheel

Beside Amy, Kincaid and Zach bristled, but this wasn’t their fight. She tightened her fingers around both of theirs.

“Yes… you did mess up,” she said slowly. She really had not expected to see Noelle here. Yes, she’d had to block the other woman’s number because she’d been calling, but she’d figuredthat would be the end of it. She sure as hell hadn’t expected Noelle to show up here, at Stronghold, where she’d already had her membership revoked. “Thank you for the apology.”

Zach snorted, but she ignored him. She wasn’t going to let Noelle back into her life, but she wasowedthat apology, dammit.

Sniffling, Noelle stepped forward, raising her arms and coming toward Amy as if she thought she was going to get a hug. Amy stepped back, shaking her head—not that she needed to go far to retreat because Kincaid and Zach practically jumped in front of her to keep Noelle from being able to reach her.

“Amy!” Noelle moved back and forth, trying to see Amy through the small space between Kincaid and Zach’s beefy arms. “I said I was sorry.”

“I heard you. I accept your apology,” Amy said stiltedly. This was… seriously? Beyond the broad shoulders in front of her, she could see the main door of Stronghold opening, and people started pouring out.

That’s right. There were cameras in the parking lot.

Great. Now, they had an audience.

“So, you’ll accept an apology but not a hug?”

“Um… no offense, but I really don’t want to hug you.” They were the first words that came to mind, and they popped out of Amy’s mouth before she could stop them, even though they were kind of mean. They were also true. “Accepting your apology does not mean we’re friends again.”

“Why not?” Noelle sounded sincerely shocked.

Amy shoved through her boyfriends, staring at Noelle. She wanted to be able to see Noelle’s full expression, wanted Noelle to be able to see hers. She didn’t need her boyfriends standing between them. She could handle Noelle on her own. Even if she wasn’t entirely on her own, with her boyfriends at her back and her friends standing in a semi-circle around the parking lot nextto Stronghold, listening to the conversation. If she needed them, they were there. Every sub in Stronghold, it looked like.

“Are you high?” Had she somehow forgotten what she’d done to Amy? “You eloped with my groom. On my wedding day.”

“I did you a favor, showing you what an asshole he is!”

“Nowhe’s an asshole? Youmarriedhim!” Not that Amy wanted him, and she did agree that he was an asshole, but Noelle was attempting to rewrite history with pure fiction.

“And now we split up.” Noelle sniffled again, lifting her hand to wipe away a sudden tear. A very convenient tear, considering a second ago she hadn’t had any. Or maybe Amy was being too cynical, but she still felt unmoved, even if Noelle really was crying. “Why do you think I’ve been trying to call you? He fooled me. He fooled me, and he used me, and I’m so sorry I betrayed you that way… but he fooled and used us both.”

Two months. They’d lasted all of two months. Suddenly, Amy felt like laughing. God, Noelle really had done her a favor, showing her not just Jeremy’s true colors but her own. They had deserved each other for the short time that they’d made each other miserable.

“I think you’re forgetting that you also fooled and used me.” Amy shook her head. “You are not my friend. I’m not sure you ever were. I’m sorry if you got hurt, but that doesn’t change how you hurt me, and it doesn’t mean we can be friends again.”

“God, what is with this place?” Noelle stomped her foot. She actually stomped her foot as she flung her arm at Stronghold—the building, though the gesture encompassed all the people now coming out of it. None of whom were looking at her with anything in the way of welcome or friendship, though she didn’t seem to care. “You come here, get dickmatized by a pervert, and then bam, you think you’re too good to be friends with me, just like Iris.”

“Everyone here is too good to be friends with you,” Rae yelled out.

Noelle jerked in surprise, as if she really hadn’t realized that the whole club had come out to listen to her. Maybe she hadn’t. They were all behind her.

Noelle spun and turned in a slow circle, taking in all the people glaring at her.

“Screw all of you,” she yelled. “You think you’re so much better than everyone else just because you do weird shit during sex.”

“Don’t be bitter about losing your membership or anything,” Lexie, the club owner’s wife, retorted with a snort. “You freaking begged us not to kick you out, or did you forget that, too?”

“You’re all a bunch of awful bullies!” Noelle shrieked. She spun around to face Amy. “Fine, you don’t want to be my friend? Fuck you then. You can go whore around with two men all you want. They’ll leave you in the end, too.”

“Shut up, Noelle,” called out Jessica, who Amy hadn’t ever really interacted with. She was standing there with her husbands, Justin and Chris. “You’re just mad Amy’s got two hotties, and you couldn’t even hold on to her leftovers.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped at that one. Jessica winked at Amy.

Noelle sputtered. Actually sputtered, her lips coming together and vibrating, little droplets of spit popping off of them. It was the most amazing thing Amy had ever seen.

“Fuck all of you!” Noelle finally came up with, yanking her car door open. “You can all go to hell.”

She pulled out of the parking lot with the window down so she could hold her middle finger high in the air, flicking them all off—but it also meant she’d be able to hear all the cheering as she went.

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