Page 113 of For the Promise

The door flies open. I should have known a locked door wouldn’t keep these two out.

With help from the light in the hallway, I watch Paisley and Dakota as they enter. Paisley doesn’t hesitate. She marches straight to the light switch.

“Are you okay?” Dakota asks after Paisley shuts the door again.

“What do you think?”

She cringes. “Sorry. Stupid question.”

“I’m confused.” Paisley pushes her glasses up the nose and my stomach sinks as the gesture reminds me of Jaxon. “Did you or did you not agree to an annulment?”

“We agreed to an annulment before. When the marriage was fake. Before we started dating.” My bottom lip trembles and my eyes feel hot, but I refuse to cry. Not yet. “I guess Jaxon always thought our relationship was fake.”

Dakota grasps my hands. “No. That’s not true.”

“How do you know? Do you know he’s been ghosting me for two days?”

“There could be a number of reasons for his failure to return your messages,” Paisley says.

“Such as?”

“He got caught up in work. He dropped his phone in the toilet.”

Dakota grunts. “That happened one time. Will you let it go already?”

Paisley’s nose wrinkles. “You stuck your hand in dirty toilet water. No. I will not let it go.”

While they argue, I scan the room. Where the hell is this secret exit? This place is a speakeasy but the speakeasy part isfor tourists, right? There isn’t seriously a secret exit left over from Prohibition in here?

“It’s behind a fake wall,” Paisley says.

“Can you show me where it is? I need to get out of here.”

“I don’t want you to be alone,” Dakota says.

“I can’t be in this bar. I can’t be in the same building with the man I love who doesn’t love me back.” I sniff to stop the tears from falling. “Why didn’t he pick me? No one picks me.”

Dakota wraps her arms around me. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t. Don’t say you’re sorry.” After my parents died, all I heard was ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. They’re just words. They don’t mean anything. They don’t change anything.

“Okay. I’m not sorry. Jaxon is a complete asshole. Let’s go get drunk and forget all about him.”

I laugh as I pull away from her. “You don’t drink, and she’s pregnant.”

“We can go to your apartment and eat tons of bad food and watch scary movies instead,” Paisley suggests.

“It’s a sweet suggestion, but I really want to be alone.”

Paisley squeezes my hand. “But you’re not alone. Whatever happens between you and Jaxon doesn’t change a thing. You’re still my friend.”

“And mine,” Dakota adds. “My best friend. You can’t rescind best friend status. It’s not allowed.”

“Even if you refuse to go on a rollercoaster with me?”

She scowls. “I went on the rollercoaster.”

“And peed your pants.”

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