Page 132 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

Thank God I did. I couldn’t even imagine puking all over her car and house. She sat with me, holding back my hair while I heaved red shit into the toilet. At least I knew it wouldn’t stain.

When I was sure there couldn’t possibly be any more to get out, she gave me a toothbrush and set me up in a spare room with a hugeglass of water. She sat at the edge of the bed and waited a while, probably to make sure I wouldn’t be smothering myself in vomit anytime soon.

I wasn’t sure why she was taking such good care of me, but it felt nice. I was usually the one doing the taking care of.

At some point, I must’ve dozed off, because when I cracked open an eye, I was alone. But only in the room. I caught voices coming from down the hall, and I shifted my head to hear them better.

Stephen?

“Fuck!”

I rubbed my arm. My sister had a strong hook on her.

She punched me again in the same spot. “Dammit, Jillian! Will you fucking quit that?”

“Why didn’t you tell her you love her? I told you to do that.”

She stood there glaring at me with her hands on her hips. I’d been there for a whole five seconds, and already she was laying into me.

“Is she sleeping?” I asked.

“Yes, now answer my question.”

“It’s a good thing I didn’t tell her.” I was grateful my sister had come through and taken care of her, although it didn’t take much persuading. She genuinely liked her. Maybe too much, considering that she appeared ready to take me down right then. What the hell had they talked about?

“What does that mean?”

I thought about it for a moment. It made no fucking sense, but…. “Is that why she went back with her ex? Because I didn’t say I loved her after we slept together?” That did not sound like a Perry move.

“Back with her ex? All right, enough of this bullshit. Both of you are speaking gibberish. How can two people who care so much about each other be so damn far apart on the page? You just need to talk to each other as soon as possible. End of story.”

“I saw her, Jillian. Early Sunday morning when I was driving home from work. I passed by that little tattoo shop on Beecher and had to do a double-take. I slowed down enough to see her walking out with her ex. Then she hugged him and when her shirt rose up, I saw the fucking bandage. He’d always wanted her to get inked for him, and she mentioned that if she ever had it done, it’d be on her hip.” I was wrecked all over again just mentioning it.

“And then what happened?”

“I don’t fucking know.” I tugged a handful of hair. Reminiscing about this shit was not a high point of my day. “I took off, and that’s when I came here to sleep.”

“Hmm. Why didn’t you tell me about this then?”

“You think I wanted to talk? I just wanted to forget.”

There’d been no fucking way I was going to have a gab session with my sister that morning. And there’d been no fucking way I was going home either. I’d been completely cashed and needed to sleep hard. Seeing her with Dre damn near broke me, and I’d been in no shape to deal with anything.

“So you just assumed they were back together. You never once thought there could be another explanation?”

“Fuck, Jillian. I’d just come off forty-eight hours of no sleep. I shouldn’t even have been driving. Maybe I shouldn’t have believed it then, but coming home later to find she’d moved out was the final blow.” I clenched my teeth together. Discovering she was gone had just tied it all together. In one massive fucked-up, drop-kicked to thechest, nailed-to-the heart vile-ass bow.

“She didn’t once talk about another guy last night. Not even close. But she did mention a Stefanie.”

“What about her?”

She fucking slugged me again. “You had sex with her right after Perry? What the hell’s wrong with you?”

“What?”What the fuck is going on here?“No, I didn’t. Why would you say that?”

“Well, that’s what Perry thinks. Who is this woman, anyway?”

I paced around the room. Good thing Daniel was at a friend’s for the night because this was one messed-up conversation. Jillian’s nasty looks alone were enough to wake the dead.

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