Page 100 of My So-Called Perfect Life

She leans over the bar for a kiss. It’s short and sweet, and she eyes me again before leaving.

I need to get my head on straight. Danielle isn’t stupid, and she’s going to figure out something is going on, so I’d better be able to explain it when the time comes.

“You all right?” Roxy asks as soon as the door closes behind Danielle. “I can finish up here if you want to go?”

Pulling the rag from the wash bucket, I try to distract myself from the downward spiral of thoughts clouding my head. “No. I’ve got it. Thanks, though.”

It’s after ten so I busy myself with emptying drink wells, restocking glasses, pulling new bottles to replace the almost empty ones.

When I pull out the box of drink straws and pack of bar napkins, Roxy stops me. “Okay, you’re doing the servers’ side work? You haven’t refilled the bar caddies in years. Now I know you’re avoiding something. What’s going on?”

“I don’t fucking know, Roxy.”

She leans against the bar and tosses down her rag. “Well, something’s bothering you.”

I grab it and start scrubbing, working out my annoyance with this shit., I should be focusing on Cohen’s West, but I can’t stop fucking trying to figure out if I’m a rebound or not.”

She stuffs the boxes of straws and napkins back under the bar clearing a path for me to keep scrubbing. “Is that what all that shit with Evan was about?”

“Yup. He keeps telling me to cut her loose. That it’ll never go anywhere because it’s a rebound”

“So why are you mad at her?”

I stop scrubbing and look over at her. “Who said I was mad?”

She cocks her head to the side. “I could tell. You’re pissed at her because you could possibly be her rebound?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I’m mad because she proved Evan’s theory right when she looked like she’d rather have a root canal than go to dinner at my parents.”

She pulls a bottle of bourbon from the wall and places a shot glass in front of me. “You’re going to need this.”

I watch the stream leave the bottle into the short glass. “Why?”

Her face looks almost pained as she grimaces and says, “Because for once I have to admit that Evan may have a point.”

She’s siding with Evan? “You just said I shouldn’t take relationship advice from him less than an hour ago.”

“That point still stands,” She nods to the shot in front of me and doesn’t say anything more until I take it. “But he isn’t wrong. You guys did get together two seconds after she left her soon-to-be-husband at the altar.”

I slam the glass down on the bar. “That guy is an asshole.”

“True.” She nods and pours another shot. “But she still just had her heart smashed. You’ve been there to distract her. Plus, it seems you also got a bit more than you bargained for.”

“What does that mean?”

“You fell for her,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. “You haven’t dated anyone in a long time—at least, not since I’ve known you. I don’t think you even realized it happened. You’re ready to move into serious, and she just ended serious.”

That’s not true. “I never said I wanted something serious with her.”

“But you’re thinking about it. It was supposed to be casual, and now, it’s something else.”

I run my hand through my hair. “I think I just need a little space to clear my head.”

“And that’s totally cool,” she says, patting my arm. “But just make sure you figure this all out before you fall too far for someone who isn’t ready to fall with you. I like Danielle. I know she likes you, but she just got out of a bad relationship. You need to eventually make sure you two are on the same page because this could wind up just being a rebound for her.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Danielle