Page 44 of An Uphill Battle

“What about...” She taps her finger on her bottom lip a few times before her eyes gowide.

“What? Did you think of something?” I ask, smacking my palms down onto thetable.

“Uh, no.” Her eyes move from mine to the doorway, flitting nervously. “Don’t freak out or anything, but Drake ishere.”

“And he’s not alone,” Magnolia adds, taking a quick sip of her wine before making a sourface.

“What?” My breath whooshes out of me like someone’s squeezing mylungs.

“Yeah, he’s with some leggy brunette,” Seraphine tells me, and I already know it’s the same girl he was with when I ran into him. The girl who’s everything I’m not and who has everything Iwant.

Slowly, I twist around in my seat, my eyes instantly finding him. I fight back the tears when I see his hand on the small of her back, guiding her to a table smack-dab in the middle of the bar. The kind of table you sit at to beseen.

I can’t help but watch them, even though I want nothing more than to look away. Especially when his eyes lock onto mine and he lowers his lips to her ear, whispering God knows what while staring right atme.

It’s like a damn train wreck, dark and painful, but I can’t lookaway.

She throws her head back and laughs at whatever he just whispered to her, and I swear to God, I can feel my heart crumbling in my chest. Sam Hunt hit the nail on the head with“Break Up in a SmallTown.”

He eventually looks away from me to focus on his date, twirling a lock of hair around his fingers while listening intently to what she’s saying tohim.

“You know you’re totally hotter than she is, right?” Seraphine asks, pulling me from my self-inducedtorture.

I snort. “Sure, okay. In whatuniverse?”

“In this one. The one where that man has loved you since he was sixteen yearsold.”

“Seraphine—”

“No, you listen to me. Y’all both made some really dumb choices, and y’all communicate about as well as toddlers, but Iknowhe loves you and that you love him. So, forget that he’s over there parading around some rebound, because we both know that’s all she is. We’re gonna order another round, and come up with a foolproof plan to win you back yourman.”

Seraphine hops down from her tall chair and heads straight to the bar, which makes me laugh, because the only thing she can order is her own drink. “I guess I’ll go with her,” I say toMags.

“No, you sit. I’ll go. I really just want a water this timearound.”

“Hey, Mags, why do you always order wine when we go out and never drink more than a sip ortwo?”

She shrugs her shoulders and mumbles something about old habits dying hard before walking over to the bar to helpSeraphine.

Alone, with no distraction, my eyes slip back over to Drake and his date, and once again, he’s looking right at me. Only this time, he nudges his date, and she looks over at me too. The three of us are locked in the most awkward stare-down ever, until finally, she winks at me before leaning in and pressing a swift kiss to hischeek.

The sight of her lips on him burns like acid in my veins. I slam back the remnants of my drink in one gulp, and when Seraphine and Magnolia return to the table with fresh drinks in hand, I swallow that one down intwo.

“Whoa, girl, let’s slow down,” Seraphine murmurs, her voice soft and sympathetic. I glare at her, but it does nothing. “Don’t look at me like that, AzzyJo. The way I see it, you have two options. You can be Ms. Mopey Moperson, or we can get back to work on figuring up a way for you to win himback.”

I turn to look at Drake one last time, only to find they’re no longer at their table. Manically, I scan the room, my eyes finally settling on them as they sway and dip and roll together like they’ve done it a million times before on the dancefloor.

“Look at them,” I tell Seraphine and Magnolia. “Do I even stand a chance? Look at how happy helooks.”

“Just because a person is smiling, doesn’t mean they’re happy,” Magnolia cryptically mumbles into herglass.

“Mags, one day, you’re gonna open up to me about what went down in Charleston,” Seraphine tells her cousin, who’s already shaking her head in refusal. “Don’t worry, I don’t mean tonight. Right now, we need toscheme.”

Magnolia lets out a relieved breath now that the spotlight has shifted back to me and my man-troubles. “I’m all for scheming, but can we do it somewhere else? I think I might die if I have to see him touch her one moretime.”

The girls agree, and we all weave our way through the crowd to the bar to pay, since it seems our waitress has ghosted on us. We’re patiently waiting for the bartender to make her way down to us when I feel him. Not physically, but his presence. Discreetly, I roll my eyes up to my left, and sure enough, there he is, right beside me, his date intow.

“Good evenin’, Azalea,” he says, smiling just enough for that small, sexy gap in his front teeth to show. “I didn’t have a chance to introduce y’all the other week, but this is Kasey. Kasey, this is Azalea. We went to high school together.”We went to high school together? That’sit?

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