Page 2 of Promise Not To Fall

“I’m so happy for you,” I lie, trying to smile. I do a pretty good job, if you ask me, because she honestly thinks I’m happy for her. A small portion of me is. The other portion, the much larger part, wants to stab her eyes out and then drown myself in Red Robin’s Mountain High Mudd Pie and a bottle of vodka. I may have done it a time or two in the last five weeks, and there’s no shame in it. None at all.

“Really?” Rylee beams at me, her diamond ring blinding me. “You’re excited?” She breaths out a rushed sigh of relief, like she’d been holding her breath this entire time. “I was so worried you’d be mad because your life kinda sucks at the moment.”

How goddamn nice of her to point that out to me. It takes a lot of self-control not to punch her. I smile, condescendingly. “No.” I roll my eyes, throwing back the last of my beer. “I hate you. Don’t talk to me about your perfect life.”

“Can’t you just be happy?” Rylee sticks her bottom lip out. “I know Justin is an asshole and broke up with you on Valentine’s Day,butit’s been a month, Kendall. It’s time to move on and have some fun, damn it.”

Oh, um, did I forget to mention the day he broke up with me was Valentine’s Day?

It was by design. I don’t want the memory of that awful day. I will never celebrate that useless holiday ever again.

Naturally, as any scorned woman would do, I want to blame Justin for our fallout. Screw that stupid jerk. But… if we’re being honest here, I understand I played a big role in that foul ball.

For so long I didn’t have much of anything in life. But then I was good at my job. I was respected and sought out in the business. It worked well for me with Justin because he had a busy life too. For months at a time, he was on the road and I was either with him or traveling myself.

When we were apart, I never asked questions about what he did on the road. And then one day, Valentine’s Day, he said it wasn’t working.

Now back to the present moment. Rylee’s calling me out on my shit.

In an exaggerated motion, I slam the beer bottle back down. “Thanks for the reminder,” I growl and grab my purse from the table, jetting for the door.

Wesley, Rylee’s fiancé, rolls his eyes as we walk out of the bar and down the street to our apartment complex. Wesley’s never liked me that I know of. At least the feeling’s mutual.

Wesley Stevenson is your average frat boy, and Rylee is too good for him. If you’re a car fan… she’s like a Lamborghini and he’s maybe a Lexus. That’s putting it nicely. He’d still hold up in the class department, but not comparable when it comes to speed and sleekness. I don’t even know why I’m using that as a metaphor though. I know nothing about cars.

Regardless, Rylee met him their freshman year of college at Arizona State, and they’ve been together ever since. Part of me thought it wouldn’t last, but yet here she is, showing me a two-carat diamond ring. I still don’t think it will last. There is too much about him that doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe it’s that I’m used to guys like him. Pretty, but petty. And he has a password protection on his cell phone. Red flags, honey. Red. Fucking. Flags.

I never say anything to Rylee, other than my comment earlier, because she’s always been the little sister I never had. Her happiness means everything to me. Even though I give her shit all the time.

Like now. When her ring is in my face.

“We’ll pick you up in the morning on the way to the airport,” Wesley says, looking to me for confirmation. He knows I don’t like to be told anything. I prefer to be asked.

“What time?” I ask, making sure to set the alarm on my phone as we walk. Our apartments are two blocks down the road. Phoenix is good for that. Restaurants and entertainment always within blocks of your place. And strip clubs. Oh, and taco trucks. Never a shortage there. But I’m always down for a good taco.

Rylee shivered, curling into her fiancé. Wesley lets go of Rylee’s hand and wraps his arm around her narrow shoulders. While the spring in Phoenix is beautiful, the nights get a little chilly from time to time.

“Our flight leaves at 9:00 a.m.,” Wesley tells me, rubbing Rylee’s arms as she fights to keep warm in her navy sundress. Rylee has a gently overwhelming beauty about her. Starry eyes and olive skin. I only wish I had her tiny body.

Instead, I’m pear shaped and my ass looks like it might swallow my thighs if I let it get out of hand. Probably should lay off the Mudd pie.

We stop outside my apartment. Wesley continues walking without saying goodbye. My feelings are not hurt by the dismissal.

Rylee stands there with me, smiling, barely able to control her excitement, eyes on her ring. “Can you believe this?”

“No.” I’ll admit, my mind is elsewhere, like on my own problems.

Rylee is the kind of girl who sees life as utter happiness. All of it. She finds the good in everything. She also talks constantly and has no secrets. Even the doorman at our apartments knows everything about her sparkly life.

“Say you’ll be in my wedding?”

I look at her like she’s lost her mind. “Well, I didn’t think I had a choice.” She grins, but I hold up my hand as if to stop her thoughts. If you let her, Rylee tries to play matchmaker. “But don’t go setting me up with one of his loser frat-boy friends.”

“I wouldn’t dare. I remember the last time I set you up on a date.” Her eyes widen as she speaks. “You ended up in jail.”

I stare down at my feet. “That was a misunderstanding,” I mumble.

Rylee sighs, giving me that little grin she is so good at, the one that scrunches up her nose and makes her look like she’s four again and telling off her older brother for setting fire to her Barbies. True story. “Uh-huh.”

I give her my own sigh and look at my phone, noticing it’s nearing ten. “I have to go. I need to go pack.”

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