29. Kaylee
29
KAYLEE
W hen we enter the small pub-style bar, the men go to get drinks while Michelle and I find a table.
It’s small and round, not far from the stage where a man in a suit and sunglasses plays the piano.
Michelle sits across from me, grabbing my hand to get my attention.
“Kay, I’m so sorry things worked out this way. I’ve been dying to reach out to you, I just wasn’t sure you’d answer.”
I nod. “Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have.”
She nods, her eyes falling to the table between us. “I understand. I do. I really fucked things up, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did. What we had is gone, Michelle. Honestly, the only reason I’m here now is because I assume you want to explain why you did what you did.”
“I do.” She pauses and takes a deep breath. “I just… don’t know where to start.”
I pull my hand from hers and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
She looks at me. “I’ve always been jealous of you. Did you know that?”
I laugh. “Why in the world would you be jealous of me? You were always the prettier one, the more popular one, the one all the boys wanted.”
“I was jealous of you because you had it all. Everything that mattered, anyway. You had a great family, and you were smart and kind. I knew you were going places, that you had this big life ahead of you. I didn’t have any of that. I lived with my grandmother because my dad ran off on my mom, and then she ran off on me. I wasn’t smart. I was failing most of my classes.
“I knew I was going to be stuck in that town and be a worthless nobody. That’s why I put so much energy into trying to be pretty and popular. But the guys knew what I was. They knew I was easy, so they passed me around. You didn’t see the way they looked at you. They might have been fucking me, but they were looking at you in awe like you were too good for them to even talk to. I hated that.”
My mouth falls open, but no words come out. All I can do is shake my head in confusion.
“I carried it with me to college. I fucked Scott before you two even met. But the second he saw you, you were all he wanted. He begged me to introduce you two, begging me to promise that I wouldn’t tell you we hooked up.”
She rubs her lips together. “You two started dating, and I saw that he was giving you everything I wanted, everything he wouldn’t give me before I introduced you two. So…”
She takes a deep breath, holding it a moment before letting it out slowly. “I seduced him. He felt so guilty about it, Kay. He really did. He begged me not to tell you, and of course, I said I wouldn’t. I know I’m an awful person, but I liked keeping the secret from you. It made me feel like you weren’t as good as everyone thought. So, every time something good happened to you—you made the Dean’s list, a professor bragged about how amazing your paper was, guys I was hanging out with praised how perfect you were—I seduced Scott.”
The longer she talks, the angrier I find myself.
I hated that my best friend slept with my fiancé, but what I hate even more is that she was never my friend.
She’d only been friends with me to hurt me because she was jealous of everything I worked my butt off for.
She could have had the same thing if she’d just put effort into work rather than trying to fuck me over.
“After we graduated, Scott said it could never happen again. That’s when you two got that apartment together. You had just taken the job at the school, but it was summer, so you picked up a waitressing job to hold you over. I went to him while you were at work one night, and he turned me down. He reminded me that it couldn’t happen anymore, but that pissed me off more than ever because it was like he was telling me I wasn’t good enough anymore. So, I told him that if he didn’t keep sleeping with me, I’d tell you how many times he’d cheated on you. So, our affair continued. Then he proposed.” She laughs and rolls her eyes. “He thought I’d let him off the hook if you two got married.”
“You’re telling me that the only reason he proposed is to get away from you?”
She shrugs.
“Then why are you two still together?”
“Because he knows I’ll never let him go.” Her eyes flash toward the bar, and I follow her gaze. I’m not sure if she’s looking at Scott or Austin. “The thing is, we’re not doing so great.”
I snort. “Imagine that.”
She cuts her eyes back to me. “Turns out, the only thing we had in common was getting off on sneaking around. Now that we’re allowed to be together, things are not as passionate.”
I shake my head, unsure of what to do.
Do I tell her to fuck off and leave?
Do I stay and watch how strained things are between them?
Scott and Austin make their way over to the table with drinks in their hands. Austin sets our drinks down and sits next to me.
I cross my legs, angling my body toward his. He places his hand on my leg, sliding it between my legs and cupping the top of my thigh.
I wrap my arm around his shoulder while my left hand squeezes his biceps.
I lean in, putting my lips at his ear. “I hate her.”
His mouth twitches as he fights back a smile. He turns his head, stealing a kiss as I turn away.
I see the way Michelle’s eyes narrow.
For whatever reason, the only thing she’s ever wanted is to steal my happiness.
She stole my fiancé, and now that she has him, she wants to steal Austin. I can tell by the look in her eyes.
“So, Austin, what do you do?”
“I’m in construction,” he answers.
She gives him a flirty smile. “Oh, interesting. I’ve always admired a man who works with his hands. There’s just something about a blue-collar man that intrigues me.”
He chuckles. “Is that so?”
“Mm-hmm.” She nods.
“What the fuck are you doing, Michelle?” Scott asks her, not liking that his girlfriend is flirting with another man in front of him.
“What? I’m just trying to get to know our friend.”
Scott shakes his head, picking up his glass and throwing back the liquid. “This is stupid. He’s not our friend. Kaylee used to be our friend, but you fucked that up.”
Scott looks at me now, leaning in. “Kay, I’m sorry for everything. I didn’t want to end things like that with you. I didn’t want to end things at all. I didn’t have a choice. I got mixed up with her, and once she had me by the balls, she wouldn’t let me go. I knew no matter what I did, I would lose you, so I tried to protect you the only way I knew how: by getting her out of your life.”
I laugh. “Yeah, right. That note you left made me feel great.”
He frowns. “I didn’t leave a note.”
I look over at her. She’s smiling as she watches everything unfold. “I might have left a note from you, honey.”
His eyes bug in his skull. “What? What did it say?”
I laugh and shake my head. “Okay, this is insane.” I brush my hair from my face. “This is it. I’m done. With both of you.” I look from her to him. “The only reason I’m here is so I can look you both in the eye and say thank you.”
They flinch. “Thank you? For what?” Scott asks.
“It’s not often the trash takes itself out.” I smile, taking Austin’s hand in mine. “You hurt me, but now I see what a favor you did for me. If you hadn’t done what you did, I wouldn’t be where I am now. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I hope you two have a long, miserable life together. Just remember while you’re lying awake at night after you finish your boring missionary sex, that I’m getting fucked into exhaustion by a man who loves me, and it’s all thanks to you two.”
Austin stands and pulls me to my feet, leading me toward the door and out onto the sidewalk.
A laugh slips from my lips as he spins me around and presses my back to the side of the building.
“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he tells me, moving in to press a hard, fast kiss to my mouth.
His tongue pushes past my lips, exploring every facet. My body warms as he holds me to him, kissing the air from my lungs and causing my blood to boil with need.
I can’t think of anything but getting him back to the hotel.
My thighs clench when a wave of need hits me.
He feels my body tighten against him and pulls back just enough to look me in the eye. “You’re so sexy when you smile like that. My dick is so hard that it hurts.”
I grab his hand and push it up my skirt. Pushing my panties to the side, I drag his fingers between my folds, spreading the arousal that’s pooling. “I need you.”
He grins. “You always need me.” He pulls his hands away, sucking my excitement from his fingers.
“Fuck, you taste so good. Come on, let’s get back to the hotel so I can spend the rest of the night fucking you into exhaustion.” He chuckles, pulling me away from the wall.
We grab a taxi and head to the hotel.
The moment we step into the elevator and the doors close, he’s pinning me against the wall.
He picks me up and my legs wrap around his hips.
He grinds his hardness into me, and my pussy clenches, needing to feel him inside. “You’re so sexy, I swear I could come just from feeling you like this,” he whispers against my lips.
“Austin,” I breathe his name, letting his mouth move over my neck and jaw, his hands feeling their way around my body while he grinds his length against my core.
The elevator slows and dings before the doors open, but he doesn’t put me down.
Instead, he tightens his hold on me and carries me down the hallway to our room, where I know neither of us will pull away from the other for the rest of the night.