Page 24 of My Grumpy Sweetheart
Twenty-four hours later and here I was, finding myself weirdly attracted to that annoyingly hyper ray of sunshine. The thing was: he still pissed me off. The constant happiness, the way he could give everything a positive spin.
Me casually throwing out I’d been abused by my parents?No problem, thanks for telling me. Hey, do you want to know about that one time that my mom unpacked one of my dildos?
Who did that?
And why was it infuriating and comforting at the same time?
I wanted to talk to my friends, wanted to see if Liam, Murphy, or Jason had any advice for me on how to proceed, but… I couldn’t. Okay, so maybe Bailey wasn’t as bad a person as I’d been afraid. Maybe this date-weekend wasn’t the most horrible thing that ever happened to me. But they’d still screwed up. Majorly. And I didn’t want them to think that me not completely hating my date’s guts made what they did okay.
Because it didn’t.
Closing my eyes, I tried focusing on the calmness around me instead of the chaos inside of me. There were leaves rustling in the wind, the faint sound of a wind chime, and… the buzzing of my phone.
“What?” I barked without looking who was trying to call me.
“Uhm… Mr. Nolan? Mr. Dakota Nolan?” a female voice asked. She sounded insecure and I immediately felt like an ass for being so gruff and rude to her.
“Yes. Who am I speaking to?”
I heard her sigh in relief, then she cleared her throat and powered on with newfound strength in her voice. “Hi, Mr. Nolan, this is Darcy from Smooth Getaways. We’re calling to check up on you. Our records show that you and your date picked up the rental and checked into your suite. So, I just want to make sure everything’s fine with you and your date.”
This is the opportunity to get away,my mind screamed at me.Just tell her you’re uncomfortable. They’re doing a wellness-check. Use it as an out.
It was tempting, oh, so tempting to take the easy way out, but… what would happen to Bailey? Would he face any repercussions if I told Darcy I was uncomfortable with him? He wasn’t doing anything wrong he was just so…him,and I was some.
“Mr. Nolan? Dakota? Are you okay? Are you… safe? Do you need me to call the orchard to get you out of there?”
“No, god no!” I shouted into the phone. I could already see that slimy bastard Sean getting me to safety by escorting me off the property, before walking back to console Bailey.
Over. My. Dead. Body.
“So, you’re fine? I actually need you to confirm that for me, please.”
Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. Which was probably for the best because I was having a hard time unclenching my fist at the thought of Sean swooping in, trying to make a move on my date after all.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I ground out, closing my eyes again. What was I saying? Why wasn’t I grabbing this chance to get out of the date right now with both hands? “Bailey, my date, is very nice and considerate.” The worst part? That wasn’t even a lie.
“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that.” Darcy laughed. “You won’t believe what I already had to deal with over the past few weeks. Anyway, I don’t want to keep you from your date. Have a nice weekend, Mr. Nolan.”
“Thanks.”
One second later, the line was dead, and I was staring at my phone, even more confused than before. I’d had the chance to end this farce of a date right now. But I hadn’t taken it. I had been too concerned about Bailey. Laughing, giggling, smiling, fucking annoying Bailey.
I buried my face in my hands, gripping the long strands of hair and pulling tight until it hurt.
Somehow, I’d need to survive the next twenty-four hours in Bailey’s proximity. I didn’t know how, but since I couldn’t end the date and leave him here with Sean I had to. Afterwards I could go back to my life. I could go back to my house in the woods, could go back to my lonely existence without this exasperating young man.
Piece of cake, right?
Jumping to my feet, I walked back to the B’n’B. It was almost time for the apple butter and apple sauce making class. Spoiler alert: it was basically a how long to cook apples for what results class.
Boring.
I’d much prefer to play free labor again and go pick a couple more apples. With Bailey, but without the other couples. I didn’t want to be under constant scrutiny, didn’t want to have eyes on us the entire time we tried to get to know one another. I didn’t want anyone listening in on our conversations, didn’t want nasty looks thrown our way because we were talking about dragon dicks.
But… I’d signed up for this weekend. Indirectly. In the end, I’d said I’d go. Which meant doing all the stupid couple activities I didn’t want to do.
The stairs up to our room seemed to drag endlessly until I finally reached our floor.
