I’m in the world’s longest line for the women’s bathroom when I attempt to redo my ponytail. I’m almost finished twisting the elastic around my red strands when it snaps, leaving me with one of those weird creases in my hair and no way to fix it.Shit.I attempt to run my fingers through the crease, but it’s no use.
“Do you have an extra hair tie?” I ask the girl waiting behind me. She sways back and forth, and her eyes are a little glossy.
“Nooooo, sure don’t,” she slurs. I offer her a small smile then get out of the line, groaning. I head back toward whereGray sits. The moment I push my way through a small group of people, I see Tanner stumble out of the bar’s doors attached to a blonde like some sort of sucker fish.
Lovely.
I roll my eyes because I was right—he’s taking the blonde home. Why are men always so predictable?
I continue back to our table, wondering why my friends would ever think living with someone like him would be a good idea. No, one thing is for sure, Tanner Mitchell is the definition of a fuck boy.
Actually, if you look up that word in the dictionary, I’m ninety-nine percent certain his photo would be plastered right there in the margins.
I know his type—very pretty, very arrogant, and very much can’t keep his dick in his shorts. I dated a man like him. Hell, I loved a man like him, and all it brought me was a whole lot of heartbreak.
CHAPTER 2: A SIREN LURING A SHIP
TANNER
Iunlock the door to my apartment and walk inside. Jacks is sitting on the couch, watching TV.
“Where’s Lacey?” I ask, shutting the door behind me.
“She’s taking a bath. We just got back a little while ago,” he says. “Where were you?”
“The Local. Had a shitty day at work.” I walk across the apartment and into the kitchen where I begin to make a bowl of cereal.
“Surprised you came home alone,” he says over the sound of the television and the Froot Loops filling my bowl.
“I just wasn’t feeling it,” I call back.
“That doesn’t sound like you. You good?”
I add some milk to the bowl and think back on my night. The redhead walking away from me pops into my mind, and all I can think about is Wren. It’s like, for months now, a switch flipped, and my brain won’t let me go past flirting with anyone, and anytime I try, Wren pops up and steals my attention.
“Not sure,” I say, walking back into the living room to join him. “How much longer do you think Lacey is going to be?”
“A while. She grabbed her Kindle on the way into the bathroom, so I imagine we have some time before she emerges.” He chuckles.
“If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell her?”
“That’s a big ask.”
“I know, but if she finds out then the rest of the girls will find out, and they can’t.”
He eyes me. “Okay?”
“Tonight seemed like a normal night out. I was at the bar, surrounded by really pretty women, and there was this blonde who was really into me. Like I could have easily brought her home, but I didn’t want to.”
“Go on,” he says.
“And I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t, but then I saw this girl walking towards the bathrooms and I thought it was Wren, but I wasn’t sure, and it’s like every last bit of energy I had to give the blonde disappeared.”
“You don’t say?”
I take a bite of my cereal. “Yeah, and that’s not the first time this has happened.”
“What do you mean?”
