Page 41 of Nailed

“Sammy!” a guy walking by exclaimed.

“Hey, bud!” Sam cried way too loudly.

They high-fived like teenagers.

Natasha turned to look, and I shrugged, cringing. “Sorry,” I whispered.

“Sam!” I said, louder now. I was this close to grabbing his ear and yanking.

“Oh, sorry,” Sam said. “Sarah, this is Ben, from…” Sam winced, clearly not remembering much from last night.

Ben was as tall as Sam and appeared equally hungover. But he wasn’t half as charming. Sam, for his part, looked like he had regrets now that the guy was standing there, chewing on a piece of toast with his mouth open.

“Sup?” the guy said to me, acknowledging my presence for the first time. But he frowned when he took me in. “Oh shit, you’re her!”

My stomach plunged. “Excuse me?”

“You’re the girl. From last night.” To Sam, he said, “She’s the one I was telling you about!”

“I don’t know you,” I said with increasing panic. Natasha’s back was to me, but Ben was so loud she had to be able to hear every word.

“Yeah, you are!” His voice was impossibly loud, his expression lit up now, like he’d found a prize.

Heads all around us were turning, including Natasha’s, though she still had her phone to her ear.

“Listen, whoever you think I am, I’m not her. Now if you’d—”

“Nope,” he insisted. “You’re who I saw.” He gave Sam a look like I’d lost my mind.

“Hey, man, maybe you’re mixing her up with someone else,” Sam said, looking deeply uncomfortable now.

If I wasn’t panicking, I’d be pissed.

But I was panicking. What had he seen? He wasn’t one of those guys standing by the door next to the gap in the tree, thank God. They’d been older. But who was he?

I stepped out of the line now, desperately trying to get them to follow me away from Natasha. “Buddy, you need to back the fuck off,” I said, close to tears now.

But the dude just stood there, and now he looked pissed that I’d dared speak like that to him.

“You know how I know it was you? It’s because it’s not often you see a lady coming out from behind a fuckin’ Christmas tree with a big-ass dude, like she was boinkin’ Santa Claus. And that lady had that little fuckin’ thing, right there on her chin, just like you.”

He pointed at the mole on my chin, nearly touching it. Sullying the affection Jamie had showered on it last night, and bringing me right back to middle school, when I couldn’t find the right words when they gagged at it.

The guy went to say more, but Sam had him by the collar, dragging him away.

He had to have put it together. Jamie in his tux. Me “boinking Santa” behind the Christmas tree.

I couldn’t even look at Natasha. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

Then I ran.

CHAPTER15

Jamie

Ifound her sitting on the floor in the room she’d given that talk in, her knees tucked tight against her chest, her head down.

“Sarah,” I said, relief flooding through me. When Sam called me, telling me what had happened, I’d started running and hadn’t stopped.

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