Page 21 of Wild Card

It was an awakening and I’d been holding back.

Not anymore.

3

WILLOW

“You know I love you,but you’re being stupid.” Bex pops the lid off her salad and glares at it with contempt.

“Is it safe to sit?” Lucas motions to the empty chair.

“Only if you’re ready for a talk-some-sense-into-Wills conversation.”

“Figures it’s girl talk.”

“Sit down and give a male perspective,” she snaps at him.

“This should be fucking great,” he mumbles, plopping next to me. “What did she do now? Kiss another stranger because she can’t kick a guy to the curb?”

“Something like that. The stranger isn’t a stranger anymore. He has a name, Talon Simms.”

“The guy with the shoulder? Now I get the tension.”

“Yes, she’s being stupid.”

“Backhanded insults not appreciated.” I spear my lettuce with more force than necessary. My mood has been shitty since Talon left yesterday.

“It’s not an insult, it’s an observation. The guy is obviously into you, and you’re turning him down because why? He’s a cop.”

“When I grew up, an officer of the law was a noble profession and well admired,” Lucas adds.

“When you grew up? What are you, my grandma? We’re the same age.”

“You’re playing it safe. Safe is not good for you. He-who-should-be-castrated was safe. And he was a bore,” Bex goes on.

I love the little names Bex comes up with when referring to Joe. But sometimes her words hit a little too close for comfort. “Another insult. Every time you call him a bore reflects on me.”

“Don’t be a baby.”

“I’m not being a baby. Seriously, I was with him for a long time.”

“Yes, and in that time, what did he ever do that was exciting? ”

“If he was that awful, what does that say about me?”

“That you have a soft spot for the unfortunate.”

“I’ve always wondered if you had to schedule sex with dipshit.”

I drop my fork, my appetite completely gone.

Lucas has been in school with Bex and me for years. He met Joseph a few times, but it was near the end of our relationship when things were basically dead.

He doesn’t know how correct he is about the sex.

“They did,” Bex outs me. “Well, until they stopped having sex altogether because he was getting it from the side chick. Which I thank him for not sharing the diseases.”

“Oh my God, can we not talk about this?” The essence of a headache throbs at my temple.

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