Page 68 of Playboy For Hire

“You didn’t have to. I know you too well. You’re too much of a romantic. I mean, look what happened with—whoa. Speak of the devil.”

I looked at Jae sharply, then followed his gaze to see Brandon walking towards us, drink in hand.

Jae shook his head. “I think I’m gonna go get another drink. Let the two of you talk.”

“No, Jae, please don’t—”

“I’m only going to yell at him if I stick around. And I know you don’t like making a scene.” He stood up, brushing his trouser legs free of errant grains of sand. “I’ll be at the bar if you need me.”

“You still—”

But it was too late. Jae was already walking away. He gave Brandon a cool nod and passed right by him. I watched him leave, frustrated. I loved Jae, but I could have used some extra support right now.

Brandon smiled as he approached, then pointed his beer bottle at the chair Jae had vacated. “Is this seat taken?”

I looked up at him, already tired. “What do you want?”

“Well, that’s a nice greeting.” He flopped down into the empty chair. “‘Hey, Quinn, how are you?’ ‘I’m great Brandon, and yourself?’ ‘Oh, fine, thanks.’” He sipped his Corona and smiled again. “That’s another way we could begin our conversation.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Just out with friends.” He smiled at me. “Saw you over here and thought I’d come say hello. Didn’t want to be rude.”

The thing of it was, his smile was still gorgeous. His eyes still crinkled at the corners, his laugh was still inviting. It was a pity that when someone broke up with you, they didn’t immediately turn into a troll. But no, Brandon was as good-looking as ever, unfortunately.

I half-smiled, thinking of Ryder. Would he call Brandon ‘good-looking’ too? Then I remembered who was sitting right next to me, and my smile faded.

“Oh, come on,” Brandon said. “I just got here, and you’re already giving me that look. Lighten up, Quinn. Are you only here with Jae-won? Where’s your boyfriend?”

“What—” I began, then caught myself before saying, ‘what boyfriend’ out loud. “He’s busy,” I said instead.

“With what, kindergarten?” Brandon chuckled, enjoying his own joke. “He’s a little young for you, isn’t he?”

I flushed with anger. Yes, Ryder was younger than I was. But Brandon was in no position to pass judgement on who I dated.

“He’s at work,” I snapped. “Seriously, Brandon. What do you want?”

He spread his hands. “Just to talk, I swear. It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to do that.”

“You’re the one who said we shouldn’t talk anymore. I thought you didn’t want people asking questions.”

“That was months ago. Now that Julie and I are engaged, I think it’d be weirder if we don’t talk. After all, we’re going to be family soon.”

“Forgive me if I’m not interested in spending time with someone who laughed when I asked why we never went out in public together.”

“I didn’t laugh. I was surprised, is all,” Brandon said.

“Yeah, at the idea that someone like you would ever want to be with me where other people could see.”

“It wasn’t you. I told you, I just needed time.”

“Yeah, you told me that every fucking week. You just needed a little more time until you were ready. And I believed you—right up until you dumped me, and I found out you’d been dating Julie for three months at that point.”

“Quinn, I know you’re upset—”

“Upset?” I glared at him. “You think this is meupset? This is nothing. This is me calm, with six months to adjust to what you did. You cheated on me, Brandon. With my own cousin. And now you want me to act like it never happened, and like we can be friends?”

“It wasn’t cheating,” Brandon said. “You and I were never really together.”

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