“You too.”
I grab my friend’s arm and haul her out of the hotel before I commit murder. The longer I’m standing in this hotel, the angrier I’m getting.
“Will you slow down,” Mhairi complains behind me.
I don’t stop until we’re out of the hotel, down the street, and climbing into a taxi. I just need to get as far away from all things Max. I couldn’t think straight in the hotel.
The moment my back hits the cold seat in the taxi, I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding and the water works start. I hate ugly crying. Mhairi tries to put her arm around me, but I hold her at arm’s length. “Don’t. I’ll be fine. I need to get it out of my system. I don’t want to be mollycoddled.”
“The best way to get one man out of your system is to get under another.” She winks at me.
I swat her arm and laugh. “Getting jiggy is what got me into this situation.”
Mhairi sighs. “I still think you need to hear him out.”
“Nope. Not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to get stinking drunk, and tomorrow I’m going to sleep all day.”
I like my plan. I’m living on the wild side for once. It’s Sunday tomorrow and if no one can live without me for one day then it’s just fucking tough luck.
***
As the night wore on, the drinks never stopped, but the emotions were flowing through me like a tidal wave. Mhairi is up doing what she does best, dancing and making a fool of herself, and here I am drowning my sorrows at the bottom of a cocktail jug. Yip, not a single drink, not a shot, a full litre ofcrazy frog cocktail.I’ve been drinking to forget the stupid mistakes I’ve made with Maxwell, yet all it has done is make me think about him more. I feel like I’m grieving for a man who wasn’t even mine to begin with. We were fuck buddies; nothing more, nothing less.
Why do men have to be dicks? I’ve watched a couple in the corner fawning all over one another, sticking their tongues down one another’s throats, practically dry humping in the shadows, and all I want to do is go over there and tell them that they’re making the biggest mistake of their lives because they’ll wake up tomorrow with a fuzzy head and regret it. Why didn’t someone tell me that the first night I let Max fuck me in that club? I certainly had no brain power to put a stop to it because my pussy was doing the talking for me.
I take my phone out of my bag and turn it on. This is a terrible idea, but I’ve had a lot of bad ideas lately. I’m as welladding another catastrophe to the list. The moment the screen comes to life and my data kicks in, it vibrates in my hand several times, making me nearly drop it. That would be the icing on the cake tonight.
I see several missed calls and texts from Maxwell, but I don’t answer them. I disregard them. I don’t want to see what he has written. Anyone can write words. I want him to listen to me. I dial his number and start to walk through the club until I get to the front door where the bouncers are standing. I squeeze one of the bouncers’ muscles on the way past and he just laughs at me. The alcohol is making me feel brave.
“Lex, tell me where you are,” echoes through my ear.
“You don’t need to know where I am, Maxwell. You’re going to listen to me.”
“Have you been drinking?”
“So what if I have? You’re not my keeper. You don’t get to ask me questions. But you’re going to listen to what I have to say.”
He sighs. “Okay. Tell me whatever is so important.”
“You’re a dickhead. A prick. An arsehole.”
“Do you have any other derogatory names for me in that inebriated brain of yours?”
“Oh, I could think of many, douchebag.” I sit down on the bench outside the club. “You’ve broken my heart. I didn’t mean to fall for you, but you wheedled your way in and tore my walls down. You made me feel sexy. For the first time in my life, I felt beautiful. Wanted. But I should have known that you werejust like all the rest of the arseholes out there, only in it for one thing…”
“Lex…”
“No. You don’t get to call me that anymore. What do you call your fiancée? Vic? Vicki? Tori?”
“Stop it. You’ve got this all wrong.”
“I’ll continue to do the job I’m employed to do, but just stay out of my way, Max. I mean it.”
I hang up and hold my phone close to my chest as the tears fall down my face. I don’t care who sees the state of me. I’m hurting. I feel dirty, humiliated, stupid. Only one good thing has come from Max walking into my life. My life has been awakened. I’ve experienced new things and enjoyed it. I will never be fooled and tricked into someone’s bed again. I’ll be the one doing the heart-breaking in future.
Chapter 13
Lexi
