Chapter 44 #2
“Sounds…simple enough,” Loralei said with what I couldn’t help but feel like was a forced smile.
Lucas started the game, and one crude statement after the next, we all sipped our drinks through snickers and chuckles.
When Loralei’s turn arose, she hesitated for a moment. “Never have I ever…had a one-night stand.”
Everyone drank.
Wes snorted. “Child’s play.” His comment earned a coy grin from her, making the bile rise in my throat.
“There’s Wes with that big dick energy,” Gabe said with a laugh.
“You can only have big dick energy if you can back it up,” Lucas quipped with a good-natured grin, earning a middle finger from Wes.
I was now more than a few drinks in, and thanks to those drinks, I was feeling a little feisty and not thinking all that clearly. The thoughts were swirling in my head as I looked between Wes and Loralei, and a slow smirk curled on my lips. He never said our game of sabotage was over.
“Oh, he backs it up every time,” I said casually.
All eyes turned to me.
“How the hell would you know that?” Callie giggled.
“Right?” Lucas snorted before tipping his beer back.
Wes stared at me with a curious expression as he sipped his drink.
“I would know since Wes and I were fucking for the last two years.”
At my words, both Lucas and Wes leaned forward, spraying the beer they’d just sipped across the table as they coughed. The other’s eyes went wide, looking between me and Wes, save for my brothers, who were tensing their jaws and glowering in his direction.
“You what?” Gabe gasped.
“Holy shit,” Callie snickered in surprise.
Lucas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he stared at Wes. “Dude?”
“No way,” Gabe said with a chuckle. “You two hate each other.”
Even Blake cracked a smile. “You were hate fucking?”
Wes’s eyes darted around before they landed on me; I leaned back in my chair and casually sipped my drink, momentarily unfazed by his shock.
Suddenly, he fell into a fit of laughter, like he didn’t know what else to do.
Still laughing, he stood from his seat and walked off, pushing through the door and disappearing outside.
Everyone turned towards me. My eyes were now locked intently on the seat Wes had just abandoned, refusing to meet any of their gazes.
Fuck. I shouldn’t have done that.
“Well, uh…” Lucas cleared his throat. “I’m gonna go grab another round.” Gabe and Blake stood to go with him.
“I could go for a game of pool,” Callie said. “Loralei, care to join?”
“We can play doubles,” Avery chimed in, grabbing Leah’s hand and pulling her to stand.
Loralei eyed me for a moment before standing. “Sure.”
As the others started for the pool table, Callie lingered behind. I finally looked up, and she gestured her head in the direction Wes had walked off. I nodded in silent understanding; I needed to apologize, hence why she was keeping Loralei occupied.
When Callie finally turned and followed the others, I let out a breath. “Well, that’s one way to clear a room, sis,” Brody quipped beside me.
“Right,” Wyatt grumbled. “And what the hell do you mean you’ve been fucking—”
“Shut up, Wyatt. Not now.”
I stood and walked toward the door, slipping outside. I looked around, not seeing Wes, but something tugged me to the left, where a small alley was nestled between the bar and a neighboring building.
When I stopped in front of it, I spotted Wes slowly pacing back and forth. I let out a breath. “Wes…” He glanced up when he heard me, meeting my gaze as I approached him. “I’m sorry…if I went too far back there.” I sighed, wringing my fingers together. “That was a dick move on my part.”
“It’s fine,” he said as he waved me off what felt like a little too quickly.
“I mean, you picked a hell of a time to tell everyone we’d been sleeping together for two years, but, hey, it was bound to come out eventually, right?
” He scrubbed his hand down his face with a wry laugh.
“I just…I wasn’t expecting it, even though I probably should have because that’s been our little game all this time, the sabotage, but…
” He looked at me again, and I dropped his gaze; we’d done the sabotage before, but it never made me feel like this much of an asshole.
“The game…we gotta end it.” I snapped my head up, feeling my chest tighten.
“Things with Lora are brand new, but I’m just…
I feel like I need to give it a genuine shot. ”
I was thankful he couldn’t see the way my heart plummeted at his words. I was going to tell you. Not that telling him would have made much of a difference, I realized now. I slowly nodded. “O-Of course,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear the tremble in my voice.
Wes stared at me. “I mean, maybe…maybe if we were on the same page, things could be different, but…”
What the hell did that even mean? “No. No, I get it,” I lied, looking away from him again.
I heard him sigh. “So…a truce?”
I glanced back up at him, hesitating for a moment before nodding. “Truce.”
We stood in awkward silence for a moment before he cleared his throat. “I should, uh…I should go find Lora.”
“Yeah, sure.” I nodded. He stared at me for another heartbeat before turning and walking away. “Hey, Wes…” He stopped at the alleyway entrance and quickly turned back to me. “I…I’m happy for you.”
The lie tasted bitter on my tongue, but I said it anyway because he deserved to be happy.
I swore I could have heard him scoff. “Thanks.”
When he disappeared around the corner, I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a breath, feeling a storm of different emotions swirling inside me. I was waiting to go back inside, trying to pull myself together before having to face the others, but I was all over the place.
“Mo?”
My head popped up, and I spotted Callie approaching me. “I’m sorry…” I shook my head. “For spitting that out like that.”
“I think we’re all more shocked that we didn’t even realize it was happening. For two damn years.” Callie laughed. “You have a lot to tell me, but it’s fine.” She studied me for a moment, her brow creasing slightly. “But you’re not…”
“I’m great,” I lied.
“You’re full of shit,” she countered. It didn’t take her all but a few heartbeats to piece it together. “You really fell for him, didn’t you?” I shook my head with a wry laugh, not answering. “You fell in love with him…but now he has a girlfriend, so things have ended.”
“I’m fine.” I began to laugh, but my expression twisted as an ache flourished in my chest. “It’s fine.
You can’t possibly end something that never even had a beginning, right?
” I was failing to keep myself together, and my laugh began to mix with a soft cry.
“I didn’t even realize how I felt…not until I was away and missing him.
And I was going to tell him how I felt tonight…
but that was dumb of me to think…because we weren’t—we never—we were just—” My breath hitched. “I’m fine.”
I shook my head, dropping it into my hands with a quiet sob as Callie stepped forward, wrapping her arms around me.