Page 12 of How to Lose at Love

“Diego sent me to break up with you,” he calls to my back, and when I turn to glance at him, I see he’s still in the middle of the sidewalk. Legs parted, arms crossed.

My steps falter.

“Sorry, dude,” he says. “He paid me to break up with you. Didn’t have the balls to do it himself.”

This time when I turn to face him, I storm forward, finger pointed in his direction. “Are you kidding me right now? Diego Lorenz would never pay someone to break up with me. We’re barely dating!” I laugh. “We barely kiss!” I point out. “We’ve never even—”

“Had sex? Yeah, I know.”

If my face wasn’t already red from the harsh wind hitting it, it would be red from embarrassment.

He told this guy we’ve never had sex? Like it’s my fault we weren’t doing it? What an asshole!

“He paid you? How much?”

Dallas shrugs his broad shoulders. “Fifty bucks.”

I can feel my eyes almost bugging out of my skull, frustration and shock widening them. “You’re going to stand there and tell me you’re so hard up for cash you took fifty bucks from some kid on your team to dump his girlfriend?”

He shrugs again. “I never said I was hard up. For anything.”

His cocky grin makes me want to pop him in the face with a towel.

“You think it’s okay to come up to some girl you’ve never met and drop a bomb like that? Neither of you considered how it was going to make mefeel?”

What if I were heartbroken? Then what would he have done?

What if I’d started to cry or get hysterical?

What if I’d had a catatonic meltdown like I’ve seen some girls do?

What if—

“Uh, judging by how pissed off you look, I feel like you’re misdirecting your anger at me instead of Diego. He’s the one you should be pissed at.”

My arms go up, then down. The jerk needs to stop interrupting my thoughts.

“Do youseehim anywhere? No. Can hardly get pissed at someone who didn’t think he had to show up for the party!” I begin stomping away. “Asshole.”

Behind me, Dallas laughs again, that dopey, loud laugh. “Are you calling me an asshole or your ex-boyfriend an asshole? Be more specific.”

The nerve of this guy! Who the hell does he think he is? What kind of guy does this, Diego notwithstanding? He took fifty dollars to dump me? We were barely going out in the first place!

Freaking guys.

This is why I was single for so long before going out with Diego, and now I know why!

The outrage!

The—

“Want a ride back to wherever it is you live?”

Wherever it is you live?Lord, this guy is terrible with words. He needs a lesson on subtlety.

“As if I’d get in a car withyou.” As the words leave my mouth, a cold shock of wind hits my face, leaving me breathless. Chills run down my lower spine, and I shiver.

“It’s going to snow. How far do you have to walk?”

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