Page 77 of Forgotten Rules (Rules 4)

“I’m going to put my happy face back on in a minute, I promise. I just need a second.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” I question.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Look, you can either talk about it or let it ruin the rest of your day.” I recycle my dad’s line. That’s what he used to say to get me to spill the beans as a kid. Taught me it was better to let it out, deal with your issues, and move on.

She pauses, hesitant to open up.

“So… there’s this guy,” she gives in.

She goes on to tell me she met him a year back. Some eye candy she was instantly attracted to. The feeling was mutual, but not only was he a taken man, he also had a kid with his partner. He kept coming in and out of her life, playing with her heart every time he felt like it, and while she knew he was wrong for her, she couldn’t stay away. I nod my head along to her story. She explains her family immediately disapproved of her dating him. Viewed her as a homewrecker. He’d constantly dangle promises of telling his girlfriend about them in front of her eyes but never did.

Until a while ago, when the guy’s girlfriend found out on her own. Jenny tells me she feels this relationship has been destructive and wonders if she made the right decision by staying with him.

She doesn’t elaborate after that, and I spend the first two hours of my shift comforting her. I end up making her smile again, which awakes an unexpected sense of pride in me. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Jenny and I can grow to develop a real complicity after all.

Will

“What the hell is up with you today, man? You still hungover or something?” Alex observes as he steps back into the ring, chugging the rest of his water bottle.

“I don’t know. Just a little out of it, I guess.” I wipe the blood dripping off my mouth with the back of my hand, and Alex grins. I have to admit he got me good.

“I don’t mind. I can beat your ass all day,” he mocks, but we both know he can’t pull off cocky. Alex doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body.

“Yeah. Try that again. See what happens.”

Alex is a good fighter, but I’ve been fighting longer than he has. I usually go easy on him, but today, my head’s not in it. It’s pounding like a little bitch, courtesy of yesterday’s party.

“Can’t really blame you. You looked gone last night.”

“You have no idea,” I mutter under my breath.

“Get any sleep at all? Or did Callie keep you up all night?”

Blurred, distorted memories wash over me. All I could see were shapes as Callie dragged my ass into a cab less than five minutes after Kass left me stranded with a boner.

“You saw us leave, huh?”

“The whole party saw you leave. Piece of advice, if you’re going to keep banging Callie Cooper, wrap it before you tap it. The girl’s been known to give dudes baby scares.”

I scoff. “Noted.”

I could tell him he’s got it all wrong. That even though Callie brought me back to her place, palming me through my jeans the second I stepped foot through the door, nothing happened.

But I won’t.

And I especially won’t tell him that it didn’t do shit for me. That she didn’t do shit for me. That I jerked her hands away before she could get my pants down and bolted. Frankly, I don’t think she’ll ever speak to me again. Not that I care. I’ve got more important things to worry about.

Like why didn’t she do it for me?

Is my dick broken?

Nah, it can’t be broken, dumbfuck. Not when it twitched in your pants when you saw Kass without a bra.

Fuck, I’m thinking about it now.

Yeah, definitely not broken.