Page 34 of The One I Hate
For some, this might give them pause or make them wonder if it’s time to settle down in their lives. But not me.
I’m Simon Banks. King of the casual relationship.
Love is great and all, but I’ve never understood why people need it to feel complete. I have everything I need. Friends. Family. A job that I’m excited to go to everyday that also makes me a shit-ton of money. More money than I will ever spend on myself. Which lets me spoil the people I love. But hey, that’s my role. The fun uncle. The godfather. The wingman. It’s who I am and what I’m good at. So yes, I wake up alone—and most of the time go to sleep alone—but I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. Life is good.
Plus, the only woman who I’ve ever even considered dating seriously has now walked out of my lifetwiceafter momentsthat I thought could change everything. So yeah, I’m good on the whole dating thing.
Actually no. I’m not. Well, not the dating thing. But Charlie. Twice now she’s ran. I figured she was going to this time—I expected it—but a little part of me hoped she wouldn’t. I know we were drunk, so our inhibitions were down, but she’d be a liar if she says she didn’t feel the chemistry that ran through us that night.
But, just like I expected, I woke up the next day exhausted, sad, and pissed. It was pretty reminiscent of when she left all those years ago.
Why does she keep running? Why does she hate me? No, I don’t like her, but that’s because she doesn’t like me. And won’t tell me what the hell I did. She’s driven me fucking mad over the years, and for the life of me I don’t know what I did to make her detest me so much.
I just want answers. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.
“Actually!” Izzy chimes in. “Amelia or Betsy, I need to talk to Whitley. I’d love to hire her to put the reception together for me.”
“Easy enough,” Amelia says, taking a quick glance toward the gate. “She should be here any minute now. A friend of hers was coming into town tonight because she was going to look at a piece of property tomorrow. Oh, I remember now! Betsy, it was the caterer from her wedding. You remember her, right? I think her name is Charlie.”
What did she say?
I try not to react, but I feel my body stiffen just hearing her name. I think I’ve quit breathing.
She’s coming to look at property? What kind of property? A restaurant maybe? Is it a coincidence that tomorrow is the first day we’re showing the restaurant? Is she coming to look at it? She can’t be. But she could… Fuck, I don’t know. Emmett hasbeen the one to line up the showings, so I have no clue who is coming in. He just told me “a few.”
Is Charlie one of the few?
“Simon?” Amelia asks. “Is everything okay?”
“Yup.” Apparently I didn’t say “yup” right because now I have six sets of eyes staring at me.
“Simon,” Shane says, leaning a little closer. He’s staring me down, and I know this look. It’s the he-knows-I’m-full-of-shit look. Fuck…this man knows me too well. “Anything you want to share with the class?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing at all?”
Did I stutter? “I said no.”
“So if I say the word ‘bug’ it isn’t going to make you irrationally angry?”
I feel my blood start to boil as he says her nickname. The nickname only I use.
A hush falls over our circle. No one is breathing. No one has blinked as they stare at me, waiting for my response.
What do I say? What can I say? Because I’ve never told anyone about her. Not even Oliver, who came to Knoxville to visit me on numerous occasions in college. I sure as hell didn’t tell them about our night together.
She’s my secret. My infatuation. The girl I can’t get out of my head. The one who drove, and is driving, me crazy. The one who saw through my bullshit.
The one who left without a word. Twice.
The one who to this day is making me hate that I want her and hate that I can’t get her out of my head.
My Bug.
“Simon?” Amelia puts her hand on my knee as her soft tone comes through. “Everything okay?”
“Fuck this!”
