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“Hi yourself.” He smiled. “You waiting for someone?”
“Just my girlfriend,” I answered.
“How come I haven’t seen you around here before?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been around.”
“I bet you have.” He winked.
Eww.I moved away. It was one thing to dress up and flirt with people, but it was another to dive headfirst into another bad situation. That guy was trouble, and I didn’t want trouble. I wanted something to take my mind off Linc. I wanted people to tell me I was pretty, to notice me and not push me away. But I didn’t want to jump in the sack with anyone tonight.
I was relieved to see Gina enter the bar moments later. I gave her a hug and we found a seat. “That’s some outfit you’re wearing,” she said.
“Thanks, Mom,” I chastised.
“Okay, okay. So, tell me what happened.”
I sighed. I had already begun to feel better. The attention and the alcohol were making a difference. I was afraid that if I opened up about the events of the morning, I would start to cry again. There didn’t seem to be any way around it, however. Gina wouldn’t appreciate being put off. I was determined to get the story out without breaking down.
“Linc broke up with me,” I began.
“Porter said that he panicked when he saw you looking at him and Seth—whatever that means.” She shrugged.
My jaw dropped. So it was about Seth? It hadn’t been anything I had said or done, but alookI had given him? Of all the unfair, chauvinistic, messed-up things for him to do, freaking out over a look was chief among them.
I must have been seething because Gina recoiled slightly. “You didn’t know that?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Tell me what happened,” she encouraged.
I swallowed and forced the story out. “He asked if he could spend the night, and everything seemed great. He was all over me. We had sex twice, and he slept on the couch. Then he told me that he couldn’t see me anymore, and I drove him to work.”
I took a long drink to wash the bitter taste out my mouth.
“Am I allowed to apologize for him?” Gina asked.
“No.”
“Do you want me to murder him?” she joked. “He’s got military training, but I’m sneaky.”
I smiled. “That would be nice.”
“Aly, I’m so sorry,” she said again. “You don’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“It’s not your fault. You tried to warn me.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think he would do this.” She seemed at a loss to explain her own brother.
I finished off my beer. “Well, he did. But I’m going to put it all behind me. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay,” Gina agreed. “I thought you might be on the prowl tonight, so I wore this.” She opened her arms so I could get a good look at the blue satin top she wore.
“Nice,” I said.
“Where’d you get that skirt?” she asked. “It looks like something out of the nineties.”
“I prefer to call itvintage.” I laughed.
