Page 118 of Panty Dropper

When he stayed in place and didn’t even look at me, I said his name. “Billy.”

His eyes lowered to meet mine.

When they did I whispered, “Please.”

He must’ve sensed my desperation because he took a deep breath and responded with a clipped nod of agreement.

With that fire put out, or at least turned down to a simmer, I turned and finished walking down the steps. Blaine was holding the door open for me but I strode right past him to my own car. I got in and drove to the only place I knew that I could have privacy, my room at the boarding house.

I was seething by the time I pulled up in front of the heritage house covered in ivy. When I got out I was relieved that Mrs. B wasn’t in her rocking chair out front. Not having to introduce my mother and Blaine to Mrs. B was the sole silver lining to the situation.

My mom was commenting on how quaint the exterior of the boarding house was as she and Blaine followed me to my room. I remained silent until we got inside and I shut the door.

The moment the latch clicked into place I spun around to Blaine and demanded, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“You’ve had your fun. But it’s time to come home,” he said with zero emotion. “We’re getting married tomorrow.”

“And don’t worry, Fancy. I picked up your dress,” my mom chimed in.

All of the anger and frustration I’d ever felt in my life bubbled to the surface as I stared at two of the most self-involved, self-serving, delusional people to ever exist. I shook my head as I crossed my arms so I didn’t start swinging them. The last fight I’d gotten into was when I’d socked Kenny Riser in the second grade for tripping my friend Carly. I was furious then, but I was seething now. You could take the girl out of the South but you couldn’t take the South out of the girl.

“I’m only going to say this one more time, so I need you both to really listen to me.” My eyes bounced between my mom and Blaine before stopping on him. “I am not going to marry you. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.”

“Reagan,” Blaine reached out to me.

I twisted so he couldn’t touch me. “And how did you even know where I was?”

It would be one thing if they’d shown up at the boarding house, but they’d gone to Billy’s.

“Blaine was so worried about you that he hired a private eye to come check on you.” My mom sighed like it was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard.

“Tina.” Blaine snapped, obviously knowing I would view his behavior as less romantic and more stalker.

“You had someone following me?” All the times I’d thought I felt someone watching me, I’d been right.

“He was worried about you.”

“He wasn’t worried about me, Mom! He wanted to keep tabs on me.” My arms dropped to my sides, then flew up as I shifted toward Blaine. “That’s insane. You do realize that, don’t you? We are not together. We will never be together.”

“You’re just being emotional. I know I made a mistake, but—”

“It’s not about your mistake!”

“Fancy, sweetie, just listen—”

“Mom. You need to go.” I opened the door, I could only deal with one crazy at a time. “Go take a walk or something. I need to talk to Blaine alone.”

She looked between us. Blaine nodded and she left. It was good to see, once again, where her loyalties lay.

I shut the door harder than I meant to behind her and paused for a moment to take a deep breath and collect my thoughts. I obviously needed to take a new approach. I needed to step back and stop letting my emotions take the wheel. I decided to do what I did best. Litigate. As calmly, and unaffected as I could possibly be, I began the way I would any opening argument, by stating a fact that was the foundation of my defense. “Blaine, you don’t want to marry me.”

“Yes, I do.” He argued. “I still love you. I don’t care if you had a fling. I forgive you.”

You forgive me?!

Anger flared up in me but I quickly extinguished it. I needed to remain detached if I was going to win this case. The “case” being me getting my sanity back, and getting this egocentric sociopath out of my life. Okay, he wasn’t really a sociopath, but he was definitely an egomaniac, and at the moment, that was causing me just as much grief.

“Even still, this isn’t going to work because, you don’t love me,” I calmly stated.

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