Page 15 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“It didn’t, and that’s the fucking point! Are you accusing me of lying to you?”

He threw his head back. “Holy shit, Perry.”

Yeah, I was exasperating. I knew that. It also felt like I had no control over it. I was outside myself observing the way I was acting, and I didn’t like what I was seeing. But I didn’t care. Kind of like PMS, when you’re throwing that plate across the room, and you know you shouldn’t be doing it, but you do it anyway. Because at the time, you don’t give a shit.

“I asked you a question, Dre.”

“No, I’m not accusing you of anything. Jesus, just drop it already.”

“Good. Because I never fucked him, and I have no intentions of fucking him.”

“Fucking who?”

I swung my head around. “Christa? What are you doing here?”

She kissed my cheek, then whispered in my ear, “When you told me you were going out with Dre tonight, I was afraid he wouldn’tshow again and you’d be stuck here alone. I came as soon as I could.”

“Aww.” I gave her a big hug. “That’s so sweet of you, but you could have just called first and saved yourself the trip.”

We rode together so I wouldn’t have been waiting there by myself anyway, but she was a good friend to think of me like that. I glanced at Dre, who didn’t look as pleased as I was that she’d shown up.

“No biggie,” she said, pulling up a chair. “I could use some company anyway.”

I eyed her outfit. Or lack of one. It wasn’t hard to guess what she meant by ‘company.’ She crossed her legs and her itty-bitty skirt disappeared.

“Well, you do know we’re in a sports bar, right? This isn’t Club JoJo’s.” She didn’t blend in too well with the jeans and T-shirts crowd.

“Which you still owe me a visit to, by the way.” She leaned over the table towards Dre and patted his hand. “Don’t worry, sweetie. In light of recent developments, whenever your girlfriend and I go out, I’ll be the only one picking up guys from now on.”

Her enormous boobs were spilling all over the table. To his credit, he barely gave her a glance. I wouldn’t have faulted him if he had; I couldn’t even stop staring at them. “I’m not worried, Christa,” he muttered.

“Good to know.” She patted his hand once more, then straightened. “So, how’d your first official day go?” she asked me.

“Fantastic,” I said loudly. “Thanks for asking.”See? That wasn’t so hard, was it, Dre?

“You’ll have to set me up with all your hot, single coworkers. There aren’t too many eligible men coming into the clinic wanting Botox and fillers.”

I laughed. “Okay, will do.”

“So… fucking who?”

“What?”

“When I first got here, you were talking about fucking someone.Of course, that intrigued me. So spill.”

“No, I was talking about the opposite, actually.” I pointed at the intruder’s table.

Christa squinted, then popped them wide. She licked her lips. “Oooh, him again.”

At that moment, he looked over and smiled. I sharply turned my head, but she continued staring. Was he continuing to stare back at her as well? If so… whatever.

“Yeah, he stopped by our table earlier to say hi,” I said. I wanted to tell her more, like how he now knew my name, but it’d have to wait until later.

Christa smirked. “How thoughtful of him.”

“How full of himself to think he was welcome.”

She painted her lips with her finger. “Well, if you’re not interested, do you mind if I take a crack? Unless this little agreement”—she waved her hand between Dre and me—“is just a passing phase.”

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