Page 45 of Use Me

I closed my eyes, not turning toward him. Instead, I reached for my glass again.

Someone—probably Corey—slapped me on the back. “I haven’t seen you in …”

“Not long enough,” I spat, still not looking at him.

“What, you’re too famous for your old high school pal?”

I drank the rest of my drink and called to Tommy, “I’ll take my bill now.”

Corey laughed. “You’re running like you did in high school?”

I stood and once again got within inches of a person, my blood racing. I was now two inches taller than him, and after the day I’d had, I would love to smash his face in. “Like in high school?” I mocked. “You were a fucking prick in high school, and just like then, I want nothing to do with you.”

“Here you go, Rhys,” Tommy said. I looked over to see he was trying to hand me my credit card, the bill, and a pen.

“Aw, you running home to Mommy?”

I took the stuff from Tommy and scribbled my name. Then I turned back to Corey. “You’re pushing forty now. Grow the fuck up.”

“You ain’t shit, Cole. You may have taken my position on the ice in high school, but neither one of us made it to the pros.”

I didn’t stop as I kept walking toward the door. Apparently, he was still bitter that I’d taken his starting position in high school. I had no idea what he did after high school, but if he were good enough, he would have been drafted. It wasn’t my fault.

I assumed Corey would follow me and we’d fight. I was ready. My fists were clenched as I walked in the direction of my place, but when I turned around a few feet down the street, there was no one behind me. Snow started to cool my anger, and when I made it to my building, I took the elevator up to my floor wanting to crawl into bed and wake up in the morning to start a new day. A day that would hopefully be better. But as I made my way down the hall toward my door, I noticed someone sitting on the floor.

“Cupcake.” I knelt down in front of her and saw tears streaming down her face. “What’s wrong?”

Her teary eyes looked up at me. “I’m so stupid.”

“Did that guy hurt you?” I brushed a tear away with my thumb as my heart clenched in my chest waiting for the answer. After today, I’d kill this guy especially for hurting the person I cared so much about.

She shook her head. “No, but he was going to.”

My blood that had thawed during my walk home in the snow started to boil again. “What do you mean?”

“Everything was off about the date, and when I was going to the restroom to call Jaime so she could call me back and get me out of the date, I saw him slip something in my wine.”

My heart stopped and my muscles tensed. “Did you drink it?”

She balked. “Of course not! I left.”

My body instantly relaxed and I moved to sit beside her. “Good.”

“He knew about you and my ex.”

“What?”

Ashtyn shrugged. “He said he Facebook stalked me, but my profile has always been private. Plus, I deleted every picture of me and my ex.”

“Maybe he did this before the day you met him?”

“Oh, and he’s the guy from Judy’s who tried to pick me up when you pretended to be my boyfriend.”

“Hmmm …” I rubbed my chin as I tried to process everything she was saying. She rested her head on my shoulder, and I brought her closer to me. “So let me get this straight. The guy that came up to you at Judy’s the night we met is the same guy who you ran into getting coffee?” She nodded. “And he knows about your ex and obviously me?”

“Well, I think he knows about you since he knew who you were that night too.”

“But you deleted all old pictures of your ex on Facebook?” I never checked because I didn’t want to see if she had. We were only using each other for sex, and even though I wanted more with her, I couldn’t bring myself to look because I knew it would hurt since she obviously still had feelings for him.