Page 48 of Last First Love
I'll go somewhere that nobody knows me or anything about my life. And I won't have to deal with any of this mess he's made.
Ken
It's been three weeks since I put my plan into action, but I haven't seen Lily even one time. I've driven by her house so often that someone's going to get the wrong idea and call the police, but her lights are always off and it seems like nobody's there. She's not answering her phone or her texts from me either.
I know because I've tried calling her maybe a few thousand times. I've tried texting her about that many times too, but nothing. It's like she's disappeared from Valentine altogether.
I made the mistake of asking Darcy if she'd seen her, and got written up for insubordination and sent home to stew without pay for three days. And yeah, it was probably bullshit but I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe I deserved it a little bit. Or a lot.
Even a bonehead like me can figure out that I've obviously done the wrong thing with Lily, and I know that Darcy is her friend. She's obviously picked sides in the battle I didn't want to have, and she's not coming down in my favor.
I'd called Elliott to ask about Lily, but all he'd said was that he'd told me so. Then he'd hung up on me. Definitely a dead end there, but if she was still giving me the cold shoulder, I didn't expect to be able to turn to him for help.
And yeah, okay. He had told me that she was stubborn and wasn't likely to give me a chance to change her mind. But I had to at least try it, didn't I? I owed that to myself, to her. To what our relationship could have been like if my idea had actually worked.
But now we're closing in on the wedding day and nobody will even tell me if Lily's coming back to town for the whole thing. I can't stand thinking that my miscalculation has sent her into hiding, but I also can't come up with any other explanation as to where she is. If she'd talk to me, I feel like I could make her easily understand that my intentions were good at least. But it's as if she's been erased from my life entirely.
That's what's leads up to me going to a sketchy place on the other side of town called the Tap Room. Aaron came with me after I'd begged him and paid for a babysitter, thank heaven, because I really need some good advice this time. I've been listening to the wrong people on this one, including the infamous Daniels Junior. I definitely need a serious-minded man's opinion about what to do now because if anyone understands how to win a girl, it's him.
"Why are we at this shitty bar anyway?" Aaron glares at me like it's my fault, and he's right. It is.
The very next time I'd tried to go to Riddles, K.T. had her fiancé Reed haul me right back out the front door and tell me I wasn't welcome at the bar anymore. Not only had I majorly blown it with Lily, but now I'd also lost my favorite place to hang out in town too.
Everything at the Tap Room is like a crappy, watered down version of Riddles. The music is louder and the beer is waterier. The women are less pretty and the food is greasier. It's horrible and only makes me feel the ache of my losses more acutely, but it suits the deep dark funk I'm in just fine.
"Because I'm an idiot," I mutter, probably a little too low for him to hear me.
"Hell, I'll drink to that." He clinks a vaguely greasy looking mug against mine and then lifts it and pours a large amount down his throat. He claps me on the back. "To my friend, Daniels, the biggest idiot in Valentine."
Aaron's being too damn loud, even at this noisy, grubby ass bar. A pair of heavily made up women at the pool table look over at the commotion and then pin me with their unfriendly glares.
"Oh no. You've got to be kidding me." I wipe my hand across my face, but the women are still there, giving me the death glare. I don't recognize them specifically, but I recognize their type and the look that they're giving me. I've definitely smashed and dashed with one of these women. Possibly both.
Aaron looks over at me. "Now what's your problem? You're probably the only person in town who is actually banned from Riddles right now and look where that leaves us." He gestures at the sagging wood paneling and the stench of cooking grease. "In paradise."
I shush him. "Would you please knock it off? I've got to ask you for some advice about the thing with Lily—" I shove him. "Don't look at me like that. You're a smart man. You can help me."
He shakes his head. "I would have turned down your invitation if I'd known it was going to be like this. I don't have anything to say to you on that topic. Period."
My mouth drops open and my voice rises, possibly sounding a little bit hysterical. "You're supposed to help me. It's part of the Bro Code. We stick together in cases of bro-mergency."
Aaron shakes his head. "Your bad decisions do not make this an emergency for me."
"Come on. You were married to your college sweetheart, living the dream. You are absolutely the only man who can help me right now." I run my hand through my hair, mussing it up. "I need your advice. I promise I'm listening."
He shakes his head. "I'm the last man on earth who should be giving you advice right now. Especially about this kind of thing." He gives me a lopsided grimace that might pass for a smile on another person's face. "Let's drink until we forget about all our dumb man mistakes."
"No, we can't do that. I've been stewing for weeks. I need to fix this." I grip his arm imploringly.
"Take your hands off me. Your asshole-ery might be contagious, and I'm already in bad enough shape. Apparently."
I take a moment and really look at Aaron. He looks like hell. Like he's been dragged through a giant lake of self-pity for the last few weeks, ever since I showed up at his place earlier. Huh.
"Is there something you want to talk to me about?" I slide his glass toward him. "I feel like there's something you want to get off your chest, and that it involves a certain Prom Queen whose name starts with a T and ends with a oni D’Souza."
He snorts. "Nice of you to notice that maybe something is happening with someone other than your own asshole self. Congratulations on that."
He clinks his glass to mine, long since forgotten on the table. "To Daniels, the asshole." He's being too loud again, and it's beyond horrible.
