Page 69 of Tequila & Lace
I was halfway through the bottle, watching ESPN and almost forgetting that I’d killed two men—something I hadn’t done since Afghanistan, when An… Joselyn walked in.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“Hey,” I slurred.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked, setting her purse down on the coffee table and sitting next to me. I tensed and so did she. “You’re mad?”
“Of course I am!” I shouted and stood.Well, stumbled.
“You’re drunk.”
“And you’re an FBI agent. Are you going to arrest me now?”
“Why are you being an asshole?”
I swayed for a few seconds and then sat on the coffee table, unable to stand any longer from the alcohol in my system. “Do you know what happened today?” I snapped, jerking my head up a little too fast. I was referring to the fact I’d killed two men.
She stood. “Doyouknow what happened today?”
“I learned that you’ve been lying to me this entire time.”
“I only lied to you about my occupation,Paul.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Are you sure about that,gorgeous?”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I’ve been sitting here for hours questioning everything.”
She sat back down and reach for me, but I slid a few feet from her so she couldn’t touch me. “Why?” she asked.
I chuckled. “You were placed here by the FBI and then you struck up a relationship with me. I’ve replayed everything over and over in my head, but I don’t know what’s real and what’s not.”
“Everything between us was real.”
“Except your name.”
“Yes, except my name.”
I looked directly into her eyes, wanting to know the one hundred percent truth about my next question. “What about your seventeenth birthday?”
“It was all true. What I felt for you and what I told you was true. I fell in love with you. If you can’t grasp that, then I don’t know what else to tell you. I’ve had a long and emotional day.” She stood and so did I.
“Youhad an emotional day? You caught the guy you were after. I saved your fucking life. And all I got when you walked in the door was a hey.”
“Sex—”
“No!” I wasn’t sure if it was the tequila, my heart, the fact that she’d lied to me or that I had killed two men, but I was angry and I was angry at her and I couldn’t hold my tongue once I started. “Don’t sexy me, Andi, Joselyn, whatever the fuck your name is. I killed two fucking men today and I can’t even talk to my best friend about it. Fuck, I can’t even talk to you about it because you weren’t here. Now I get a fucking hey. Well, fuck your hey. See, this is why I don’t date. Women and their fucking games—”
“What games are you talking about? I’m not playing games!”
“You are with my heart!”
“I’m not playing games with your heart.”
“You pretended to love me.”
“Is that really what you think?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
