Chapter 24 Bailey
BAILEY
It had been a week since I left Liam standing in his barn, while I stormed away and did my best not to fall apart.
A week of holding my head high when all I wanted to do was drive over to his house and beg him to tell me why he changed his mind.
A week of going through the motions, not crying a single tear over the man because I was sure something else had to be going on.
Yet, here I was on Saturday night, staring at the wall because I couldn’t think of a single thing that would cheer me up.
“Hey!” Cheyenne yelled as she walked through the front door.
Her keys clanged in the dish at the table just inside the apartment and her boots hit the ground as she tugged them off.
And still, I said nothing.
“Man,” she sighed as she flopped into the armchair across from me.
“You would not believe the day I had. First, Mrs. Sellers came into the bank and yelled at me because, apparently, someone parked outside the building last night and left their lights on. Like that’s my fault!
Do I control all the people in town? Am I responsible for whether or not they leave their lights on?
“She was making such a fuss that my boss came out and asked me to remove her from the bank! I had to walk her out to her car—which she should not be driving, by the way—and tell her to go home. And when I got back inside, everyone was staring at me like it was all my fault! Ugh.
“Then, at lunch, that bitch Jeanine bumped into me just as I was putting ketchup on my hot dog and it squirted all over my dress. Down there!” she yelled, pointing at her crotch. “I looked like I got my period in the middle of the day! And when she walked away, she was laughing at me.”
“What a bitch,” I grumbled, hating Jeanine just for being mean.
“Right? And then, as I was walking home, Archer pulled up beside me and asked if I knew any place to meet chicks in town. Can you believe that?” she snorted. “Um…hello? I’m standing right freaking here!”
Exhausted from her outburst, she slumped in her chair. “So, how was your day?”
“Same as yesterday,” I shrugged.
“He’ll come around.”
Yeah, I’d been telling myself that, too, but I no longer believed it.
“He’s in love with you. He’s probably just doing that guy thing where he’s afraid of his feelings, so he pretends that he doesn’t like you as much as he says he does.”
“Please, don’t try to spark hope in me right now,” I sighed. “I’m perfectly content with accepting that my relationship is over and leaving it at that.”
I snorted in amusement as I thought of how many years I had wasted on Liam Parker.
“You know, every guy I met, I compared to him, and none of them ever came close. Do you know how many guys I could have slept with if only I hadn’t been pining over Liam instead? I could have lost my virginity a long time ago!”
“What?” she gasped, suddenly upright in her seat and staring at me with eyes as wide as saucers. “Are you saying you just lost your virginity after telling me just two weeks ago that you had had sex before?”
Oops. I had done that. “Well, I didn’t want it to be weird,” I shouted.
“Weird? No, girl. Weird is waiting until you’re twenty-four. Weird is refusing to try anal because you think you might poop on a guy. Weird is telling me that you’ve had sex when you really hadn’t!” she shouted, leaping up in the air with the final statement.
“How could you do this to me?”
“To you?” I argued. “I’m the one who missed out on ten years of sex over a man who dumped me after sleeping with me a handful of times!”
Her lips snapped shut. “Well, you might have a point. But why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it is weird,” I snapped. “It’s very weird. Call me crazy, but I really thought I would just find a guy and want to sleep with him, but that never happened. I didn’t feel anything for a single one of those men. Deep down, I knew it was Liam.”
Her fingers flew to her lips, muffling the broken cry threatening to escape. “You were saving yourself for him?”
Rolling my eyes, I shoved to my feet and tried to busy myself with something to distract my brain from focusing too much on the situation at hand. “Of course not. It wasn’t like that.”
“I’m confused, then. What was it like?”
Grabbing a beer out of the fridge, I popped the top, grimacing at the flavor.
I didn’t even like beer. “Exactly as I said. I was just—I thought there would be a feeling inside me, you know? Like, if I really liked a guy, it would just be right. But every guy I dated just felt…anticlimactic. So, I would move on. And I kept moving on, until finally—”
“Liam asked you to dance,” she finished for me.
“Basically.” Thunking my head down on the counter, I groaned. “God, I’m so pathetic!”
“You are not,” she rushed over. “You are not pathetic at all. It’s…sweet that you wanted to wait for a decent guy.”
Snapping my head up, I glared at her. “Seriously?”
“What? Do you want me to call you a loser?”
“If it would help!”
“Fine, you’re a loser. Why would you possibly think that waiting around for a guy is a good idea? Clearly, that didn’t work out for you.”
“I know that!”
“Then, go take a shower and get dressed. You are not waiting another minute on Liam Parker. Either he can piss or get off the pot.”
“So, now I’m just gonna go pick up a guy and sleep with him just because?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Not really, but—”
“No buts. Seriously, you have wasted enough time over Liam Parker, and I will not allow you to let cobwebs grow in your coochie while you wait for him to change his mind. He had his shot with you. Now it’s your turn to have some fun.”
I wasn’t entirely sure this was the best idea, but I didn’t have any better ones either.
“Okay.”
“No, not okay,” she snapped, getting in full-Cheyenne-bitch mode. “It’s fucking fantastic, and you’re going to have a great time tonight.”
I nodded, trying to feel it with as much passion as she was saying it.
“You have one hour, and not a second more. So, get Liam out of your system now because you are gonna drink and fuck the night away.”
I cringed, not sure that was a great plan after what happened last weekend. “Sure.”
She slapped my ass as I turned around, hustling me to my bedroom. At first, I wasn’t so sure of this plan, but with every minute that passed, I grew more confident that she was right.
Liam was going to do whatever he wanted, and I would not be that sappy girl who cried into her pillow every night because the man she loved decided he didn’t want her after all.
One hour and ten minutes later, I was ready to go. My hair was styled and I was wearing a dress Cheyenne insisted would be perfect for the night, along with my teal cowboy boots. For the first time in a week, I felt like the old me—ready to get out and have some fun.
No limitations.
Thankfully, The Beaver and Boot was just a few blocks down the road from us, so walking was the best option for a night of fun.
“I have a really good feeling about tonight,” Cheyenne grinned. “Really, this is going to be good.”
I took a steadying breath as I yanked on the door handle, ready to dance and forget all about Liam and his stupid, sexy body. So what if everything we had felt real and amazing?
I could have that with someone else. I just had to find someone to give a chance.
“Drinks are on me tonight,” I called over my shoulder to Cheyenne as we walked through the door.
“Fine, but you know I’m not a cheap date.”
“Girl, I don’t plan on being cheap tonight,” I grinned, pushing my way through the crowd. “If things go my way—”
My heart thumped erratically in my chest, and my feet refused to move from where they were rooted just a few feet from the bar. I could feel Cheyenne tugging on my arm. I saw the sympathetic look in Lizzy’s eyes as she watched me.
And I knew everyone was staring at me as I stared at them.
Liam sat in the corner of the bar with Ellie May in his lap, nibbling on his ear.
Ellie May, the same woman who helped me pick out the lingerie I was going to wear to seduce Liam that first night.
She was sitting on his lap. Her hand was drifting over his chest, and he was laughing as she whispered in his ear.
“Bailes,” Cheyenne whispered, tugging on my arm. “Let’s go.”
Vomit rose in my throat as he turned, his eyes finally meeting mine. There wasn’t an ounce of regret as he caught me staring at him.
And just like that, he turned away from me, ignoring my presence as if I had always meant so little to him.
“Bailes, seriously, let’s go.”
Finally, I let Cheyenne tug me from the bar. I could feel every set of eyes watching me, could hear the slightest shuffle of feet as the whole bar went silent.
They all knew it was over, and tomorrow, there would be another round of gossip about me.
Except, this time, there would be no happy tales about wedding bells in my future.
I vomited for the fourth time, except there was no alcohol to blame for how miserable I felt.
Wiping the bile from my lips, I slumped against the wall in the bathroom after flushing the toilet. God, I felt horrible. And to think, I was planning to sleep with another man if I found someone worth it.
Clearly, that wouldn’t have been a good idea based on the reaction I had when I saw Liam snuggling in the corner with Ellie May.
“God, how could I be so stupid?” I hissed.
“You’re not stupid,” Cheyenne said as she walked into the bathroom with a cup of water. “Swish and spit.”
I did as she asked, barely still holding the cup in my shaking hands.
“What am I going to do?” I whispered brokenly.
“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” she said, hooking her arm through mine and tugging me to my feet.
“You’re going to go to bed and sleep. In the morning, you can cry and complain and call him names.
And I’ll listen and join in if you want.
If not, I’ll make pancakes with chocolate chips.
Then we’ll spend the rest of the day watching sappy movies and eating ice cream. ”