Page 96 of Kiss & Collide
Will stopped walking and turned to face her, eyeing her in a way that made her feel twitchy. All thatconcern.
“You sure?” he asked.
“I think I need another drink,” she muttered.
“I think you need more than a drink, but we’ll start there.”
As a waiter passed, Will snagged a glass of champagne from his tray and pressed it into her hands. “Now, wanna tell me what’s bothering you? Where’s Chase?”
At the mention of his name, she had that same breathless chest-caving-in feeling, and most alarmingly, her eyes burned … almost like she might fuckingcry. What waswrongwith her?
“Okay,” Will said on an exhale, like he could see the chaos all over her face. “Over here.” He took her by the elbow and led her through a crowd to a small side gallery. The mass of people were back there in the main hall. In this dimly lit little room, there was just the two of them and a very large piece of modern art that she didn’t understand at all.
Will crossed his arms over his chest. “Violet, I can tell you’re freaked out. What’s this about?”
God, this was embarrassing. Here she was, all cut up and full of angst over someboy. Hadn’t she spent the past three yearsworking hard to make sure she was never in this position again? “Um, I think it might be about … Chase.”
“What happened?”
“Just me being me.” She meant it to be flippant, a joke, but it didn’t come out that way.
Will said nothing. He just stood there, arms crossed, waiting her out. If she was looking for a sounding board, she wouldn’t have picked Will, but now that she thought about it, he probably had the most relevant experience.
She kept her eyes on her hands as she twisted the stem of her glass. “So, you were a manwhore once.”
He sputtered out a laugh. “Umm … I guess it’s all in your perspective—”
She shot him a glance. “You were.”
“Okay. Yeah, I guess I was.”
She tossed back half a glass of champagne in one gulp, but alcohol wasn’t helping. It tasted cloyingly sweet and wasn’t doing a goddamned thing to shut down the noise in her head, the panicky thoughts clamoring to get out. God, why was this so hard? Why did she feel like one big, exposed nerve right now?
“How did that work?” she finally forced out. “When you met Mira?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, there you were, sleeping with one girl after another, tossing them out like used tissues when you were done, and suddenly you meet the one who changed everything?”
“Jesus, you make me sound like a total dirtbag.”
“If you were, then I am, too,” she muttered.
He paused, looking closely at her. “So first of all, neither one of us is a dirtbag. We were both single, and we enjoyed being single, right?”
“I’m not apologizing for who I am, and I don’t feel bad about a single thing I’ve done. Except maybe this one thing.”
“You guys have been together for a while now, right?”
Were they? She’d fought like hell to avoid putting any sort of name to it. But now that it was over, looking back on it, yes, they had been. They’d beentogetheralmost from the beginning.
“Yes, we were. I … um. I ended it. Yesterday.”
“Why?”
“He was getting too attached. He was making decisions based on me, not on what was best for him.”
“Well, when you’re with someone, and it’s serious, usually you do factor the other person into your plans. Because it’s a partnership. You’re supposed to get attached.”
