“Fine. I’m coming with you, then.”
“What about blondie back there?” I look back to the dance floor and he’s still watching Caroline intently, although the dark-haired man with the raging hard-on has disappeared.
She waves to him and points to the back. He nods and turns around, disappearing off the far side of the dance floor.
Surprisingly, there isn’t any line for the bathroom. I enter a stall and take care of business, relishing the few seconds of privacy, because I know as soon as I step out, Caroline will be all over me again.
I flush and open the door. She’s leaning against the counter, her foot tapping in time with the music. “You going to tell me what really happened?”
After dropping my purse on the counter, I wash my hands and turn to her. “He used some cheesy pickup line on me and it reminded me how much I hate the club scene, and the men here.”
“Oh really?” she asks, a smirk on her face. “Since when? You used to love coming here.”
Sighing, I reach into my purse for my phone. “Since you know when. Now, drop it. Please.”
My heart lurches into my throat when I see Savage’s name on my screen with a new text message. After weeks of nothing, finally, he’s reaching out to me.
Some fucking timing.
I shudder thinking about that guy touching me and with shaking hands, I swipe the screen and open the message.
> I miss you. It probably isn’t fair for me to be contacting you like this, not when I’m still not in any place to try to fix things. But, I can’t stop thinking about you and wondering if you are okay. I can’t stop missing you. I need you to know I love you and I am really trying to make things right. I hope you can forgive me. <
“Danika? What is it?” Caroline leans in over my phone and reads the message. “Oh.” She slinks back and drops against the counter again. “So, what are you going to do?” The disapproval in her voice does not go unnoticed.
Turning to her, I glare. “What’s your problem?”
“You. You are my problem. You haven’t been you in a long time, Danika, ever since you met Savage. At first, I thought that was a good thing. You were maturing, settling down, but now, I think this guy is just wrong for you, and you won’t let it go.”
Wrong for me?
“No, I won’t let it go. Because I love him—”
“Sometimes love isn’t enough, Dani. He’s your first relationship, like ever, and you jumped into it without having any concept of what it means. You’ve been nothing but miserable since you met him and you’ve changed, and not in a good way.”
“Jesus, Caroline, how can you actually think that? Savage is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
She huffs and rolls her eyes at me. “Bullshit! You went from being happy and carefree, completely enjoying your life, to crying and being depressed, unless you were angry at him for something. A healthy relationship shouldn’t be like that.”
“Like you would know what a healthy relationship is. When was the last time you had one?”
The glare she gives me could melt the polar ice caps. “This isn’t about me, Dani, it’s about you and Savage.”
“Exactly! It’s about me and Savage, so you have absolutely no say in it. God, why can’t you just be happy for me?”
“I would be happy for you if you were happy, Dani. But you’re not.”
I can’t deny she’s right about that, I haven’t been happy the last couple weeks, how could I be? But to say Savage isn’t good for me, that this relationship isn’t good for me, couldn’t be more wrong.
“Care, you need to stop butting into my life. It’s none of your fucking business what goes on between me and Savage.”
“It is my business, Dani. I can’t stand by and watch you be miserable any more. You were happier when you were just being a slut.”
My hand whips out and my palm smacks across her cheek before I even realize what I’m doing. The sting of my palm connecting with her flesh and her shriek of surprise makes me shake my head and take a step back. I’ve never struck someone out of anger before, ever.
She looks at me with wide, confused eyes and presses her hand to her reddening cheek. “Jesus, Danika! You need to remember who your friends are.” She turns and flees the bathroom and I turn and stare at myself in the mirror.
Where the hell did that come from?
Caroline has called me a slut thousands of times and I’ve never been offended, not even once. Hell, I’ve called myself a slut more times than I can count. So, why did it set me off and turn me into the raging Hulk this time?
She’s just trying to look out for me, right? Am I deluding myself in thinking Savage and I will be able to work things out?
Savage.