MERRITT
CHAPTER TEN
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that my ex-boyfriend just showed up at my favorite bakery with the girl he cheated on me with while Bennett picks up the last beignet out of the box and takes a bite like I didn’t just ask him a question.
I punch him in the arm, and he laughs.
He freaking laughs.
I wave my fingers through the air because holy shit, it was like hitting a damn brick wall, and now I’m even more annoyed because they’re hurting. “Answer the question. Why the hell did you do that?”
He shrugs. “Hey, you kissed me first, Mer Bear.” His words are mumbled around a mouthful. “And clearly, the fucker needed to be humbled, so I just did the first thing that came to my mind.”
“And pretending to be my freaking boyfriend is the very first thing that came to your mind?” I deadpan.
When he smirks, waggling his brow, I roll my eyes and press myself back against the booth.
“The better question is… how the hell you ended up with that asshole? Or what really just happened?” he says before tossing the last bite into his mouth.
“Nope.”
“Nope?”
I lift a brow. “Are you repeating what I’m saying now?”
Bennett shakes his head, eying me. “I just wanna know what that was about. He’s Dickface, isn’t he?”
Somehow, only barely, I suppress the overwhelming desire to punch him again. Mostly in self-preservation so I don’t hurt my hand for the second time in the last five minutes.
I forgot that he looked through my phone the other day.
And obviously, he’s not going to let this go, judging by the way he’s staring at me.
I’m clearly still discombobulated after that kiss, and I need to pull it together.
Jesus, Merritt, why the hell did you do that?
It was an amazing kiss, yes, but stupid.
Sooooo stupid.
A resigned sigh slips through my lips. “He’s my ex-boyfriend, who apparently cannot get it through his head that we’re done, and he has shit for brains. But I was handling it.”
“Handling it by kissing me?” He smirks.
I’m not even going to acknowledge that it happened.
I’m actually already trying to forget it ever did.
“Look…” I say, sighing again, feeling almost lightheaded from lack of sleep and just pure exhaustion.
I’m running on fumes, and honestly, dealing with Blake and Bennett both in one day has only made that worse.
“Can we just go back to working on this? I don’t want to talk about my asshole ex who cheated on me, and this project needs to be what we’re focusing on. ”
Bennett blinks, his mouth twisting into a scowl. “I can’t believe he cheated on you. What a fucking idiot. I hate that guy.”
That brings me to the most important question of all.
“He’s your teammate.”
A fact that I hadn’t forgotten. I was just simply pretending that it didn’t exist.
Avoidance at its finest.
“So?” he says with a pointed look, shrugging.
“Doesn’t mean we have to like each other.
He’s a dick, and I can’t stand him. Coach seems to think he’s what the team needed though, so we mostly stay out of each other’s way, except when he’s running his mouth.
Hence one of the reasons I don’t fucking like him.
Not that I needed any validation in that, but today only proved what I already knew.
He’s a grade A fucking asshole. Obviously.
Who doesn’t appreciate the things he has.
” Bennett’s voice has gone rough, like even talking about Blake pisses him off.
Things as in… me?
I refuse to let myself hyperfixate on that little crumb, so instead, I clear my throat. “Yeah, well, you saw today that the only thing that Blake cares about is Blake and Blake alone.”
His jaw flexes as he shakes his head. “Unsurprising.”
“It’s fine. “ I wasn’t actually sure of that, but right now, I don’t have time to stop and think about it.
I can’t believe that he had the balls to walk over with her and speak to me, let alone to do so privately when it’s clear what he wants to talk about.
The reason I kissed Bennett wasn’t that there’s a single cell in my body that wants Blake back or even wanted to make him jealous.
Being jealous implies that I give a shit, and I don’t.
But what I do care about is my already bruised and fragile pride. He has humiliated me over, and over, and over again, and I just… snapped.
I wanted to piss him off. To make him as angry as I feel with the way he’s embarrassed me. It was just a kiss, but I knew it would accomplish pissing him off.
Blake is a narcissistic asshole who can’t accept that I don’t actually want him back, no matter what he’s concocted in that big head of his.
He cheated on me and has been texting me like he learned from his mistakes and wanted to fix it, but I’ve seen through it from the beginning.
Especially after today.
If I didn’t already know exactly who he was, today did nothing but solidify it.
I have zero doubt that if I ever did give him another chance, the moment he had me back in his grasp, he’d no longer be interested. He’d toss me aside and cheat again the first opportunity that arose because he got what he wanted.
It took being out of his orbit, away from the love bombing and manipulation, to realize I was only ever a shiny little trophy for his shelf.
Fucking gross.
“Anyway, you still didn’t have to do that.
I’ve got it handled. All I need you to do is keep up your part of this project and help make sure that we get a good grade,” I add, turning back to my computer, desperately trying to regain control that feels like it’s slipping through my fingers like sand.
Focus on the project.
Read the novel, write the assignment, and mark Creative Writing off my course list.
Submit my law school application. Maintain my 4.0.
Forget about cheating asshole exes and the drama that comes with him.
Forget about kissing the man who’s burned you once, and is now the bane of your existence, no matter how good said kiss was.
“I was your fake boyfriend for like five seconds. Might have been the best five seconds of my life with that kiss,” he chuckles, and I shoot him a look that only makes his grin widen. “Chill, Mer Bear. It’s no big deal. Like you said, it’s fine.”
If so, then why do those feel like famous last words?