Page 65 of Seductive Scoundrel

“I did.”

“What’s April’s number?”

Mike looks in his phone and rhymes off a number that matches Mia’s except for the last digit. Her sloppily scrawled six must have looked like an eight, and I got Mia instead of her.

I explain everything that’s been happening while Mike quietly listens and eats more food than should be humanly possible. “So she saw your dick and pretended to be April. That’s what you’re saying.”

“It doesn’t sound as shitty when you put it that way,” I admit. “But it’s gone a lot further than being my fuck-buddy-plus-one at this point. So even if she was going along with the charade for a bit of fun, it doesn’t explain why she kept lying to me after it became clear we were more than what we ever intended to be.”

Unless she doesn’t see it that way and I’ve been fooling myself. But I know how she looks at me, and I can read her like a book. She isn’t bullshitting – she’s falling for me just as hard, but didn’t want me to realize she wasn’t the girl I thought I wanted.

Mike knows how I feel about lying. I’ve cut people out of my life for smaller lies than Mia’s. She wasn’t honest about her goddamnidentity,and I won’t tolerate a missed deadline without the appropriate heads up.

“How much do you like this girl?” he asks quietly.

“Not enough to deal with bullshit.”

“You’ve never had a girl over to your place, let alone taken one away for the weekend. Are you sure that you –”

“How are things going with Kelsey?”

Mike pauses and gives me a withering look that would shrivel lesser men. I just keep staring at him because even though he could snap me in half, I’m afraid of no one.

He sighs. “Fine. You just let me know when you’re ready to stop being a prick. But Kelsey was like six girls ago. I’ve moved onto Kiley.”

I half-listen to Mike’s crazy antics. He’s the only guy I know who gets more pussy than I do. But I can’t stop thinking about Mia, and there’s an unfamiliar sensation burning a hole in the pit of my stomach.

Anger.

Betrayal.

Disappointment.

It’s all mixing together and making me sick. My blood is simmering and I have no idea what I’m going to say to Mia when I end things between us, but end things I will. And I don’t give a shit what she has to say for herself because there’s no valid reason for what she did.

Even though I wish like hell there was because, dammit, I don’t want to lose her.

When I take a second to glance at my phone, there’s a text message from her.

Mia: I miss you. I can’t wait for our pizza date tomorrow. I know so much about you, but not your pizza toppings. I hope they don’t suck, or else I’ll have to order two to make up for it.

Despite everything brewing inside me, I smile. I’ve never met anyone quite like her, and I wish she had just been honest with me. I still would have met up with her even if she wasn’t the girl from the party. She’s so much better than April, and it’s a hell of a meeting story. But she’s been lying to me.

And now?

Now we’re done. I just don’t want her to know it yet because this is a conversation we need to have in person. I want to watch her face when I confront her, and I hope at the very least there’s regret on it and she wasn’t just playing me the whole time.

Maybe I underestimated the girl from Kansas and she was just using me for gifts.

That’s not the Mia I know, but maybe I don’t know her at all.

Dean: Lots of meat. Pepperoni, sausage, bacon. Plus throw on onions, green peppers, and extra cheese.

Mia: You keep getting better, Mister. I was afraid you’d want chicken and broccoli or something. How are you so jacked if you take your pizza like a heart attack?

Dean: I rarely eat pizza and I work out every day.

Mia: Well, I guess that explains it. Call me later?

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