Page 50 of The Naughty List

“You didn’t return my texts for hou—oh my god! Did you finally dump that loser and find a hottie with a body to show you a good time?” She wiggles her eyebrows up and down, and it reminds me of Alex doing the same thing last night.

“Hottie with a body? What are we, seventeen?” I laugh. Tossing the garment bag on the couch, I reach for the burger and fries she brought me. I take a huge bite, stalling. I still haven’t told my friends about me and Tim. At first, it was because I thought for sure we would be back together by now. I figured there was no sense rousing the troops if he just needed a short-lived weeklong break. But it’s been almost a month, and I’m starting to think maybe he’s actually done with me.

“Caleb and Ariel are meeting us in thirty minutes, so you better get a move on. You need to take a shower. I think there might be something growing in your hair.” She grimaces, lifting a limp, matted lock of my hair. It always looks like crap when I go to sleep with it wet like I did the night before.

Karlie, Caleb, Ariel, and I have been best friends since our freshman year of college. I can’t even remember who met who first. It just feels like we’ve all been inseparable for the last six years.

“The thought of drinking tonight makes my stomach feel soupy.” I dip a fry into a pile of ketchup and shove it in my mouth.

“You went out drinking last night?” She arches her brow. “What’s going on?”

I shake my head. “Long story. I promise I’ll fill you guys in on everything at the bar. I just don’t want to have to go through it all multiple times.”

“Ohhhh, so something is going on? I hope it’s piping hot.”

I finish the burger in two more bites and stand up to toss my trash away before heading for the shower.

“Trust me,” I say, pausing in the doorway to look back at her. “It’s boiling.”

* * *

“Okay, okay! Before we get too deep into the holiday spirit, Sadie said she has some boiling hot tea to share, and I’m tired of waiting. So spill!” Karlie claps her hands and leans on the bar table we’re all sitting around.

Caleb throws his hands up. “Hold up. You ladies know the rule. As excited as I am for this hot goss, we start this party every year with a nog shot and rum chaser.”

“Ugh, not rum.” I drop my head into my hands and Ariel reaches over to rub my back.

“What am I missing?” she asks, looking around the table.

“Nothing. I just drank about a third of a bottle of cheap rum last night.”

“Ohhh, that explains things,” she says, studying my clearly exhausted-looking face.

A moment later, a waitress places eight shots on the table. I make the mistake of sniffing the rum, which causes my stomach to twist as saliva pools in my mouth.

“Okay bitches, here’s to another fantastic holiday season and another year of the ho-ho-ho girls shutting down the bar!” Caleb smiles as we all lift our shots and yell “cheers!”

To my surprise, I actually manage to take both shots and keep them down, but not without chugging half my Diet Coke after.

Ariel turns toward me. “So what’s the story with you and the rum?”

“Please tell me Tim didn’t hurt you again, or so help me god, I will march my ass over to your place right now and beat him into next week,” Caleb says, Karlie and Ariel nodding their agreement. “Unless of course you dumped him, in which ca—”

“He dumped me.”

All three of their faces fall.

“Excuse me? You let that pathetic man-child dump you?”

“Well technically, he didn’t dump me, we’re just…on a break.” As I suspected, their expressions tell me what they’re going to say.

“A break?” Caleb leans across the table. “Sweetie, we’re heading into our late twenties, we’re not eighteen anymore. We don’t go on breaks at this age unless a man sees a piece of ass he wants to tap but can’t do it in good conscience.”

I grimace and Caleb gasps, his hands covering his mouth. “Oh no, that’s it, isn’t it? That Tiffany girl.”

“I don’t know for sure. He said over and over that nothing was going on, and I literally have zero proof. I know he wouldn’t let me see the texts, but in all our years together, he never gave me a reason to doubt him or suspect infidelity. He’s never given me a reason to not trust him.”

“Till now,” Ariel pipes up. “Sadie, you mentioned months ago that he was acting differently. It wasn’t just her name popping up on his phone, it was him hiding his texts, the fact he didn’t want to be intimate anymore, changing his mind about kids, and now he wants space?”

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