I was chasing and would forever be chasing this feeling.
“I’ll try to remember that,” Benny murmured. “This isn’t Wyatt. This is Evil Wyatt. Wyatt isn’t a total asshole. Evil Wyatt is a total asshole.”
“There you go,” I encouraged. “Now you’re getting the hang of it.”
“You guys are the assholes,” Wyatt grumbled.
Benny and I shared a conspiratorial smile and clinked glasses again. “This has been a ride,” I told them, hopping up on one of the counters and leaning back on my free hand. “I’ll miss this place.”
“And we’ll miss you,” Wyatt said sincerely. “Bianca’s a lucky bitch.”
I smiled, knowing the champagne and lack of eating dinner during my crazy, busy shift was going to my head. “Maybe she is.”
Wyatt’s phone chirped and he set his glass down to pull it from his pocket. “It’s my woman,” he told us, apparently channeling his inner caveman. Putting the phone to his ear, he said, “Hey babe, just finishing up?”
I looked up at the clock to see that it was after midnight. Sarita, where Kaya ran the kitchen, was open later than Lilou, so she would still have to clean up and shut down. I knew Wyatt stopped by after we were finished so he could help her get her kitchen in order and they drove home together.
A strange pain stabbed inside my chest. I took another sip of champagne hoping it would go away.
Loneliness.
That was the name of it. A feeling I was altogether familiar with, and one that had been showing up more often than usual lately.
I blamed all the love happening around me. It was like Cupid was rampaging through Durham intent on making everyone I knew fall in love.
Meanwhile, I was still over here with a full-on candle vigil for the death of any possibility of love in my life.Um, no thanks! I’m good. And single. And good with being single.
Liar, liar, my pained heart crooned.
It had been fine when Killian fell in love with Vera. I mean, had there ever been a more perfect couple on the planet? And love had totally changed Killian, making him a way more tolerable human.
And then there was Ezra. Obviously, I had been beyond thrilled for my brother to have found a woman that wasn’t the total worst. After his long list of crazy exes, I was so completely happy for him. And Molly was just the best. I couldn’t have asked for a better sister-in-law.
But honestly, who would have guessed that Ezra would have found true love before me?
Not me.
Or him.
Or anybody that knew us.
Ezra had been the one to make all the obvious dating mistakes. I had been the one lucky enough to have only needed to make one mistake. If lucky meant tragically unlucky.
Spotting losers was easy, when I said no to everyone.
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. I sometimes went on first dates. Er, or enough first dates that people assumed I was a dating machine.
But, I had a strict catch and release policy, promising myself that as soon as I found a guy worth keeping around, I wouldn’t let him go. I would recognize a good thing when I found it.
But lately, I’d been questioning my ability to recognize even half-decent men.
Either my standards were significantly lowering or my options were drying up.
I mean, even my mom had found true love.
And now Wyatt and Kaya? It was too much.
I was officially the third wheel. That didn’t mean I would stop tossing back the fish the second I’d gotten a free meal and a couple of drinks out of them.
