So, Elise and I went toHaunts.
And it was a complete fucking disaster.
???
Before we even walk inside, Elise pulls me to her against the car and kisses me hard. Thinking that she’s nervous to meet myfriends, I hold her gorgeous face, more angular than the one I had been kissing for six years, and return the kiss fiercely.
Drowning in Elise kept me from drowning in my own thoughts and guilt. Elise smirks against my lips, pulling back to wipe the lipstick from my mouth.
Regret hits me as soon as we walk into the bar.
Sophie had been friendly with Adriana and Maude the way you usually are with your partner's girlfriends, all surface-level. It was enough for shared laughs over beers and swapping funny work stories when the guys tuned in to whatever game was playing on the TV over the bar.
Those times always felt easy and fun.
I guess that I hope we can recapture that feeling, making it new and fresh with the new woman on my arm. Because things change. Life happens, and sometimes people break up.
That's what I’d been planning to tell Brian and Chris, and that's what I try to keep telling myself.
Maybe one day I’ll actually believe it.
As soon as the door slams shut behind us, I feel all the eyes in the room turn to us. Elise is dressed to kill, as always, and I try to ignore the staring, seeing far too many familiar faces looking between the two of us in confusion, clearly searching for the brunette who usually accompanied me.
I search the room for my friends, seeing them talking at a corner table.
"Hey," I greet them casually, catching their attention. Their faces had been smiling when they heard my voice, but they dropped along with my stomach when they see the smiling blonde next to me. I pull out a chair for Elise, who gracefully takes off her coat and reveals a fitted red tank top.
Brian and Chris share a confused look, and to break some tension, I glance around. "Where are the girls?"
"At the bar," Chris says flatly. His dark brown eyes don't meetmine. Instead, they narrow as he looks Elise over suspiciously, and his gaze drifts to the door, as though expecting someone else to walk through it.Sophie.Dread settles in my stomach as I struggle to keep my expression casual and unaffected.
"Uh... hi," Brian says next, awkwardly, his blue eyes darting between Elise and me.
"I'm Elise," she says, her voice a confident purr as she holds her hand out to shake his. Elise carries herself like royalty, and it was one of the things that made her devastatingly attractive. You just couldn't help but look twice. "It’s so nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you from Paul."
"That's funny," Chris shoots back, his voice cool as he glares directly at me. "We haven't heard anything about you."
I shrug casually and flag down the passing waitress for two beers. We sit in an awkward silence for a long moment, Brian and Chris exchanging tense looks, while I send reassuring glances to Elise. When the waitress returns with our drinks, I gulp half of it down before theclick-clickof heels catches my attention.
Glancing up, I meet the cold, dark brown eyes ofMaude Jackson, Esq.,Brian's girlfriend.
Adriana, Chris' girlfriend, settles into the seat next to him, the dark-haired man wrapping his arm around her and whispering something in her ear.
"Who are you?" Maude asks, direct as ever, and eyes laser-focused on Elise.
A word to describe Maude?Sharp.
Her black hair is cut into a clean, sharp bob. Her heels look like weapons, her outfit is expensive and sleek, and her makeup is done with perfect precision. There’s no unnecessary softness with Maude. That's what makes her such a great lawyer: she doesn't flinch or bend.
Brian's the mellow one, while Maude is the one who'd makesure the waitress brought his burger exactly the way he ordered it.
They were a perfect balance.
"I'm Elise—"
"Yeah, I heard that," Maude interrupts. "Butwhoare you?"
"I'm Paul's girlfriend," Elise says, turning to me with a smile that I try—unsuccessfully—to return.
