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She wouldn’t respond.
Dad would call again to harangue me.
I’d tell him no again.
He’d repeat that my answer wasn’t acceptable, but that was tough shit.
I wasn’t going to London. It didn’t matter if Uncle Logan was leaving. My answer wasn’t changing. Life would have to go on in London without me.
Serena would nag me about getting my act together. Duke wasn’t much better.
So I’d turn off my phone and come here to avoid them all.
When it got late enough, I’d stumble home and drink more to finally get to sleep.
The next day I’d repeat the cycle. So far wearing Nicole down wasn’t working for shit.
“I’d send her flowers,” Reggie suggested. That was another of his four canned responses.
“I’ve been doing that too, every day.”
Reggie didn’t offer another of his answers right away.
“Did I tell you she has the most beautiful green eyes?” I asked him.
“Only a few thousand times.” He left me, called down to the other end of the bar by another customer.
A hand pulled my glass away.
“Hey.” I turned.
The hand belonged to Duke. “You’re done for tonight.”
“Bullshit.” I grabbed for my glass, but he slid it farther away.
“Hey, Reggie, I need another,” I called.
“No, he doesn’t,” Duke said.
“Yes, I do. And you can throw this guy out. He’s bothering me.” I indicated my annoyer.
Duke went into mean biker mode. “Try it,” he snarled at Reggie.
Reggie eyed Duke and seemed to decide he feared him more than he wanted me as a repeat customer.
I didn’t get my drink.
“What is your problem?” I asked Duke.
“I was told to get you back to the condo.” He nodded toward the door. “Don’t make this difficult.”
I might hold my own against Duke on a good day, but today wasn’t one of those days. I got up off my stool. “Sure.”
Reggie waved goodbye. He had my card number for the tab.
The walk back went better than most evenings because I hadn’t finished enough of a bottle yet tonight.
I followed Duke into the elevator. “What’s the big deal?”
