Page 56 of Here's to Tomorrow

15

Hudson

“Is it weird of me to come here after last night?”

“Nah, man,” Tuck reassures me for the millionth time. “Chicks dig that shit. Plus, it’s guys’ night. We do this almost every Thursday. We just changed venues this time.”

I nod. “Right, right.”

“It’s cool, dude. I showed up at a girl’s work the day after our first date one time,” Gaige says. “I mean, yeah sure, she put a restraining order on my ass pretty quick, but it was only for thirty days. You’re good.”

Tucker and I exchange a look, then stare at Gaige in bewilderment because this is the first we’ve heard of this.

Gaige rolls his eyes. “Laugh, you fuckers. It was a joke. Ha ha. Funny.”

“That was the worst joke ever,” Tucker tells him.

“Oh, Tuck, you wound me. I can always count on you to knock me down a few pegs. Thank you,” Gaige replies sarcastically, clutching his chest.

“You’re both cracked in the head. I feel bad for your future wives and children.”

“Don’t worry.” Tucker grins. “We feel equally as bad for yours.”

I bump his shoulder. “Asshole.”

“Hey boys, what can I get for ya?”

We turn toward the voice that does not belong to Rae to find a lanky blonde. She’s only spoken eight words to me and her voice is already annoying as fuck. I can hear the fakeness dripping from it.

“We have some specials ontaptonight. Any takers?” Annoying Voice Girl asks, putting a strange emphasis on tap. She puffs her chest out and inches in way too close to me.

“Uh,justDr. Pepper for me,” I tell her with plenty of emphasis on “just”, scooting away and farther into the dark corner.

She notices my shift in direction and turns her attention to Gaige. Poor dude.

While she’s busy hitting on my two best buds, I scan the bar, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rae.

I spot her and watch as she effortlessly moves around behind the bar with a big bulky man, shelling out drinks left and right. They’re smiling easily at one another, moving around together so swiftly. I can tell from here that they’re familiar with each other.

Then, a shorter, smaller man leans over the counter and kisses the guy standing next to Rae. He then holds his fist out to Rae. She bumps it, of course. They laugh and continue to sling around drinks.

I didn’t even notice before, but there’s a dark-haired guy sitting in front of Rae. Even from the back, I can tell that it’s Perry.

She smiles at him, and my heart cracks a little.

That smile? The one she just gave a guy that isn’t me? It was easily the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen, and it wasn’tmysmile.

She leans across the bar and Perry whispers something to her. She laughs. That wasn’tmylaugh either.

I look away from them before my jealousy gets the better of me.

“You saw that too, huh?” Tucker asks.

I shrug.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. He’s probably just a friend,” Gaige tries to reason.

While I was watching Rae, they were watching me, and while they were trying to talk me away from inching closer and closer to the edge of a damn cliff, none of us were watching Perry.

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