Page 54 of Give Me Love

She reaches out and grabs the beers in my hand. “Fine.” She walks around, bringing the mouth of the can to her lips as she does.

“Yeah, I need a fucking drink too.”

She looks at me but says nothing as she opens the car door. We both slam the doors shut, and I start the car. Thunder booms above us, and I know it’s going to start raining any minute. The movie would have been ruined anyway. I maneuver us out of here and get on the main road. Reaching over, I grab the other beer in her hand.

“Bryce, you’re driving.”

“No shit,” I reply before taking a gulp.

She blows and wipes hair from her forehead in frustration. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

I look over at her just as the rain starts to come down on the windshield. “You don’t want me to talk about it right now.”

“Actually, I do. You told me you would if I got in the car.”

“I lied.”

“You lied?” she asks incredulously.

“Yeah. I fucking lied to get you in the car because for some reason you have a hard time listening to me.”

“That’s because you don’t ask. You tell. And last time I checked, you were not my father, boyfriend, or husband.”

I laugh bitterly. “If you were mine, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Just what I said.”

“Are you saying you’d spank me?”

“Yeah, I would. You need a good spanking. You’re a smartass, you don’t listen, and you pick shady guys to sleep with.”

Her eyebrows lift. “To sleep with?” She huffs. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t?” I look over at her before flicking my windshield wipers on higher. “That piece of shit back there…”

“Don’t talk about him like that. He was a good friend of mine.”

“You pick some shitty friends.”

“I guess I do.” Her lips are in a straight line.

“You’re insinuating I’m a shitty friend then?”

“Yeah. I am.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “I was defending you back there.”

“Why did I need defending? Nash has never been anything but nice to me.”

I lean my head back and laugh. “I’m sure he has.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he was probably only being nice to you so he could get in your pants.”

“So that’s the only reason a guy should be nice to me? Because he wants to get in my pants? Is that why you’re nice to me every once in a blue moon?”

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