Page 77 of Always Been Yours

“She didn’t justthrow her coffee on him.She ripped off the lidand chucked it at him from five feet away.“ Laughing, I relax a little.

“That’s… amazing.” He chuckles at the thought and Lexi just smiles smugly from her chair across from us.

“It was,” I agree. “The only reason she didn’t get arrested, or something, was because of the two football players who were walking out behind us and heard me tell him I didn’t want to talk at least five times before she threw it. But they did eventually try to talk to me.” I take a deep breath and Grady hooks his foot around the leg of my chair, pulling me closer to him. “They said that they bonded over the fact that they felt ‘left behind’with my growing friendship with Lexi.“ She bows in her seat. “And they couldn’t forgive her for all of the ‘horrible things she did to me’.So, they did something way worse than she ever did. And blamed me.”

“And me, by association.” Lexi looks way too happy about it.

I don’t bother to go into further details with Grady. Not tonight.

I don’t want to tell him how I cried so hard that I threw up for hours. Or that Lexi had to retake the course because I couldn’t pull it together to tutor her. The only reason I passed my English course was because we had to write an essay instead of taking an exam, and Lexi finished it for me that night after I eventually fell asleep. Or how we overheard Molly at a party talking about how ‘sometimes you make a sacrifice to get what you want in the long run’. Ten fucking years of friendship only to be sacrificed for a boy who couldn’t stop partying enough to make it to the MLB. Or the weight I lost and the food I stopped eating because Brody said it was my fault that he was more attracted to other women, and any boy would feel the same. I quickly learned that he was wrong, and thosemencould get me off better than he ever did. Or how I probably would’ve taken Brody back simply for the fact that I was terrified of being alone and unloved, even if that’s exactly what I was in my relationship anyway. I was pathetic, and I don’tneed to confirm something Grady already knows.

Lexi suddenly sits up, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts. “What time is it?”

“Um.” I pull out my phone. “Almost seven.”

“Ugh,” Lexi draws out and slouches in her chair. “I have to get ready. I’ve another date tonight.”

“Another?” Grady asks.

“She went out last night,” I reply.

“Don’t even remind me of the train wreck that was last night.”

“Ooh, do tell!” I shouldn’t get so much entertainment out of the garbage fire that is Lexi’s dating life but when she’s constantly meeting the worst or weirdest people, it’s hard not to. And Lexi isn’t desperate. She’s gorgeous and intelligent and successful. She fucking knows all of that. She thinks it’s just as comical as the rest of us.

Grady looks skeptical but he has no idea the type of people Lexi has met on her journey to fuck anyone willing in the San Diego area.

“We called his mom,” she says with a straight face.

“What?” The word comes out through my chuckles of anticipation.

“What?” Grady asks at the same time, clearly suddenly invested.

Slowly she says, “We called his mom.” She cringes. “Almost immediately after we fucked—which was unfortunately so good. And he had a bedframe, four pillowsanda shower curtain.”

“What kind of people are you dating?” Grady asks but we don’t bother responding. He obviously has no idea how bleak the dating world is if we’re to believe I’m the first woman since his divorce.

“He pulled out, said how amazing it was, threw the condom away and then pulled his phone out. I didn’t even have pants on, but I know a dismissal whenI see one.”

“He wasn’t dismissing you, was he?” I try to hide my laughter behind my hand, but it spills through my fingers all the same.

“No, he didn’t dismiss me. He FaceTimed his mom to introduce her to the girl he’s dating now.” I can’t fight it anymore. Lexi’s misery washed the last bit of discomfort I was feeling from the earlier conversation, and she knows me well enough to know I needed the deflection. “I left while she was in the middle of telling him their plans for the holidays. I think she saw my bare ass, but I had to get out of there and block him.”

“And this is exactly why we made the rule that you wouldnotbe bringing dates back here.”

“Yeah, good rule. Anyway, I’m going on a date with the owner of that little fruit stand you love at the farmer’s market.”

“Wait, the girl with the agua fresca?” I go practically feral for it every time we make it to the market in La Jolla. Even just thinking about it has my mouth watering. “Please,pleaselet it be love, Lexi. I’m begging you.”

Lexi winks, “You know I love that. Get on your knees.” I kick her, laughing. To Grady she adds, “Just kidding, G. Butyoushould make her beg. I promise she will.”

I scoff but to my horror Grady sits back in his chair looking smug as hell. “Noted.” He holds his can up to cheers her.

Ugh, I would though. I so fucking would.

With that, she stands from her chair and makes her way to the door. Before she leaves us in my small sunroom, she looks over her shoulder with a sickly-sweet smile. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Once the door closes Grady looks at me with uncertainty. “I’m getting the idea that there isn’t much Lexi wouldn’t do.”

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