Page 110 of How to Get Revenge on a Cheating Ex
“You know you can talk to us, right?” Toni says. “You can trust us.”
I give her a blank stare. “CanI? Because I’m pretty sure the last secret I shared with you was just outed to the world.”
She winces. “I really am sorry about that.”
I shrug, but I’m not exactly feeling nonchalant at the moment. Sorry isn’t cutting it right now. In fact, anger is simmering in my gut the more these two come at me from their high horse.
I know it’s not logical to blame Toni for the way things ended with Zack, but I can’t shake it either. I can’t help but wonder how things might have gone if our secret hadn’t been spilled so publicly.
And so while I know I should drop it...I don’t. “Why, Toni? I mean, I know you were drunk, but was that all it was?” I remember vividly those moments right after she puked at my feet.And maybe I was still a little mad at you.“Was this some sort of payback because I was a crappy friend?”
Toni shakes her head and I can see her regret.
Part of me feels guilty for making her feel bad, and I can see Janie’s discomfort as her eyes dart from me to Toni and back again.
But they want me to air my feelings, right? Well, here we go. Saint Bailey would have let this slide, but that’s not me anymore.
I might not know what I’m going to say to Zack or how I’m going to handle his rejection, but this is a start.
“I honestly don’t know,” Toni says. She heads past me and sinks down onto the couch. “I want to say it was a mistake, but Ithink maybe, if I’m being honest, there’s some resentment there, and when I got drunk, it sort of...slipped out.”
We’re silent for a long moment, and I fall onto the couch beside her as the silence stretches between us.
I still feel like an ass for how I handled things between us years ago, but it’s hard not to feel hurt right now, too.
Janie stands in front of us with her arms crossed. “Do you know what you two are?”
I glance at Toni, and the two of us look up at Janie. “What?” I say.
She waves a finger between us. “You’re Baby and Lisa.”
We stare at her for a long moment until Toni finally says, “Wait, like, fromDirty Dancing?”
She nods, looking far too smug for a chick who’s about to use aDirty Dancingmetaphor as therapy. “Exactly. This is like when Baby goes off with the cool kids and poor Lisa is stuck doing the talent show?—”
“I thought Lisa was happy to do the talent show,” I say.
This earns me stares from both of them as Janie says wearily, “Bailey, no one wants to do the talent show.”
Toni gives me a little shrug, like she kinda agrees.
“But you like the theater,” I say.
“Yeah, Ilovemy drama friends, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to hang out with a different crowd now and again. Have some new experiences. Not to mention, I would’ve been withyou.” She toys with the hem of the nightshirt I loaned her. “It’s not fun being left behind.”
I open my mouth to protest, but shut it quickly. I should have included her, and I know it. This isn’t news, but I haven’t really apologized. Not the way I should have. “I’m sorry, Toni. I was a crappy, self-absorbed friend. You’re right,” I say. “And I was wrong.”
She meets my gaze levelly for a long moment, and then her lips twitch up at the corners and she drops her voice several octaves. “When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.”
I burst out in a laugh that feels strange when my chest still feels so empty. “That is the worst Jerry Orbach impersonation I’ve ever heard.”
She shrugs, and I look up to a smug Janie looking awfully pleased with herself.
“See?” Janie says. “You two are like Baby and Lisa, and in the end, you have each other’s backs against the Robbies of the world.”
“Grayson is totally Robbie,” Toni says.
“Oh totally,” Janie agrees.
