Page 64 of Beneath Your Beautiful

Louis chuckled as I jabbed my finger at each item on the touchscreen with more force than necessary.

“Rise above,” he said, something of a catchphrase for him.

“She called me a bitch,” I muttered. “I seriously want to punch her.”

He chuckled again and squeezed my shoulder. “Make art, not war.”

I sighed. “I’ll try my best.”

For some reason, Joss-lookalike had chosen to be the bane of my existence tonight. When I set her second Cosmo in front of her, she swung around and knocked it over with her elbow. “Oh my God,” she yelled. “What is your problem?”

Once again, I gritted my teeth and bit my tongue as I threw down paper towels to sop up her spilled drink. It was taking super-human strength not to get all mean girl on her. I cleared her now-empty glass and tossed the towels in the trash.

“You owe me a drink,” she said, as I wiped down the sticky bar.

“You knocked it over with your elbow,” I reminded her. “So that will be ten dollars.” I gave her a big smile and twirled my hair around my finger. So much for rising above. It was junior high all over again, and I was stooping to her level. “My math isn’t that great. But I think that’s twenty dollars if you want another drink.”

She glared at me. “That’s it. I’m sick of your attitude. I need to speak to—” Her eyes widened. “Oh. My. God. It’s Killian Vincent.”

I followed her gaze. Killian and Mitch, one of the bouncers, were escorting two guys out of the bar. “Hey, man, he started it,” one of the guys said.

“I don’t give a shit who started it,” Killian said. “You’re both out.”

With that, the door shut behind them. A few minutes later, Killian returned alone and came behind the bar to speak with Louis. Meanwhile, Joss-lookalike had thrown a twenty on the bar as if paying for her drinks had never been an issue.

I set her new Cosmo in front of her, but she was too busy ogling Killian to notice.

She yelled his name and his head swung in her direction. “It’s Darcy. I was in Vegas for a bachelorette party. We went to one of your fights and afterwards…remember? That was such a great night…” She beamed at him.Beamed.

My jaw dropped to the floor. Did he sleep with her? Killian ran his hand through his hair and muttered something under his breath. What the hell? I felt like I was going to throw up.

Killian wrapped his hand around my upper arm and tried to pull me closer. “Eden…”

Nope. Couldn’t go there right now. I shrugged him off. “I’m busy.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Killian

Ibrought her to the waterfront under the guise of watching the sunrise. She knew it was bullshit and I wasn’t trying to be romantic. I was just looking for a neutral location. We took a seat on a wooden bench on the boardwalk, the glass and steel towers behind us and an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline in front of us, the dusky blue sky streaked with red. She drew her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“You really pick the winners,” she said. “First Joss and now…Darcy.” She pulled a face like just saying the name made her sick to her stomach.

Louis filled me in later while we counted the cash drawer in the office. Apparently, this Darcy chick had been bitchy to Eden. I only had a vague recollection of Darcy. I didn’t even remember her name, but I doubted it would help my cause to mention that.

Darcy didn’t mention Johnny, thankfully. Instead, she went on and on about the amazing night we shared. By then, she’d followed me to the outside bar where I was working, so Brody had gotten an earful, but Eden didn’t have to hear about it.

“Did you tell Darcy I was your girlfriend?” Eden asked.

“Yeah, I told her.”

Eden shrugged. “I guess that’s something, at least.”

“You have nothing to be jealous about.”

“You seem to have a type and I’m not it.”

She was focused on the one-night stand which was the least of my transgressions. “She means nothing to me. It was one night, nearly two years ago.” I only knew that because Darcy filled me in. “Way before I ever met you.”