Page 32 of How to Get Revenge on a Cheating Ex
I don’t deny it, but I’m also not going to let it go. “Would it be so horrible if people thought we were hooking up?”
Her eyes lock on mine. She knows exactly where I’m going with this.
Annoying or not, Bailey is nothing if not smart.
I hold her stare. “Do you want to make Grayson pay, Bailey?”
Her eyes flash with too many emotions for me to clock. There’s anger and fear, confusion and panic.
I lean back in my seat. “Last night you said you didn’t think you’d forgive him.”
Her lips press together and her cheeks flush a deeper shade of pink.
I tap the steering wheel, my fingers quietly padding out a steady rhythm as I watch her think.
It’s true, thinking isn’t something you can normally watch someone do, but I swear I can see the wheels turning behind those pretty blue eyes of hers.
She doesn’t glance away from me and I have way too much time to just...look at her. Maybe it’s being back here at this place we used to go to as kids, but I’m suddenly very aware of how much she’s changed since the last time we were here.
Physically, I mean. She’s always been a type-A little nerd. But these days...
She still has the same big blue eyes that could fool a guy into thinking she’s helpless.
She’s not. Never has been.
But the rest of her is all grown up. There’s a reason Grayson singled her out. He could’ve had any girl in our class, but hetook one look at Bailey, with her high cheekbones and pointed chin, the full lips and the bright eyes, and he saw what most had overlooked.
Little Bailey Tucker had turned into a hottie when no one was paying attention.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” she finally says.
I can’t hide my disappointment. That answer is beneath her. She’s not stupid and she doesn’t play the part well. “You never answered my question, Smurfette.” I know I don’t have to spell it out for her. But I do anyway, speaking slowly as if to a child. “Do you want to make Grayson pay?”
Her lips part, and with her eyes all wide like that, she actually looks really sweet. Kind of vulnerable and fragile.
But this is Bailey Tucker, and she’s definitely not sweet—not to me, at least.
On cue, she glares at me. “Don’t you think that’s a little juvenile?”
I grin. “Juvenile’s my middle name.”
“Richardis your middle name.”
I do my best Grayson impersonation. “Aww, Bae, you remember my middle name. I’m touched.”
Her lips press into a thin line and her nostrils flare. I think I see a twitch near her eye and for half a second I think maybe she’ll explode.
She doesn’t. Of course, she doesn’t. This is Bailey, queen of control.
“Don’t call me Bae.” She’s so calm it makes me want to scream on her behalf.
I turn away with a loud exhale. Just once I’d like to see her lose her cool like a normal person. Just once I wish she’d admit that she’s human and not Grayson’s perfect little trophy wife in the making.
“Your aunt is waving to us.” Her voice is stiff and weird, and when I glance over I see it’s because she’s smiling at my Aunt Ruth who’s standing at the edge of the deck where a grill is smoking and a group of the older relatives are playing cards. “We should go join them.”
“You haven’t given me an answer.” I regret those words instantly.
I’m actually regretting a lot of things right now.
