Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I’m twenty-four and she’s twenty-six, and we both have big dreams. She wants to start a fully inclusive doggy style resort for pet boarding. All I want is for millions of people to read my book. We’re both very grounded, very realistic people.
She holds up a bottle of tequila in one hand and a big thing of margarita mix in the other. “How drunk are we aiming for, here?”
“Mildly,” I say. I lay back on the couch, folding my hands over my stomach. I haven’t even changed out of what I wore to the convention. If I wasn’t worried getting truly drunk would lead me straight to internet stalking Jameson, finding his contact info, and calling him, I’d motion for her to skip the cutesy drink and just bring me the whole bottle.
She brings me an icy, alcoholic concoction. It is kind of gross, but Dani has always made terrible mixed drinks. I’ve never had the heart to tell her.
She sits across from me, expression serious. “I still can’t believe you just texted Vaughn that you wanted to break up. With the shit he pulled, he deserved an explosive break up. Something public and embarrassing.”
Once I landed back in New York, I sent Vaughn the quickest, least emotional breakup text in history. I think my exact words were: “I know you cheated. I’m breaking up. Please don’t reach out to me or try to change my mind. Yes, I’m sure.”
He read the text almost immediately, and I don’t know if he tried to change my mind because I blocked his number.
“I’m not the explosive break up type,” I say. “I really just want to forget it all happened. Dragging things out and making it messy isn’t going to help me forget.”
“Well, normal, sweet, non-combative you could take a vacation just long enough to give that asshat what he deserves. Just a thought.”
“I’m not worried about getting even. I’m going to focus on myself, now. He wants to replace me with some girl he thinks is better? That’s fine. I’ll just take all the energy I spent thinking about him and put it into finishing the edits on this book. I’ll get discovered, and I’ll move on with my life. Why should I care what he thinks about any of that?”
“Because you’re human. Vaughn cheated on you, Charli. He took my sweet, adorably devoted sister’s trust and wiped his ass with it.”
“Okay, and?” I sound a little annoyed. I know I do, but I can’t quite put my finger on how I’m feeling. Maybe it’s just the not so subtle feeling that I’m talking out of my butt. Maybe part of me really does wish I had the balls to take revenge on him. Maybe I feel like sulking away quietly is another layer of defeat and embarrassment to this whole episode.
“And?” Dani asks, disbelief evident in her tone. “People like that need to know they suck, or they’ll go on being that kind of person to someone else. What about the next Charli McBride? Are you thinking of her?”
I sink a little deeper into the couch and take another sip. “No,” I admit. “But I don’t know if Vaughn is really going to change his ways just because I let him know how much he hurt me.”
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t talking about just calmly explaining how he hurt your feelings. I was talking about revenge. Nuclear warfare. Ruin his life, salt the Earth in your wake, and leave radioactive fallout so his descendants grow arms out of their foreheads.”
I stare. Dani is the sweetest person on Earth when it comes to animals. People, though? Not so much.
“You know I’m not going to do all that,” I say.
“I know,” she sighs. “So you really don’t want to call this Jameson guy? Even if you don’t want to use him to publish your book–which, for the record, is crazy–you could at least get over Vaughn by getting under Mr. Wolfe.”
“He’s probably already moved on. He didn’t strike me as the sort of man who dwells on the past for very long. He was… something.”
Dani leans closer. “What’s that glint in your eye?”
“There’s no glint.”
“There was a glint. A horny, hopeful glint.”
“There was not.”
“I saw a glint. And that means you should call him.”
“It’s not happening.”
“Alright, alright. Fine. But he’s still on your menu. Maybe you’re not ordering a slice today. Maybe not even tomorrow. You’re going to keep thinking about it, though.”
“Tell yourself whatever you need to make yourself happy. I honestly just want to move on with my life. I’m also really not looking forward to the ‘I told you so’ tour when I tell everybody it’s over and he was cheating. Convincing Roxy and Troy not to go kill him with their bare hands is going to be exhausting enough on its own.”