Page 91 of The B!tch List

“Yeah,” he whispered. “There’s this cute little blonde who takes up a lot of my headspace too. She’s not got much conversation but when she smiles at me my heart just about melts.”

Wow, I was a puddle of need in the middle of the bar. That there, those sort of words were why I’d never really be able to truly hate him. He was too swoony at times to constantly want to cause him physical pain.

“Do you want to leave?” I asked.

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I do,” he whispered. His mouth came to mine and then he pulled back. “Nope. Not fucking happening.”

My blood stopped running for a second and my heart sank.

“He can just fuck off,” he said over my shoulder.

I turned to see where he was looking, and I groaned when I saw a smirking Minnesota walking toward us.

“What the hell is he coming over to us for?” I asked. “I told him, the other day at my apartment we are over. Done. Never to go back again.”

“He clearly didn’t get the message,” Shaw growled and gently pulled me behind him. “He better not think he can touch you.”

His arm went in front of me, his hand resting on the table, clearly to keep Minnesota away from me. It felt strange that he was protecting me, and instinctively my hands rested on his waist.

“What do you want?” Shaw asked, as Minnesota stood in front of us.

“I need to talk to Nancy.”

Shaw shook his head. “Not happening.” He turned to look at me. “Do you want to speak to him Nance?” I shook my head. “There you go, now fuck off.”

Minnesota laughed and put his hands to his hips. “What the hell is your problem? What do you think I’m going to do to her?” He leaned the top half of his body closer to Shaw. “Steal her from you?”

“You want to go back to him, Nance?”

“Never.”

“There you go.” Shaw sighed heavily and placed his hands on top of mine. “You couldn’t steal her from me if you tried. Besides which she doesn’t belong to me, Nancy is her own person.”

“Wow,” Minnesota gave a hollow laugh. “That hard on you had for her in high school really never did go away, did it? I told Ruthie she would never truly have you while you were hot for Nancy.”

“What?” I asked. “What does she have to do with it?”

He looked around Shaw to me. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know she set out to take him from you, right from her first day at school.” He tapped the side of his nose. “I could see though that he liked you a lot and I never thought she’d do it, but she did.”

“Can you just go,” I said, stepping forward coming along side of Shaw, with one arm still around his waist. “I have nothing else to say to you. I told you at my apartment that we were over. Just because you got dumped, Minnesota, it doesn’t mean you can come running back to me. As for Ruthie I have no interest in her petty games from when we were fourteen years old.”

“You don’t even care that she was the one who spoiled prom for you?”

Shaw looked at me and then turned his intense stare back to Minnesota and I instantly knew what he was thinking.

“What do you know about prom?” Shaw asked.

“You know exactly what I know, Shaw. I’m guessing Nancy told you about her standing on her porch in her yellow dress looking all lost and alone.”

My hands clenched into fists. “I so wish I’d never told you half the things that I did.”

He shrugged. “You painted such a sad picture Nancy.” He cleared his throat and muttered, “About so many fucking things.”

“What does Ruthie have to do with it?” Shaw asked. “Apart from the fact that I went to prom with her.”

“The note to Nancy. Ruthie sent it.” He shrugged. “Well, I wrote it for her and delivered it, but it was all her idea. She always hated Nancy because she knew that you still had a hankering for her.”

“You wrote it?” Shaw asked. “And you delivered it to Nancy? For Ruthie?”

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