Page 4 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
Parker chuckled. “Okay, I’m not sure. What?”
Spoilsport. I rolled my eyes but couldn’t be mad. I was too happy. “Do you remember telling me to apply for that promotion like… months ago?”
“Uh, yeah.” He didn’t sound like remembered. In fact, he still sounded half asleep. “Oh shit! Did you get it?” Aaaaand now he was awake. I giggled at his sudden outburst.
“Yes! You’re talking to the new Head of Social Media Marketing. O.M.G… I still can’t believe it, but it totally happened. Joaquín — because Mr. Silva and I are on a first name basis now — called me into his office and gave this long ass speech about how my less than professional work attire was what made me great at my job. And then he offered me the promotion.”
Grabbing my coke, I shook my head. It wasn’t that I wasn’t wearing appropriate work attire, it was just that we had very different definitions of what was appropriate and professional. Fortunately, the results were apparently speaking for themselves.
“That’s great, Bailey! Seriously, I’m so happy for you. I knew you’d get it, even if Mr. Silva is a hard ass about your clothes. You’ll do great.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I can keep the clothes because, apparently, our TikTok followers love me.” I giggled. In hindsight, the kinda pained yet indulgent expression on Joaquín’s face had been priceless; I’d just been too occupied to appreciate it in the moment. But I sure as fuck did now. “The best thing? I get a raise. Like… double my current salary. It’s amazing.”
Parker laughed quietly, but there was a hint, a barely there undertone, that sounded… off. “Look at you, living the high life now. Next time we go out, burgers are on you. After all, I’m a struggling business owner now.” He chuckled. He was joking because I knew for a fact his company was doing fine.
Before answering, I put him on speaker so I could go back to Carousel and keep browsing the profiles. It shouldn’t be that hard. After all, I didn’t want to find my future husband, just someone to have a fun weekend with.
“Of coursethe burgers are on me,” I told him, rolling my eyes dramatically even though he couldn’t see it. “It’s the least I can do. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place if it hadn’t been for you. Anyway, when will you be able to sneak off to have burgers again?”
Silence.
Oh shit. I’d put my foot in my mouth — again. To be fair, Parker’s boyfriend was a controlling asshole. Unfortunately, Parker didn’t seem to see that.
“Fuck, man. When you put it like that, I realize how screwed up things were.”
“Were?” I asked, blinking at my phone in confusion. He’d used past tense… did that really mean what I thought it meant?
“Yeah. Collin and I…we broke up.”
“Thank god!” I exclaimed and let out a sigh in relief. Parker finally being rid of that asshole was possibly even better news than my promotion. Wait, not possibly — definitely. But… shit. Not empathetic. At all. “I mean… I’m really sorry for you, Parker. I know you loved that douchebag, but… yeah… I’m sorry. What happened? How are you? Do you need a night of heavy drinking instead of burgers? Because I’m in.”
Absentmindedly, I kept scrolling through the profiles, but they were all kind of… bland. Generic. Nice bodies, nice smiles, nice abs. But in the end, most of them were interchangeable.
“Wow, tell me how you really feel, man.” Parker laughed, but the exasperated affection in his tone told me he wasn’t actually mad at me. Good. Because I’d never meant to anger him. “But yeah, I know you never really liked him. Neither did my brother. I should’ve listened to you two. I clearly was fucking blind.”
Parker went silent for so long, I checked if the call was still going. “I’m doing ok. With the breakup, at least. Things are becoming clearer now that I’m not caught up in it, you know? I’m starting to see just how much of a controlling dick Collin really was. And you know, him taking all my fucking furniture when I was at my mom’s for the day was a big wake up call.”
“He did what?” I gasped. “That’s crazy. How did he even… wait, that’s not important. The important thing is that you got out of that relationship. And, hey, now you can start fresh. Get new furniture, maybe paint your apartment and style everything the wayyoulike it, not him. If you need someone to go to IKEA with you… I’ll go. And because I love you, I’ll even go on a Saturday.”
Joking was always the best option to light up a situation, right? I sure as fuck hoped so because I felt so fucking helpless talking to Parker on the phone right now. He sounded so sad, so broken… I just wanted to hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay.
“Wow, you really must love me. And I might take you up on it. Pierce offered, but I’m pretty sure we’d just end up killing each other. I’m just glad I listened to my family and never put Collin on the lease like he wanted me to in the first place.”
“Otherwise, you’d have to move in with Pierce, and if you think you won’t survive a visit at IKEA with him, you definitely won’t survive living with him.” I laughed when an idea struck. “But… seriously. Can you take a little time off work to clear your head? I’d tell you about this great bachelor auction where you bid on someone to go on a mini-vacation slash blind date with, but I do actually know that’s too soon. So, I’ll just throw the weekend-getaway part in the room.”
He should enjoy that. He didn’t need to take the guy with the… woah, that definitely was an eight pack… on a blind date. Save that guy for me. I opened his questionnaire and furrowed my brows. Thank fuck Carousel had added a section that asked about kinks to the questionnaire because holy shit, we were not compatible. Atall.
“Um, ok…that was a lot to unpack, and I have no idea what you’re talking about. Blind date auction? I’ve been out of a relationship for less than a month, Bailey…”
Closing that profile, I let out an impatient sigh. Had he even been listening to me? “Yeah, I get that. That’s why I said it’s too soon for you.”
“Okay…sorry. Spell this out for me, man. I’m not following.”
Rolling my eyes, I told him all about my encounter with Evan and the charity bachelor auction.
Meh.I sighed as I scrolled past even more of the same profile pics. Abs, smiles, abs, abs, abs. Nice, but nothing that caught my attention like… “I’m actually currently browsing through the profiles,” I added, sighing internally as I gave in and scrolled back up, hoping to hell I’d find his profile again, “and I might go for the axe murderer for funsies, but… yeah, you don’t need to know that, either. I just thought you might want to get away for a weekend to… relax. Minus the blind date part.”
“That sounds awesome, Bailey. Foryou. You really should do it. You deserve to treat yourself. Maybe skip the axe murderers, but yeah, it sounds like fun. But I think I’ll skip this one. A vacation sounds nice, but I don’t think I’m in the headspace to deal with all that right now. Plus, I just started my own business. It’s doing well enough, but I don’t know if this is the best time to get away.”
