Page 98 of The Thorne at My Side
"I'm sorry, Chloe," I say, taking a stab in the dark.
"Cady," she corrects, trying not to show her annoyance.
"Right, Cady, I'm sorry but I'm just not in the mood tonight." I point across the table to Duncan. "He has been known to enjoy having two girls in his bed so you could try your luck there if your friend is willing to share."
"We've shared before," she shrugs and stands up from the chair with little finesse.
I stand as well because I'm not going to sit here and watch four other guys and five girls get themselves riled up. I walk to the door, slip some cash to the waiter who is standing nearby, and decide to take the car service back to the house. He'll turn around to gather the guys later.
"Austin, wait up!" Felix calls.
"I'm gonna head out," I tell him, stating the obvious.
"You okay? What's going on?"
"I'm just not in the mood for all this. I don't want a random hook up. It won't make me feel better. I want Maggie."
"Then, go get her." He says like it's the most obvious statement in the world.
"It isn't that easy." I remind him. I’m still stuck in the spiral of how interconnected our lives became. We had one of the hottest weeks of my entire life, one that I wanted to put everything else in my life on hold for. But then I ruined her first date with the guy she was expecting to fall head over heels for, who also happens to be me. Oh, and let’s not forget the small little fact that I put her out of a job.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you, but sulking like you've been doing isn't going to get the job done. You gotta figure out how to win her back."
"Back?"
"She's the girl you were fucking in thefall, right?"
"You knew?"
"Ever since I met her after my game. You had hearts falling out of your damn eyes man. It was obvious."
"Huh," I mutter out loud. "So, what now?"
"Well," Felix brings his hand to his chin in thought and stares off into space for a minute, clearly milking my vulnerability. I want to punch him in the gut. "I think it might be time for the big guns."
"Big guns?"
"Oh yeah," he says with a sly smile. "Wait here."
Felix leaves me standing by the door and goes back into the private dining room. I can hear him clap his hands loudly and tell the girls that something came up and we had men's work to do.
He comes bounding back to the front of the restaurant and claps me on the shoulders before walking me out to the curb. "This is going to be great. And FUCK YEAH," he yells and I jump, "so much better that it's on Valentine's Day. This should have been my plan from the start."
"What are you talking about?"
"You said you didn't know what to do so we're going to watch the best romance movies of all time and help you come up with a plan."
"That's ridiculous." I laugh.
"No, it's genius. Ah, look here's Rico with the car."
Turns out the big guns are Tom, Matthew, Michael, Leo, Dermot, and Darcy times two.
"See how he notices the way she is trying to hide her fear?" Emmett Turner, or ET, says as we watch Kate Hudson walk into the ballroom. Her hair is the same color as Maggie's, which is what I’m focused on. "There are so many emotions in everyone's face. Sometimes they're not even aware they're making theexpressions that give them away."
Oddly the guys have been super insightful about this. We started with Sleepless In Seattle and I thought it was outrageous that a woman would travel across the country based on a radio show. Felix proceeded to tell me it was no more outrageous than to fall for someone over text messages and to shut up and watch.
Apparently this isn't the first time these guys have called in thebig guns,as they call it. They have been on the team together for three years and have coached two guys out of the singles group through these movies.
