Page 128 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

Adam and I exchanged a smirk. There was no way she was leaving on her own two legs. I was also sure she’d lose the function of the rest of her body as well. Probably any moment now.

“Don’t you want to pace yourself?” I said. “Make the night last longer?”

“It’s my going-away party.”

“I know.”

“I’m going away.” I shook my head, wondering if I got this scattered after a crapload of alcohol. She leaned over to hug me, and John caught her before she faceplanted. “I’m so happy you came, Perry. To see me go away.”

I smiled. “Me too.”

Holy fuck. Guess who just walked in the door? My throat had suddenly grown its own heartbeat. Seeing him again ripped me even wider apart. “What is he doing here?” I hissed at Adam. When I’d asked him before if he thought Stephen would show—again, without wanting him to ask why I was asking—he’d told me not likely since they were sending him on a business trip in the early morning.

“What’s who doing where?” Kate yelled. Dammit. This wasn’t good. All her filters had been blasted away.

“You said he had to leave for San Diego in the morning.”

“He does.”

“Ooh, how fun,” she said. “Is he going to Sea World?”

“He’s going to reconfigure—”

“Re-what?”

“Reconfigure.”

A blank look crossed her face. “Re-trigger?”

“He’s going to the data center out there to fix shit.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say so?”

Meanwhile, during their little exchange, I was holding onto the table to keep from spinning off my chair. The sight of him hurt so, so bad. Thank God he was no longer in our building. I noticed a bunch of new shots had been delivered so I took one. All it did was make my dry mouth pastier, and buzz me up more. And make me miss him more.

“Thatta girl,” Kate said as her eyes started to droop.

I glanced around. The other foursome in our drinking party was involved in their own conversation, and a couple of the other tables were filled with Operations people. Everyone looked to be having a good time. That was nice….Why the fuck can’t I find Stephen?

“Do you think his trip was canceled?” I asked Adam.

He raised an eyebrow. “No. He’s here because I called him.”

“You what!”

“Aww, that’s nice,” Kate said, slumping further and whispering something into John’s ear.

“Excuse us for a bit. I need to carry my wife to the bathroom.”

As soon as they were gone, I scooted over to the chair next to Adam. “Why the hell would you call him?” Wait, was I happy about that or not? I couldn’t decide. Those atomic things were frying my brain.

“He asked me to let him know if you’d be here tonight.” He smiled. “Interesting, huh?”

My butterflies were doing backflips. I didn’t want this reaction. I wanted to put Stephen’s balls in a bear clamp. He was just another best friend who’d fucked me over, and the last thing I cared to do was feel excited that he was in the same room as me.

“I think we need more shots.” I stood up, swaying.

“Perry….”

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