Page 12 of Confessions of a High School Guidance Counselor

But because Dax dumped me for someone else, I felt like the little shreds of toilet paper on the floor. Dirty and destined for the trash can.

Dax and I were engaged. Even though we hadn’t set a date yet, marriage was on the horizon. But here I was, looking for a rebound instead. I rubbed my temples. What a mess.

My phone began ringing from its place in my purse, and I pulled it out, groaning at the sight of my mother’s name on the screen. Instead of answering, I hit reject and resumed rubbing my temples, trying to breathe evenly.

My phone rang again. Frustration rising in my chest, I grabbed it and answered. “What, Mother?”

“That’s not how you greet the woman who raised you,” my mother said in a cold, emotionless voice she’d perfected over the years.

“I wasn’t aware I was talking to my nanny,” I said.

“You think you’re so funny.”

I let out a sigh. “I’m hanging up.”

“That’s interesting, because I heard the wedding’s off and that you were getting evicted. I thought you might like some assistance.”

Damn Mrs. Cronckle.

I don’t know how, but I knew the gossip had started with her.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I’m staying with Mara.”

My mother’s signature disappointed sigh came through the phone. “I don’t understand why you insist on being difficult. You know Rex is open to a marriage between the two of you. He would take care of you. And if you’re not interested in him, I could introduce you to Walter and—”

I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.” (Although this dress and my landlord’s threat of eviction could make a strong case for the opposing side.)

“We raised you better than this,” Mother said. “Always the best schools, one-on-one music and tennis lessons. We traveled on private jets and used proper etiquette at the dinner table. And you throw that away for what? To work with snot-nosed children as a teacher?”

“Not that you care, Mother, but I’m a guidance counselor. I helphigh schoolstudents make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives. I’m there for them, because there wasn’t always someone there for me.”

“Now hold on one minute—”

“I’d love to stay on and chat about what a disappointment I am to the Melrose family name, but I’ve got better things to do.” Or people, for that matter.

I hung up and turned my phone to silent. Talking to my mother always made me so angry. They’d cut me off for my decision to go to college instead of simply learning how to manage a household and marrying well. Without their support to get me by, I’d worked extra jobs, I’d side hustled, I’d graduated summa cum laude. I could get over Dax, just like I got over my parents’ lack of support.

Fueled by rage (and rum and Coke), I left the stall, washed my hands, and walked toward the dance floor, determined to have the rebound Mara thought I could have.

That was until I ran into a guy, who spilled his drink all over my dress.

I looked down at the beer covering my slutty Vegas dress, then up into the face of the most attractive man I’d ever laid eyes on.

Dax didn’t have anything on him. Hell, Liam Hemsworth, the Australian god who used to hang on my wall and got covered in lipstick, didn’t compare.

My mouth opened and closed like a fish as I took in this stranger. Holy Paul Rudd lookalike with fifty shades of gray in his dark brown hair.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, touching my forearm. “I should have been more careful.”

I would have spoken, you know, like a normal human being, if his hand hadn’t been on my arm.

“You must be so frustrated.”

Yeah, sexually.

Taking my silence for irritation, he apologized again and said, “Let me help you get cleaned up.”

I nodded, still too tongue-tied to speak.

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