Page 36 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
Three sets of eyes stared at me, blinking in disbelief. Rolling my eyes, I looked down, taking my appearance in. My shirt was… not great. There might be questionable stains on it that even I didn’t know the origin of, and my sweatpants had also seen better days. Okay, so it was entirely possible that I’d forgotten to change clothes for… probably too long.
But that wasn’t a reason to look at me like I was a rabid dog.
“Oh, Kota,” Liam breathed, shaking his head. “What happened?”
Why was there a lump in my throat that made it hard to swallow? I turned around so my friends couldn’t see how much trouble breathing and swallowing was and headed back inside. This, whatever it was going to be, wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have on my doorstep.
Upon entering my living room, I instantly regretted my decision. Seeing it with fresh eyes, it looked… bad. Not like I’d been wallowing in misery and self-doubts for the past six days, but rather like I hadn’t left the couch in a month. Empty pizza boxes, bags of chips, remnants of said chips on the floor, and a ton of empty soda cans. The stench… Yeah, I got why Murphy headed directly towards the windows and opened them to air out the place.
“Dakota?” Liam sat down right next to me on the couch, tentatively placing a hand on my shoulder. “What’s going on? We expected you to be angrily chopping all the wood for winter, but this… this isn’t you being angry, is it?”
Combing a hand through my hair, or rather tangling it in my slightly matted hair, I shook my head. “I’m still angry,” I grumbled. That just wasn’t my main issue at the moment.
“Which we get.” I looked up at Jason, furrowing my brows. “Really, we do.” He let out a sigh. “I’m sorry for calling you a drama queen, okay? If you’d listened to any of our voicemails or read any of our texts, you’d know how sorry we are.”
“Yeah,” Murphy reiterated, voice unusually solemn. “After you stormed off, we talked and… well, honestly, when we were back home, I still wasn’t convinced you hadn’t overreacted, so I told my mom about it, and she almost ripped my head off.”
I chuckled, picturing Murphy’s tiny mom hunting him with a wooden spoon in hand. She’d never actually hurt him, but she was a spitfire and not above threatening him with bodily harm if she thought it was warranted. In a weird way, she reminded me of Bailey. Small bodies with big personalities.
Damn, I could still see him right in front of me, his eyes sparkling with mischief, lips curled into that ever-present smile, his hair glinting in the morning sun.
“What is your face doing?” Liam pointed at my lips. “It looked like… were yousmiling?”
“No.” There was no reason to smile. I’d fucked up. Tremendously. Bailey would probably never speak to me again. Not that I’d contact him. But if I did, he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me.
“You totally were.” He shoved me lightly. “The only question is: why?”
My chest tightened. I could lie. I could tell them I’d imagined Murphy being chased by his mom and just leave everything about Bailey out, but… I didn’t have it in me. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation or maybe it was my bad conscience or I just wanted someone to fucking talk to, but the lie just wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
“Dakota? Dude?” Looking up, I saw Jason staring at me with worry in his eyes. “What’s going on?”
“It’s…”Nothing. Everything. Gripping my hair, I pulled at the strands, hoping the pain would clear my mind a little, but it just hurt without lifting any of the confusion. “I fucked up.”
“We’re used to that,” Murphy said.
Liam sent him a scathing look, then turned his attention back to me, his face softening. “How?”
Letting go of my hair, I balled my hands into fists. “The only thing he wanted was to know where we were at. And I told him I wanted a second date, but in reality, I was so conflicted about him, and now I ghosted him and I… I fucked up.”
“Uhm…” Liam blinked. “Are you talking about your date?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Who else would I be talking about? It’s been two weeks since we last saw each other. It’s not like I had months to date a thousand random people.”
“And there’s the grumpy asshole we missed so much,” Jason quipped, earning a death glare. He should be really careful; he was still on my shitlist for the whole auction thing.
“So… your last weekend wasn’t awful?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “It wasapples.”
Confused, Liam raised his brows. “You mean… it was bananas?”
“Nope. It was apples. Every-fucking-thing was apples. We stayed at an orchard, and the owners made sure no one would ever forget which kind of fruit they grew.” I rolled my eyes. It’d been ridiculous.
“But you liked your date?”
I laughed. “Bailey was…gah. He drove me crazy. Seriously, it took him less than five minutes to get me to the point where I wanted to throttle him. He’s so…enraging. He always smiles. Always. Even in his sleep. And he takes his shoes off during long car rides and thinks that’s completely normal.
“Also, his snacking habits rival any ten-year-old’s, and he overshares. A lot. I didn’t need to know about him wearing panties, but alas, he still told me like it was nothing. In public. And don’t get me started on the way he just attracts people like they’re moths and he’s the light. Seriously. Not that I wanted to be on a date with him, but it was so fucking rude that other people tried to give him their number while theythoughtwe were on a date. And Bailey didn’t even notice. He was all likeOh, he’s just being nice. Can you believe that?”
