Page 14 of Bad Reputation

“Don’t say that,” he says with a frown.

“Seriously? Anyway—”

“I’m dead serious. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

“Anyway,” I say, deliberately talking over him. “If something feels off, it probably is. I don’t think it’s weird that you’re worried about it.”

He sighs, pushing his plate away. “Thanks, dude. It is kind of nice, knowing that you think so too.”

That wasn’t what I said, exactly, but I let it go. I finish my quickly cooling cup of coffee, and the waitress comes by with a coffee pot for a refill.

“So… since this has turned into brotherly bonding time…” Forest says.

I look up at him, curious. “Yeah?”

“Are you gonna tell me who the girl is that dumped you?”

I glower at him. “Who says there’s a girl?”

“I’ve been watching you at work lately. You’re all distracted, and you’re in a bad mood half the time. That’s after like a straight month of easy, breezyespeciallycarefree Jameson. I would have to be blind not to notice that something was up.”

“Girls come and go,” I hedge. “You know that.”

“I’m just saying, since you were all blissed out for a while there, maybe she turned your head the right way. You should consider the power that begging has in any situation.”

He sips his coffee. I wad up a paper napkin and throw it at him.

“That’s for assuming that it was my fault,” I intone.

“Ah! So there was a girl. I knew it!” He grins. “Was it someone I know?”

“Like I’m going to tell you.”

He squints at me for a long second. “It’s not Maia, is it?”

“What? No. You and Gunnar are so damn obsessed with her, it’s not even funny.”

“She’s hot!” he says defensively.

“All right, Mr. Is My Fiancée Cheating On Me.”

He glares at me. “Don’t turn this around on me. We’re talking about you.”

“Are we talking about why you assume that she dumped me? Because I want you to know, I was the one who did the breaking up.”

“Yeah, normally I would believe that, but you were so happy when you were with the mystery girl. So if you did do the breaking up, it was because you had to. Like, you were forced to do it.”

I look down at my coffee mug. He hit way too close to home. “Maybe I just didn’t like her that much.”

“To quote you, bullshit. I’m looking at you right now, and you can’t even look at me when you say that.”

I give him my surliest look. “So what?”

“So what? So I’m saying, if you’re really so hung up on this girl, apologize for whatever you did.” I start to argue, but he puts a hand up, stopping me. “Don’t even bother trying to tell me that you didn’t do something worth apologizing over. I’ve been watching a lot of The Bachelorette, because that’s Addy’s favorite TV show. The guy is always the one that is in the wrong. Every single time.”

“You’re so full of shit,” I say, reaching for my wallet. I pull out two twenties, dropping them on the table. “Excuse me for not taking advice from you, okay? I still remember when you were thirteen and you kept getting in trouble for drawing naked women in the bathrooms at school, okay? I think I’m good on advice from you.”

Forest rolls his eyes. “It’s been literally eighteen years since that happened. Are you ever going to let that go?”

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