Page 110 of Mr. Flirt

I stood and gave her a big hug before taking a seat.

She looked around the kitchen. “Where is she?”

“We broke up.”

“Oh, no. Was it the video?”

“Okay. Somebody needs to tell me about this video,” my mom muttered.

I folded my hands together and cracked my knuckles. “It’s not just the video. The problems go back a bit.”

“Problems? Isn’t it a fairly new relationship?” My mom’s brows knitted together in concern as Winter piled some nachos on a plate. “You shouldn’t be riddled with problems so quickly.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Okay. Fine. I’m the problem.”

Winter giggled and took a bite of nachos. “Now, that I can believe.”

I flashed her a wicked stare, so she stuck out her tongue at me.

“The very first night I met Lucy, I happened to have accepted a bet from Mike and Brendan about attending a matchmaking event in Seattle.”

My mom nodded. “Okay.”

“But I had to go there not as Shep. The reasoning behind it doesn’t even matter now, but I met Lucy, and we hit it off. The moment I saw her, it was like my world stopped, and the only way to get it going again was to bring her into my orbit.”

Winter crunched on another chip.

“I confessed right away that I wasn’t Perry on my nametag. I was Shep.”

“Oh, dear.” My mom stared at me. “How’d she take it?”

“She reached over the table and tried to strangle me.”

“Don’t blame her one bit.”

I nodded. “I know. Anyway, months later, she happened to arrive at the bar across from my condo when I was having drinks with Brendan and Mike. They didn’t know it was the woman from the matchmaking event, but they saw my reaction to her and placed a wager, only this time, it was on video. Mike recorded the whole thing. They figured that Lucy would ignore me, but I knew our history, and I was certain she wouldn’t ignore me. She might throw one down, but she wouldn’t ignore me. I thought it would be a good icebreaker. She ignored me.”

“This is horrible,” Winter said, shaking her head. “You never told her about the bet?”

“What does any of this matter?” my mom asked, leaning over the counter.

“The video went viral,” Winter informed my mom.

“Thanks to Lucy’s sister, I got in contact with her, and we started dating. She’s a divorce attorney, so it was hard for her to get past the incident without thinking it was a big red flag. But I finally convinced her that I wasn’t just one big prank to happen. We went up to my house in the mountains, and out of the blue, Dad showed up.”

My mom gasped while Winter nearly choked on a chip.

“Why?” Winter asked.

“His latest kicked him out because she found him cheating on her. Surprise. Anyway, he mentioned the video at the same time her sister texted her the footage, and my life has basically imploded, and I will be single and miserable for the rest of my life.”

“Well, you’re right about one thing,” my mom said. “You were the problem.”

“Yeah, and I get to live with that for the rest of my life. Not only did I screw up my chances with Lucy, but I also screwed up her chances at love. She was finally learning to trust, and given her profession, that isn’t an easy thing to do.”

“What’s she do for a living again?” my mom asked.

“She’s a divorce attorney.”

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