Page 64 of Bad For A Weekend

Fuck.

“Baylor, I—”

Before I can apologize, she smacks me across the face. I barely register the sting but feel every ounce of emotion behind it.

“No. You don’t get to talk. You don’t get to say shit to me ever again.”

Ziggy and Sara give me the evil eye while they crowd around their friend and lead her off the dance floor and toward the bathroom.

“I’m sorry,” I call out, but they don’t hear it.

“I think it’s safe to say you can start looking for another job. Shit, man. That was low,” Asshole says.

Without thinking, and with no other place for everything inside me to go, I rear back and punch him in the nose. I didn’t mean to hit him as hard as I do, but when blood sprays in every direction and he falls to the ground, I know I fucked up.

“Come on. You’re out of here.” Two beefy men approach me. My chest is heaving and my hands tighten to fists at my side. I could take both of them without breaking a sweat. Reading my expression, he says, “Don’t make this worse than it already is, man.”

“I can’t leave. I’m that girl’s bodyguard.”

“Not my problem.”

They clasp each of my biceps, and I shake them off, but unless I want to go to jail and leave Baylor to fend for herself, I decide my only option is to comply. Following them down the stairs and out to the front of the club, I berate myself.

What the hell was I thinking? And now I’ve placed Baylor in danger, all because I couldn’t handle some guy dancing with her when I was the one to end things between us in the first place. Goddamn it.

Nothing good comes from feeling things for someone. Fucking nothing.

Baylor

“You had sex with him?” Sara asks the second the bathroom door closes.

“Read the room, drunkie. You’re focusing on the wrong issue.” Ziggy looks under the two stalls and flips the lock when he finds us alone. “So sorry, Bay. That was really shitty of him.”

“I can’t believe he embarrassed me like that. He took what happened between us and made it ugly.”

I’m having a hard time grasping what just happened. I knew I was making him jealous; his body language made that very clear. But I’ve never seen him lose his mind like that. Even at prom, he was cool and collected.

“He’s an asshole,” Ziggy says, and I nod. He really is. Shouting something so personal is a betrayal I won’t soon recover from.

I thought last night was beautiful. He made me feel sexy and worshipped my body like it was his idol. Before five minutes ago, I knew I’d look back on my memories of my first time with fondness. But now, I wish it never happened. He didn’t deserve me.

“A rat bastard,” Sara chimes in, hiccupping.

“I hate him.” I wipe away my tears, my fingers coming off black-streaked with makeup. I growl in frustration and step in front of the mirror. “I can’t go out there. Everyone heard that.”

A knock sounds on the door, and Ziggy yells that it’s occupied.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice yells.

“Brandy! I forgot about her.” I blow out a breath. “I don’t think she saw what happened, and I would really like to keep her in the dark about this.”

“Let me see what I can do.” Ziggy opens the door a crack. “Hey.”

“Thank God I found you. One second, I was grinding on a very sexy local, the next, everyone was gone.”

“Baylor isn’t feeling well.” He makes the international gesture for a drink, then pulls a funny face.

“Really? Shoot. I was trying to keep track of you kids. Except for Sara, only God can help that girl.”

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