Page 26 of Unbroken

Pacey

Leaningmy head against the wall, I try to block out the raging music blasting through the bar. People come here to eat. They could at least keep the volume down until after dinner.

Lifting my phone, I check it for the hundredth time in the last ten minutes, but there are no new messages. I don’t know how to do this shit. I’m not a whiny bitch who falls for someone after the first hookup. I’m the guy who walks away.

I don’t do relationships. Never have and never will.

So why the fuck is this chick getting to me?

We had a good time. At least I thought we did. And then when we finished, she stood up, grabbed a towel, and tossed my clothes to me with a dry,“You remember where the door is, right? Don’t be here when I come back out.”

I was too stunned to do anything other than get dressed and leave.

It’s been three fucking weeks and I haven’t heard a peep from her. Today, I finally got up the nerve to call her, but it went straight to voicemail, so I followed it up with a text inviting her out tonight.

Glancing at my phone again, I open up Messages. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Closing out of that app, I text Ash just to make sure the fucking thing works.

“Dude, did you just text me WYD? You know I’m sitting right here next to you.”

“Fuck off. I know that. I was just checking my phone.”

“Aw, leave him alone, Ash. You know he doesn’t know what to do with all these feelings,” Lucy says, striding up to the table. It’s her twenty-first birthday, and when Weston asked her what she wanted to do, this is what she came up with.

All of us here, at the bar where she first met Weston. Her eyes light up with mirth, and if I weren’t in such a shit mood, I’d pick back at her. But this chick has me all out of sorts. I don’t know up from down or left from right anymore.

It’s fucking pathetic.

“Harriet still hasn’t reached out?” Lucy asks, her gaze narrowing on the phone clutched in my hand.

“Not a fucking word,” I grunt out.

“Maybe she died,” Weston offers, joining the conversation.

“She didn’t fucking die, you sick fuck.” The words are barked out.

He shrugs, turning up his beer. “She could have. I mean, what other woman would ignore you this long? You tried to call her?” he asks.

“Yes. And I messaged her. But I know she isn’t dead. She posted to social media yesterday,” I say, twirling my bottle on the table.

“Jesus, Pace, you’re cyberstalking her?” Lucy gasps, shocked.

“No. Yes? Fuck, I don’t know what I’m doing.” Placing my head in my hands, I rub my forehead. When did my life get so twisted?

The guys all laugh at my expense, but Lucy’s eyes fill with sympathy. And isn’t that just fucking great.

“I know how to make her stop ignoring you, but you might not like it,” she offers, her tone edged with a wicked delight.

I practically leap in my seat at the chance. “How? Tell me.”

“Hand me your phone,” she says before standing on her tiptoes and whispering something in Weston’s ear. He grins and nods.

Eyeing her warily, I pass her my phone. She opens the camera app and checks her reflection in the screen. After adjusting her top to show way more cleavage than I need to see, she slides between my legs, her back pressed against my chest, and holds the camera high.

“Smile or nuzzle my hair and pretend like you’re having the time of your life.”

“What?” I ask, almost positive I heard her wrong, but she just stares at me, waiting.

“Just do it.”

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