Page 23 of Trying Sophie

“I’m sorry, Cian. I can’t do this. Not with you.”

His jaw ticked and he took a step back.

Without another word, I rushed inside and straight up the stairs to my room. It was shitty of me to leave closing the pub to him, but I couldn’t play his games anymore. But business was slow enough that he could manage it on his own.

When I was safely back in my room with the door locked, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see I had two missed texts. The first was from my mom wanting to know when I was coming home. I deleted it without responding. If she wanted to know my plans, she could call and ask.

The second was from Declan, time-stamped an hour earlier, asking how I was. There was nothing more than friendship between Declan and me, but I still felt guilty for what had happened just now with Cian. Yes, I’d stopped his kiss, but I wondered if I’d encouraged him somehow.

Thinking it over, I decided I hadn’t and that made me angry. Two times now I’d walked away when he made a pass at me. You’d think he would have gotten the message loud and clear the first time, but maybe I needed to be more direct? I hated that he’d put me in a position where I had to be “the bad guy,” but it was time for me to tell him in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t interested.

The other thing that pissed me off was because of Cian, now I didn’t feel like getting into a flirty back and forth with Declan, the guy I was interested in.

Yeah, I’d have to have a word with him.

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