Page 158 of How to Lose at Love

“He said she was just sitting there waiting for him when he walked onto the porch, and he thought it was weird she wasn’t wearing a jacket.”

Winnie nods. “I mean, it’s like, forty degrees outside. Who doesn’t wear a jacket?”

“You. You don’t wear a jacket.”

“Well, duh, sometimes they don’t match my outfit.” She takes a napkin and spreads it out, folds it into a triangle, then sets a fork, knife, and spoon inside before rolling. “So then what?”

“Then I think I rolled my eyes? Or maybe I made a comment like, ‘Oh, I’m so sure you were thinking about how she needed a warm coat’ or something like that. I don’t remember exactly.”

“Did she kiss him?”

“I don’t think so.” I pause, doing my best to recollect his words. “He said something about her propositioning him. What do you think that meant?”

Winnie stops folding the silverware. “Like…she offered to have sex with him maybe? Girls do that all the time.”

“He said he told her he has a girlfriend.”

“Yeahhhh, they don’t care.” Winnie resumes folding. “I know a few girls who have blown the bouncers at the clubs downtown so they can get in because they’re underage.” She grimaces. “There is no club on this earth I want to be inside of bad enough to suck some sweaty dude’s dick.”

She gags.

“Agreed. Nor would I proposition someone who had a girlfriend. The fucking nerve.”

The fucking nerve is right.

“You’ve seen her, though.” My best friend defends me like no one else. “She and her friends are over there all the time, and it’s not because those three guys have great personalities. The twins aren’t even that cute.”

She pulls another face.

I know she’s exaggerating for my benefit, but it’s true that the twins do not hold a candle to their older brothers. Dallas is the spitting image of the oldest Colter, Duke.

“What are you going to do?” my friend asks gently, setting everything aside, getting serious.

“What is there to do?”

“Do you trust him?”

Do I?

I thought so.

But do I trust other people? Next-Door Tiffany has clearly earned herself a spot on the shit list, deceptive and two-faced as they come.

“I don’t know.”

Winnie nods. “Don’t you think he’s worth giving a second chance? The two of you barely got started. It hasn’t been a week since you decided to take your relationship to the next level.” She bites her lower lip. “Hardly seems fair, does it?”

No, it’s not fair.

But fate is fate, and it done us dirty.

* * *

INCOMING CALL FROM:Unknown number

Normally I would never answer an unknown number, but for whatever reason, I’m feeling bold and reckless, in the mood to spar with a telemarketer.

“Hello?”

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