Page 85 of Puck My Stepbrother

I swiped up to answer the call and immediately said, “Jeff, where the fuck are you?”

At first, I received no answer, only heavy breathing on the other end.

“Jeff? Jeff, is everything all right?”

“Hey, I’m glad I caught you.”

“Yeah, you caught me. You’re not sick or about to die, are you?”

The breathing sounds returned, which raised an immediate red flag.

“Listen, we need to talk,” he said.

“Oh, Jesus.”

“I wanted to talk to you about this earlier, but there never seemed to be a good time to bring it up.”

“So you picked the worst possible time?”

“I know it’s really bad timing?—”

“You’re damn right it’s bad timing. The wedding’s going to start in ninety minutes and I’m standing here with my thumb up my ass thanks to you.”

“Give me a chance to explain, would you?”

“First and foremost, I need to know whether you’re coming to this wedding or not. So which is it?”

He paused again before saying, “I’m not going to be there.”

You little son of a bitch,I thought.And what excuse can you possibly throw at me for pulling this shit?

No one was near me at that moment, but I still felt embarrassed. In fact, I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone was about to show up to see my humiliation. They’d still find out eventually. After all, everyone would see that I’d been stood up the moment they spotted an empty seat beside me at the head table. And of course I’d told everyone about Jeff, how great he was, and how I foresaw a terrific future with him.

Now I’d have to tell them the truth—that he was a flake. You know, just like Levi Dunn had called him.

Jesus Christ.

I hated to admit for even a moment that my stepbrother-to-be could have a point about anything. What else had he been right about?

“Why aren’t you coming to the wedding?” I asked. “You can at least tell me the reason, and it’d better be good.”

“Listen, I just don’t think things are working out between us.”

“Not working out? Jeff, I thought things were going great between us. I thought we had a real future together.”

“I did, too. And then…”

And then we had sex. I wasn’t what he thought I’d be. It must’ve been because of that, but I wouldn’t put words in his mouth. Not that I’d make it easy for him. I still wanted to force him to explain himself, make him squirm and feel uncomfortable. In other words, I wanted to put him through the same hell he’d subjected me to all day by forcing me to wait for him.

“I don’t know about you,” he said, “but I think the reason is pretty obvious.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I thought we’d make a great couple. Wedomake a great couple. You know, when you aren’t pulling something like this on me.”

“Don’t be like that, Quinn. Please. This isn’t easy for me either, you know.”

Then how the fuck do you think it feels for me?I wanted to ask.Leaves me in the lurch, that’s what.

I felt like nothing on the planet would make him realize that his timing couldn’t have been worse.