Page 12 of A Quick Stop in Paradise

“How’d she manage to sneak past you that she had a girlfriend?”

Allison went bright red, silently picking up the pizza cutter and starting on her pizza. What had been a casual curiosity shot into the stratosphere, and I sat next to her.

“Allison, you’re terrible at hiding things. Did you actually know and you just don’t want to admit it?”

“No!”

“Then what was it?”

She mumbled something, cutting the pizza slower than I think I’d ever seen her do before.

“What? Girl, speak up. I’m elderly.”

“I met her… in a club.”

I paused. “You?”

“Look, can we change the subject? I’m sick of talking about them, and I want some pizza.”

“You,picked up a girl for a one-night stand in a club?”

“It wasn’t like that,” she said, fully blushing out to the tips of her ears now.

“Was it not? You met a girl in a club and had sex with her, and I assume there wasn’t a whole lot of the talking phase in between.”

“It was just—” She picked up a slice of pizza, and I had to catch her by the wrist.

“Girl, that was literally in the fire until two seconds ago. Do you want a quick trip to the burn ward?”

She set it down with a huff. “Ididn’t mean for it to be casual.”

“Oh…” I leaned back in the seat with the biggest smile spreading over my features, and she huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Shutup.”

“Star-crossed lovers ended like star-crossed lovers do, huh?”

She scrunched up her face. “I believed a girl was all the things she said she was, so I guess shame on me.”

“I’m not blaming you,you’reblaming you. She’s the shitty one just like Shane is.”

She sighed, hard, hanging her head. “I kinda gaslit myself into not telling the girlfriend because I know she wouldn’t believe me anyway. They’re both way too hot for me. She wouldn’t believe her perfect girlfriend cheated on her, especially not with me.”

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Ryan, which is that cheaters aren’t doing it because their partners aren’t hot enough or not pretty enough but because they specifically want to sleep with someone who isn’t their partner. But honestly, from the situation, yeah, it sounds like she wouldn’t believe you.”

She gave me a look. “What, just from the little bit I told you? Is it because I’m not hot enough?”

“It’s because they seem to spend every second bragging about their relationship on social media… so I’m assuming she’s the type to conflate her self-worth with her relationship status. If you tell her that her girlfriend cheated on her, she’ll probably take it as an attack on her self-worth. Which sucks and is unfair.” I cupped my drink in both hands, clinking ice cubes together, looking down into them. “But it’s still worth saying so. Not for her sake, but for your own. Better to be haunted for a week regretting saying it than haunted forever regretting not saying it.”

She wrung her hands together, looking down at them in her lap, before she mumbled, “I guess… I hadn’t really thought about it like that. Yeah. You’re not wrong.”

“Sorry that happened. It sucks when it’s just a hookup and ten times worse when it’s something you were serious about.”

“Like you’d know?” she laughed, and I puffed out my chest.

“Hey, I’ll have you know I’ve tried dating seriously before.”

“Yeah, guess you’d have been serious back when you were in youronly ever date to marry, as is holy and just, you filthy whoresphase,” she laughed.

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