Page 68 of Text Me Baby One More Time

“When you say be with him, you mean…”

I sigh. “I was in love with him, Monty.”

Her fork clatters to the plate and I glance over at her. She’s shocked.

“But you didn’t even know him!”

“Says the girl who met her boyfriend in a bar bathroom then proceeded to text him for weeks and weeks before falling in love with him.”

Her shoulders sag in defeat.

“I didn’t know him?” I challenge.

She shakes her head. “No, no, you’re right.” She stabs another piece of pancake and lifts her fork to her mouth. “Keep going.”

I flip the pancake and continue. “Like I said, I was in love with him, like move across the goddamn country and leave my life behind kind of love. I was delusional.”

“You were young.”

“I was stupid,” I argue. “I was so stupid because it turned out he didn’t love me like I thought he did.”

“What does that mean?”

The night of Shep’s betrayal runs through my mind, but I refuse to relive that torment in story form with Monty.

The memories are bad enough.

“It’s not important. We’ll just say it didn’t work out.”

“But you’ll tell me eventually, right?”

“Maybe when you’re older,” I tease. It’s something I’ve always told her and something that’s always annoyed her, because I’m only five minutes older than she is.

“Brat.”

I point the spatula her way. “First, I cannot believe you just called me a brat. Second, now I’m really not telling you.”

She rolls her eyes and I laugh. I’ve always loved the sassy side of my sister.

“Anyway, things didn’t work out, so we went our separate ways, but I still had to see him all the time considering we attended the same college. Luckily Allie was kind enough to not try to force me to attend group dates with him, but that didn’t stop him from whoring around campus.” I grit my teeth together at the thought of seeing Shep with anyone other than me.

Not that I haven’t seen it plenty of times—I have—but it doesn’t make it hurt any less, even now.

“What does that have to do with now?”

“Well, he’s kind of…back in my life.”

“Because of the wedding, right? That should be over soon because your friends are loony enough to spring a wedding on everyone that’s less than two months away.”

“Breathe before you get yourself all worked up,” I tell her, finding it very amusing how the thought of someone else rushing their big day makesherstressed out.

Only Monty.

“He’s back because of the wedding, but there’s more. I…well, I’m kind of whoring myself out for my career.”

Her green eyes grow three times in size. “You mean you’re sleeping with him for ajob?”

“What? No! I’m sleeping with him because he’s hot. The job part is just a bonus.” The words I just spoke hit me and I quickly backtrack. “Wait—no! I’mnotsleeping with him.”

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