Page 2 of Special Delivery Cowboy
"Now wait—"
"Get. The hell. Out of my apartment."
He scrambled off Flossie so fast you'd think the bed was on fire. Started grabbing for his pants. Flossie sat up slowly, pulling the sheet around herself, looking annoyed that I was interrupting her afternoon delight.
The absolute audacity.
"I can explain," Grayson said again, hopping on one leg trying to get his pants on.
"Oh, I'd love to hear this." I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe. The nausea had faded somewhere between fury and disbelief. "Please explain how you're supposed to be doing a difficult extraction right now."
"I... rescheduled."
"For this?"
"Tinsley, listen—" He reached for me.
"Touch me and lose the hand." I stepped back. "How long?"
"It's not what you think—"
"How. Long."
He had the decency to look at the floor. "A couple months."
A couple months. While I was starving myself on shakes and sadness. While I was planning what I'd say when he proposed. While I was stupid enough to think we were happy.
"I was going to tell you," he said. "Tomorrow, at the cabin. I thought it would be better to do it somewhere private—"
"You were going to break up with me on our Christmas vacation?" My voice cracked on the last word, which pissed me off. I would not cry in front of these people. "The cabin you paid for so you could propose?"
His face did something complicated. "Propose? Tinsley, I never said I was proposing to you—"
"You said this Christmas would be special! You said you had plans!"
"I do have plans." He glanced at Flossie, who was checking her manicure like this was boring her. "I'm going to propose to Flossie. On New Year's Eve. I wanted to let you down easy first. I thought I was being considerate."
The room tilted. My vision went spotty at the edges.
Considerate.
He thought ambushing me with a breakup on Christmas was considerate.
I stared at him—looked at him—and wondered how I'd ever found this man attractive. His perfectly gelled hair. His spray tan in December. His teeth probably bleached weekly to maintain that blinding white shine.
"You said you had back-to-back crowns today," I heard myself say. "A difficult extraction."
"I needed time to... we needed to talk about things."
"By having sex in my bed?"
"You're a great girl, Tins—" He used that condescending tone, like he was a disappointed dad and not a cheating asshole."But Flossie and I fit better. She understands my lifestyle. She takes care of herself—"
Oh.
Oh.
There it was.
