Page 78 of How to Ruin Your Ex's Wedding
“You’re worrying about nothing,” Crystal soothes.
“No.” Tabatha tries to push herself up, using the toilet seat as leverage. I’m reminded briefly of my bowling alley restroom tryst with Trix and do my best not to shudder.
“She okay?” I turn and see Angela, Maisey, and Gregor at the door
“I think we just need to get her home.”
“I’ll call the limo.” Angela pulls her phone out and starts the call, putting her finger in the opposite ear to hear better.
“Poor baby,” Maisey murmurs. Gregor pats her on the shoulder reassuringly. She reaches up and covers his hand with hers.
Interesting.
Crystal and I help Tabatha stand, but she falls before she’s even straightened. I pick her up. “Let’s do this quickly before anyone realizes who she is. Where’s the limo going to be?”
“Back entrance,” Angela says. “I’ll go make sure he’s there.”
Tabatha snuggles against my chest, gripping my shirt in her fist. “Pax?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Why didn’t it work, Pax?”
“Why didn’t what work?”
“Us. Why didn’t we work?” And then she passes out cold. Even if she hadn’t, I didn’t have an answer for her. Not a finite one anyway. There are a million reasons why relationships don’t work. And probably more than that for why she and I didn’t work. Youth. Pride. Reality TV. Stupidity. Immaturity.
I walk us through the club quickly, and out the back door. I’m fairly certain we weren’t seen and that no one has realized it’s Tabby and she’s drunk. The girls clamor in the limo and I move to lie Tabatha down on the seat.
“No.” She tightens her grasp on my shirt. “Don’t leave.”
I try to loosen her fingers. “Tabs, the limo is going to take you home, okay. Crystal and Angela are here, so is Maisey.”
“Oh, I love Maisey,” she slurs. “She’s my new friend.”
I smile down at her and attempt to loosen her fingers again.
“Please?” She looks up at me, her green eyes wide. I’m halfway inside the limo anyway. I look back at Gregor, and he shrugs. So, I climb in and he follows me. I sit on the back bench next to Crystal. Angela and Maisey sit on the side seats, while Gregor takes up the other bench seat. Tabatha curls her lithe body onto my lap. Her bare legs go on forever. I have to put my hand on her calf to hold her in place. I don’t have a choice.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
Her skin burns where I touch her. A sure sign that if hell exists, I’ll be banished to it for touching a woman who no longer belongs to me. She was magnificent tonight. Her hair wild, her outfit sexy as hell, dancing like the carefree girl I remember. When I compare the dancing girl with the woman planning a wedding with Wipplecock, it’s easy to see how restrained she’s become. Whether that’s by choice or by his influence, I’m not sure.
It makes the most sense for the limo to drop off Crystal first, then Angela, Maisey, Tabatha, and Gregor. I’ll just crash at Gregor’s house rather than ask the guy to take me all the way over to Port Orchard. We wait to make sure both Crystal and Angela get into their homes okay. When we get to Maisey’s house, Gregor gets out with her and walks her to her door. She kisses him on the cheek before going inside the house. He returns to the limo with a large smile on his face.
“Gregor and Maisey, sittin’ in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” I sing.
“I like her, man.”
“You say that with every girl you meet,” I tease.
“I know, but this is different.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. I feel different. Patient, maybe?”
“That would be a new one for you, Casanova.” In addition to really wanting a relationship, Gregor also falls for women way too fast. And it usually results in disaster and he gets hurt. Women come on strong because he’s handsome, rich, and famous. He falls hard. When it becomes apparent they aren’t genuine, he’s left dazed and confused.
