The beauty queen glanced at his face in a trance-like manner and nodded meekly.
“You look exceptionally beautiful tonight,” he complimented.
Anna, who was previously holding on to his tattooed arm with a death grip during the fight, loosened her grip and stepped back, panicked. A blush rose on her cheeks. “Thank you. I-I should go.”
Before I could stop her and ask where Gabriela was, Anna strutted away quickly, Sam’s compliment having unbalanced her. She joined her friends in the designated booth and entirely avoided the heat of Sam’s stare.
“Have you thought of ever asking her out?” I asked him. “You obviously like her.”
Sam ran his tongue over his teeth before taking a pull of his whiskey. He kept watching Anna with a lazy smirk. “I will. One day.”
Now with Cory gone, things returned to the status quo. Without a doubt, there wouldn’t be charges pressed tonight, unless he had a death wish. No one wanted to court the Remingtons’ wrath.
I continued conversing with the other boys, but my gaze kept bouncing around the club, rummaging for Gabriela. Her friends were already here, so where was she?
I was about to text her again when I heard a female voice next to me, bordering on a shrill, “Hunter?”
I peered to my left.
And my heart rate kicked up.
Ginette.
My ex-girlfriend.
She was here with two of her friends, giggling with drinks in their hands.
“Hi!” she chirped, scanning me appreciatively. “I thought I recognized you.”
Immediately, I shrank back a step and froze.
It was like I’d been thrown back in time, warped in a nightmare. We were high schoolers again and I was standing in the music room with her as she tore me to shreds with her cruel words. Like I wasn’t a human being with feelings, but a puppet for her to play with.
After our last explosive encounter, I never expected to see this ghost from my past. Over two years had gone by. Why was she saying hi to me? Why was she acting like we were old acquaintances and not exes who ended on horrible terms?
“You look really good, Hunter,” she praised and I hated the lewd hint in her tone, like I was still just a vessel to her with no soul, my outer shell the only thing composing my worth. “But what are you doing here? This is far from your scene.”
A sense of humiliation washed over me. My mind played her old jeering tirade on a loop. All the healing I did since our breakup seemed to unravel when my mouth opened to speak and speech failed me. There was an acerbic taste in my mouth that amplified with every beat of my heart.
“Cat got your tongue?” she said with her usual mean girl energy. “Then again, you were always a man of few words. Too quiet for your own good.”
I couldn’t believe I’d ever loved someone like Ginette.
I couldn’t believe I gave the right parts of me to someone so wrong.
Remembering my therapist’s advice from eons ago, I pushed through the pain roiling in my stomach and stood my ground.
“Don’t,” I gritted out angrily. “Don’t fucking talk to me, Ginette.”
The venom in my retort shocked her since she only remembered me as a quiet and passive boyfriend who always put up with her shit. Ginette flinched, finally having the gall to be embarrassed. “Excuse me? What the hell is your problem—Oh my God!”
A body knocked into Ginette from the back, causing her to stumble and spill her drink onto herself. The fruity concoction stained her white dress in an ugly hue.
Ginette screeched.
“Oops, sorry!” came the not-so-sorry voice of Gabriela, who blazed into the scene and threw her arms around me possessively. She pressed a kiss to my lips and claimed me in front of everyone before I could blink. My girl then proceededto shoot Ginette and her posse a mock innocent expression. “I didn’t mean to do that. Total accident on my part.”
It wasn’t an accident and I didn’t feel bad for Ginette.
