Page 6

She is right, he’s wearing exactly what he wore to the party; the only thing she missed was the loafers. Compared to these hockey guys, all dressed in jeans and casual t-shirts and jackets, he looks like he is playing dress-up.

“So, I guess you know where my girlfriend is then.” He faces off with them, having given up trying to get around. “I don’t want any trouble; my name is Josh, and I just need to speak with her. A lot of people are worried about where she’s been.”

“She doesn’t want to talk, so just do us all a favour, dude, and get back in the car.” The other brunette standing next to Grant speaks this time; he is the closest in height to Grant but a little less muscular, and his hair is shorter than the other guys.

“Look, I know her friend lives here, and she’s probably filling her head with some bullshit about not talking to me, so cut the crap and let me go see her.”

I look at Cami wide-eyed, shocked that Josh would say that about her. He’s never said anything bad about Cami, not that he brought her up much or attempted to include her to hang out when we were home, but he’s never spoken about her like that.

“Best friend; he missed the best at the beginning.” She swigs more wine. “Right? Best?”

“Right.” I nod aggressively, “BEST.”

We both nod together to confirm it. We may have been a little distant, but Josh would know I go to Cami for everything; she is my ride-or-die best friend.

“Asshole,” we whisper in unison, turning back to the street.

“Ah, man, why did you badmouth Cami?” The blonde behind Grant sighs, cracking his knuckles. His hair is on the longer side, sitting below his ears and giving surfer boy vibes. “Now, we've got to kick your ass.”

They all seem to look at each other to see who is going to start. I can see Josh’s eyes go wide and get shifty. Whoever these guys are, they have my girl’s back completely, and I’m here for it.

“Woah, woah,” Grant holds his hands up and eases the guys down. “We are not kicking anyone’s ass; we are going to let him get back in the car and drive off because he didn’t mean to insult our dear friend Cami. Did you, Jim?” He nods towards Josh to encourage him.

I snort at him, mispronouncing his name, and Cami snickers beside me.

“Yeah, of course I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, you know how girls are?” He shrugs and when the guys just stare at him, he fills them in, “Bitchy.”

Grant groans as the boys seem to get even more annoyed at the bitchy comment. “Bitchy?” Cami whispers. “How dare he; I’ll show him bitchy.” She huffs, and I pat her back, passing the wine as we turn our attention to the boys, who have gotten closer together now.

“Jim, was it?” Grant asks before Josh can correct him. “It’s time to go. There’s no scenario where you’re getting past these guys to see her.”

“He’s right, Jim,” the wilderness guy or Bear says. “If she’s Cami’s girl, she’s got a whole hockey team’s worth of protection.”

I like Bear; he is my kind of people.

“And he’s double right, Jim,” the surfer looking one pipes up, winking at him. “Because we don’t fight fair.”

Josh goes wide-eyed, again looking back and forth to the apartment building and the four hulking hockey players sizing up his options. “Fine,” he says finally, hands up and moving towards his car. “Just tell her I was here, alright?”

“I’m not going to do that, Jim.” Grant smirks, and that earns him a glare from Jim. I mean, Josh. God, that is going to be hard to shake.

Josh gets into his car and attempts to speed off, but mounts the curb and gets the tire stuck in the mud. We all awkwardly watch as he tries to pull forward a few times before putting it into reverse, and this time, he slowly rolls back and away from the curb and drives off down the street.

Cami and I look at each other and flip onto our backs, bursting into laughter at how ridiculous the whole situation is. “Oh, fair maiden, Cami and friend, wherefore art thou?” comes a voice from below..

“That’s Bear,” Cami says, standing up and leaning over the railing. “That was so wrong, it almost sounded right.” She laughs out loud, and I follow behind her to the railing, where I lean over and get a closer look at “the guys.”

“Ah, so here is the girl ruining our party and getting us to beat up her boyfriend,” Grant says while looking at me.

Narrowing my eyes, looking down at him. “I didn’t ask you to do anything.” I glare at him.

“Sorry, I misheard you.” He smirks. “I thought you said, ‘Thanks so much for doing that, and by the way, it was hot.’”

“Hmm, no, I wouldn’t have said that because I’m a terrible liar, and you would never have believed me.” I narrow my gaze at him.

Cami snorts next to me, and Grant’s smirk disappears as the guys burst out laughing.

“Oooh, you are going to be fun. Please tell us you’re hanging around for a while.” The blonde at the back laughs.

“Back off, Adam,” Cami hisses. “Off limits.” He rolls his eyes at her as they head toward the steps that run along the end of the balcony.

“They’re not coming in, are they?” I whisper to her.

“They live next door, remember?” she explains, grinning. “They throw the best parties, speaking of which.” She speaks to the guys. “How was the party? What did I miss?”

“Eh, nothing much. Some girls started a catfight over Gunnar.” He pats the guy who had been standing next to Grant, who I presume is Gunnar. “He broke it up fast, though. No fun, are you, player?”

“Shut up,” Gunnar grumbles. “Boring party, Cams, this was much more fun.” He winks at her, and she smiles back.

Huh, that is interesting. I put a sticky note in my brain to ask Cam what’s going on there.

They are level to the balcony now and start muttering goodbyes as they shuffle through their door. Grant is at the back, and Cami walks past me through the balcony door.

“Hey,” I say a little louder, and he turns around. “Thank you.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“For the ride and the getting rid of Josh,” I explain as he leans against his door frame, and we stare at each other for a beat before I cave. “What?” I snap at him because he keeps staring.

“I’m just waiting for you to tell me I looked hot doing it?” He smiles.

Rolling my eyes, I mutter, “When hell freezes over.” I walk back into the apartment. I hear him laugh as I shut the door.

“Okay, here we go,” Cami shouts over, while grabbing shot glasses from the kitchen cabinet and a bottle of what looks like tequila. We settled in the living room with a girl power playlist on, and finished the wine. It’s finally time to unpack.

“A shot for every time we get through another detail of what went down tonight.”

“I mean, that doesn’t seem like a reward I’m interested in, Cam.” I laugh and look towards the clock. “And it’s almost midnight.”

“Time doesn’t exist during a breakup.” She pushes the shot towards me. “Come on, B, you've got to tell me what’s going on.”

“I don’t even want to talk about it myself,” I mutter, grabbing the shot.

Cami makes a buzzer sound. “Wrong answer. Start at the beginning.” I roll my eyes but settle into the soft sofa cushions to unload my eventful evening.

“Well, I had just finished packing up some things from my room at Mom’s, like the last box was in the van.

” I take the shot and groan as I remember my whole life in a van on its way to our new apartment in a week.

“Josh says his parents are throwing us a surprise party for moving home.” I grimace, still tasting the shot as Cami pours another.

“Which I thought was weird anyway, like, we had already gone to college; we were just moving colleges, not moving home.”

“Total red flag,” she scoffs, taking her shot and refilling.

“Right? Anyway, he says he had to tell me about the surprise party, so I wore something nice, as he knew it would upset my mom if I weren’t dressed up.

” I roll my eyes at the memory. My mom is a stickler for being presentable and always put together.

No one is allowed an off day in her eyes.

My childhood was filled with being dressed up like a doll and paraded around as her friend, the perfect daughter.

“So, I put on the blue dress, you know, the cute one with the slit up the side.”

“That was that dress?” Cami asks, shocked. “I love that dress; I couldn’t tell with the mud.”

“I know.” I nod sadly. “It’s ruined.” I sigh, and we both take a shot out of respect for the dress.

“Everyone is there, like, the whole new team he’s been training with, friends and extended family, like, everyone!” I fill up my shot this time. “I had a couple of drinks, and next thing you know, I’m told Josh is going to make a speech, so I go inside to grab him.”

I take the shot. “I walk into the house and hear my mom say, “You are going to be the most expensive son-in-law.”

“What? What does that even mean?” Cami asks, wide-eyed and leaning forward, gripped by what I'm telling her.

Taking a deep breath, I continue, “Then, Josh says they made the deal right after my dad died, and he was happy with me now, so she didn’t need to keep paying him to stay with me.

” I take the last shot as the bottle is empty and pull my bottom lip in between my teeth, waiting; I feel so embarrassed.

“My mom paid my boyfriend not to break up with me for five years.”

“I- I don’t know what to fucking say,” Cami stutters. “Why would she do that?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to work out. Did you notice anything?” Admittedly, Josh never really put effort into my friendship with Cami, but they had spent some time together.

“No, I mean, I never really liked the guy, but I would never have thought he would do that.”

“I know.” Frowning and feeling the tears starting. “I loved him, and he made me feel safe, and now he’s made me feel sad and stupid.” I sniffle.

Cami comes over and hugs me. “We are going to figure this all out.”

“I am a mess,” I cry. “I transferred colleges for him, his name is on the apartment, all my stuff is in boxes in a truck, God knows where, and I fell down a muddy hill,” I sniffle.

“Oh, sweetie.” Cami hugs me tight, but I can feel her shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not. It’s just that I wish I had taken a picture of you.” She laughs. “You looked like a swamp monster.”

I cannot help but burst out laughing.

“I’ve never seen Grant so quiet.” She laughs, taking the shot glass I’ve been fiddling with and putting it on the coffee table. “I think he was in shock.”

I groan. “Don’t remind me, Cam. He’s seriously hot, and he saw me looking like that.” I throw my head into a pillow next to me.

“He’s not my type, but yeah, Grant Anders is a good-looking guy.”

I sigh, putting my head to the side of the pillow so I can speak. “What am I going to do?” I ask. I mean it to sound like a joke, but I can hear the desperation.

“I’ve got the room.” She shrugs her shoulders like it is so simple. “I never listed it as available.”

“Cam,” I say, about to tell her I can’t take, but stop because I have no other options. “Okay, thank you.”

“No problem.” She bounces up and down, jostling me. “Besties and roomies.”

I laugh at her, already feeling my mood lift at least for now.

She jumps up. “We will not remember this day as the day Josh made you sit and cry on my sofa; we are going to remember it as the day you moved in.”

“Can we order a pizza?” I smile up at her.

“Fuck yeah,” she shouts, grabbing her phone to order it.