Page 83 of Faking It With the Small-Town Bad Boy

want sex to be something we associate with getting over them with.”

“Understandable,” she replies.

I step forward, nearly reaching for her unmarked shoulder, but her

words cut me short.

“You should go,” she says. “Have a good night, Percy. When this is all

over, we can go back to ignoring one another in town.”

“I never said that.”

“Might as well have.”

I swallow my reply, knowing when enough is enough.

Leaving the room, I shut the door behind me, head for my spare

bedroom down the hall, and feel sick to my stomach. I’ve fucked up

tonight, in more ways than just one, and I don’t blame her if she goes

around town telling everyone I’m a fraud tomorrow.

I came up with this idea, and I fed it to her without any real

alternative.

I’m the one that went into her bedroom and laid her down with the

intention of pulling that slim thong aside and having my way with

her. She wanted it, no doubt there, but that doesn’t make my reason

airtight. Just because she needs something to bandage the

vulnerability of her heart right now doesn’t mean I can have my way

with her body.

It just makes me a hypocrite for what I wanted in the first place.

No love, no marriage, no future.

Just getting over the exes and wearing a brave face in town.

As I lay down in my bed tonight, I know for certain one of those

things are solved, and it has nothing to do with braving the gossip

corral.

MORNING REGRETS

Leah

I stall going downstairs. I didn’t even sleep, but that’s beside the

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