Page 1 of Blind Date with a #HOCKEYBOY (Love Canyon: Blind Date with a #BOOKBOYFRIEND #2)
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The room was dark, because I absolutely and utterly refused to turn on the light.
Because if I did, I’d see the empty spots where Mark’s things had sat.
The broken promises that they’d be there forever and we’d never forsake each other over anyone else.
Not that I’d mourned the loss of his things overly much.
Maybe a part of me had held onto the fairy tale idea of a perfect happily ever after for reasons that I hated to speak out loud.
I could think them easier in the dark, with nothing illuminating the room and the stark truth that I had been lying to myself.
And that Mark’s betrayal wasn’t a surprise.
Not really. I’d made myself into what I thought he wanted.
Smaller. Kept my wants and needs silent because I needed a label more than I trusted myself and my desires.
Every decision I made, everything that led to this moment, I could take responsibility for.
The perfect, fake smile that no one recognized, or if they did, they brushed it under the rug and went along with the charade.
A fake act, the play he performed every second we were together, with all the best actors until the words and actions ran out, and the curtain fell.
Did it make him any less of a douchebag? No. But I was finally able to see I held just as much of the blame for being there with him. He just took the coward’s way out, while I tried to hold on.
Two weeks later, and every trace of him was gone. Like he had never been here. And maybe he hadn’t, not really.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table, the rattle breaking the silence and cutting through my second glass of wine-induced haze. I prayed it wasn’t the one person I couldn’t bring myself to tell about the breakup, but when I saw Meredith’s name, I breathed a sigh of relief.
MEREDITH: Don’t you dare even try to get out of coming.
One side of my mouth twitched despite my melancholy, because if there was one thing I accepted from the first time she tackled me in our dorm room freshman year, was that my best friend from college would never take no for an answer if it was in my best interest. The walls were at her mercy, and every time I built them up, she smashed them like Hulk.
QUINN: One week. Then I have the interview in Denver. You get me until I leave…
MEREDITH: And visitation at least once a month.
I snorted.
QUINN: I hope you’re the one flying from Love Canyon. ‘Cause your girl is still paying off her college loans.
MEREDITH: I asked Nan if she’d adopt you. I could make it happen.
QUINN: STOP. Your Nan is not adopting me just so you can have her pay my loans off.
Meredith might be joking, at least a little, but the two times I’d met her Nana, the woman had tried to buy us a house off campus and then a car. She even had a realtor on speed dial.
MEREDITH: I can make it happen, just say the word. You know she loves this kind of thing.
QUINN: MERE.
MEREDITH: Fine. I’m pouting. But, at least you’ll be here for book club!!!
A sigh escaped me, remembering the last time Meredith told me about book club—it wasn’t what I had in mind for a Thursday night.
QUINN: Book club? I don’t know… I mean, aren’t those, ummm, boring?
MEREDITH: Trust me. Come to book club. You won’t be disappointed. You’ll forget all about whatshisname. And WINE.
QUINN: You mean my ex-fiance? Ugh, fine. But I’m bringing more wine. Lots of it.
MEREDITH: And you get to pick the book, as the guest of honor.
I groaned and slapped a palm to my forehead, already knowing what was coming next.
MEREDITH: Get ready to be PUCKED!