Page 18 of Where We Bloom

His eyes jerk up to mine, and he sneers. “What, do you think you’re better than me or something?”

“Or something. You have a good night.”

I go to walk around him, but he grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop, and I round on him, my patience long gone.

“Oh, hell no,” I yell in his face. “I saiddon’t fucking touch me, you asshole. Who the hell do you think you are? Keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll remove them from your ugly body.”

“You’re a fat cunt,” he says, holding his hands up. “Jesus, try to be nice to a bitch.”

“No. You weren’t being nice. You were being a slimy, creepy, predatory asshole. No one, notonewoman in this bar, wants that from you or anyone else. Learn some fucking manners, you piece of shit.”

I walk away, and the guys at the pool table applaud.

“We were about to come help, but you didn’t need it,” one of them says with a proud smile. “He won’t bother you again.”

“No. He won’t.”

With my chin high, I return to my table, and my friends are all watching me with wide eyes.

“What?”

“You’re so fucking badass, Bee.” Alex shakes her head. “Like,Iwould do you right now.”

I laugh and take a sip of my drink. “I don’t get assholes like that. Get some liquid courage in them, andthey think they’re the boss of everything. I’d have punched him if I had to.”

“Have you taken self-defense classes?” Skyla asks me.

“I have four older brothers,” I remind her with a smirk. “They taught me to punch before I started kindergarten. That asshole doesn’t scare me. I outweigh him by a solid fifty pounds.”

There’s a heartbeat of silence, and then more laughter around me, and the jerk is forgotten.

We all get up to dance, and when we return to the table, we order fresh drinks—because you just never know—and eat some more of our food.

I admit, the room is a little fuzzy from the alcohol and the endorphins of a good night spent with my girls.

“I’m so getting laid tonight,” Skyla says with a sloppy smile. “I know it’s your brother, Bee, and I apologize, but holy shite, the man knows what he’s doing. He can do this thing with his fingers that I can’t get enough of.”

“Ew.”

“Bridger, too,” Dani agrees. I feel a little sick to my stomach at the thought of my brothers having sex. “The orgasms are insane with that man. And his mouth! He says the sexiest things.”

“Yes!” Skyla high-fives Dani, making me blink. “The orgasms! I didn’t know it was possible to have that many in one night.”

“If you keep talking about my brothers”—my words slur slightly—“I’ll talk about yours, my Irish friend.”

Skyla laughs, waving me off. “I don’t honestly care. Connor’s almost forty. The man obviouslyhas sex.”

“And he’s too good at it.” I don’t know why that makes me grumpy. Probably because it’s been so long since he did it withme, so he’s probably moved on to having it with someone else.

That lucky bitch.

I want to kill her, whoever she is.

“Anything new happening there?” Alex asks, and I shake my head.

“Nothing’s going to happen, either.”

“You never know,” Dani replies, but I sigh and eat a mozzarella stick.