Page 54 of Big Daddy to Go

Melanie raises an eyebrow at me, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Okay, so the company sucks, but it was my first job out of college,” I reason. “I needed the experience.”

“And now you have that experience to take to a bigger and better interior design company.”

Melanie is always the voice of reason.

“I just wish I had left them and already had a job lined up. I don’t know how I’m going to afford my apartment now,” I sigh.

“You’ll file for unemployment, and you can move in with me until you get back on your feet.”

“Mel, I can’t ask you to do that.”

She waves me off. “You’re my best friend. It’ll be like college all over again.”

I smile in appreciation. “Thank you.”

The glass of vodka stares back at me, so I pick it up. Melanie pushes the glass back down.

“How many is this?”

“Two,” I shrug.

“Four,” Ricky chimes in out of nowhere. I scowl at him.

“Tattletale.”

Melanie laughs, and I take a sip.

“No word from Kane, huh?”

I shake my head, feeling tears coming on.

“I don’t know how I let myself fall for him. He must think I’m a psychopath.”

“Lexi, I’ll admit I thought it was a little crazy that you hooked up with Jason’s clone… but after hanging out with you both a couple of times, I can clearly see that Kane is nothing like Jason. Yeah, they look alike, but Kane’s way hotter,” Melanie says as if she can’t believe it herself.

“Hey!” Ricky overhears her last comment and pouts at Melanie teasingly.

“I mean he’s hotter than Jason… not you, baby,” Melanie sweet talks him.

Ricky laughs. “Hell, even I think Kane is hot.”

Melanie laughs, and I crack a smile at that.

“And more importantly, Kane treated you well. I saw the way he looked at you,” she says.

A smile spreads across my face before I immediately turn angry.

“Why the hell would you say all of that?! You’re just as bad as my mother with her ‘give it time’ speech!”

“What?” Melanie asks, taken back by my outburst.

“Oh, Kane is so good-looking, and he treated you so well…” I repeat, mimicking Melanie in a bad impression. “Like any of that matters now? Kane hates me!”

I’m drunk, poor, dramatic, and heartbroken. What a God-awful combination!

“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you, Lexi. But I’m not trying to make it worse. I’m trying to tell you that you’re not so crazy!”

People are starting to stare at us because our voices are getting louder. I wipe the tears from my eyes.

“God, how did my life become such a mess so quickly?” I heave a burdensome sigh.

“You can only go up from here, right?” Melanie offers.

I’m not so sure. All I know is that I’m not looking forward to searching for a new job and sleeping on Melanie’s couch. And I certainly don’t want anything to do with men anytime in the immediate future.

It’s funny. When Jason left me, I needed to get rid of any trace of him from my life with sex… with someone else, to prove I was free. Now, with Kane… I don’t want to prove my freedom. I don’t want to get rid of him. I want him back.