“You tried,” Hoyt offered up. “If she doesn’t want to talk then maybe you should just leave her alone.”
“You’re right,” I said with a nod. “I tried.” I walked over to the table, where one of them had placed our bucket of beer and pulled a cold one out. Cracking it open, I held up my bottle to my brother and friend. “To trying,” I saluted, before drinking back half the contents. “And to being strangers,” I added under my breath. All I needed was a few more of these and I’d be numb enough to stop thinking about the way she’d looked at me outside. Like I was nothing to her.
“How about we try and pick up a few of those locals,” Brett said, giving a nod to the group of women sitting a few tables over. They had definitely seen us—all giggling when Brett raised his drink and fired a wink in their direction. Two of them looked familiar, but I couldn’t be sure if I knew them from high school or not. It wasn’t like I looked at any other girls back then. I only saw one.
“Why not,” I said, clinking my bottle against his. “Might as well find someone in this town that will give me the time of day. Otherwise it’s going to be a long three months.”
Brett waved the women over about the same time Georgia and Nora came out of the bathroom. Georgia offered up a sympathetic smile as she walked with her sister, but Nora didn’t even cast a look in my direction. If this was what she wanted, to act like the other didn’t exist, then I’d accommodate her request. I refused to be some little bitch that sat around pining over a girl that didn’t want him.
But I was going to need a few more drinks if I was going to even begin to think that that was true.
“All right, ladies,” I said as I wrapped my arm around the waist of the cute little brunette standing next to me. “Who’s up for a game?”
The night blurred on—a haze of alcohol and avoidance. I flirted, I drank, my new pool playing partner was more than happy to keep rubbing up against me, and Nora never once made eye contact with me. At first, I felt saddened by the fact that she was hell bent on ignoring me, but the more I drank, the less I cared.
I’d be out of this town in no time and I’d never have to see her again. The air had been cleared. She hated me, but I could feel someone staring in my direction and I was pretty sure it wasn’t Georgia. If she was really as over me as she pretended to be then surely she wouldn’t have been worried about me flirting with some girl at a bar.
“Wanna take a shot?” she said with a giggle that would have normally driven me insane. I’d make the sacrifice if it meant giving Nora something to think about. I glanced in her direction and finally managed to catch her staring. She turned her head quickly, but I was already on to her. I smirked, knowing that I could still affect her.
“You bet, doll,” I answered, handing my new drinking buddy some money. “Make it a double.”
When she returned with two shots in her hand, I’d just started to feel like maybe there was a still a chance for me and Nora. Then I saw a familiar face walk through the door and make his way over to where she was sitting. Beau Gregurich. I couldn’t stand the guy in high school and just seeing him again made me want to pick a fight. Fuel was definitely added to the fire the second I saw Nora stand up from her booth and wrap her arms around his neck like she was actually happy to see him.
What the fuck?
I tossed back my shot and felt the burn of the liquor coat my throat simultaneously with the rising bile. I watched Beau put his lips on Nora’s and actual pain shot through my body from the proverbial knife I felt her sticking into my back.
“I’ve moved on,” she’d said. I grabbed the other shot from What’s-Her-Name and brought the glass to my lips. Nora had failed to mention that she’d moved on with the one person in Halstead that I couldn’t stand. Tossing back the second shot, I knew that the next few months were going to be torture. Complete and utter fucking torture.