I’d wanted to feel something kissing her.
Instead, I’d felt nothing.
Unlike when I woke up in bed with Lily in my arms and my whole body felt like it was on fucking fire.
I released my grip on Candice.
The woman was stunning. Yet looking at her elicited hardly any feeling. Like I was looking at a beautiful sculpture and could recognize its beauty but felt nothing about it otherwise. However, she’d made it clear upon her arrival that she was only looking for fun. That she’d broken up with her fiancé and needed a rebound. Despite the weirdness with Lily, or maybe because of it, I’d thoughtWhy not?
It would make a statement about what was or was not between me and Lily.
She’d get it.
We’d get over it.
And we’d go back to the way things were before I’d messed up and dry-humped her in my bed.
The urge to search the crowded rooftop for my friend was too insistent to resist. A prickle of an ugly feeling hung over me as I glanced around.
It wasn’t guilt. Why should I feel guilty?
I was single.
My stomach knotted, however, the longer I looked and couldn’t find Lily.
“What is it? Who are you looking for?” Candice asked, sounding slightly irritated.
“Uh, one sec, yeah.” I gave her a tight-lipped smile. “I’ll be back in a second.”
As I pushed through the crowd, I spotted January snogging Geoff, who I’d befriended on my civil engineering course in second year. Not wanting to interrupt them, I headed over to where Zac chatted with a couple of girls. I’d noted he’d been hanging out with Lily all night. I’d kept my distance because I was still getting weird vibes and didn’t want to push myself on her.
“Hey, where’s Sawyer?” I interrupted my friend’s conversation.
Zac glanced up at me, a smirk curling his mouth. “She took off with some guy.”
He might as well have shoved me toward the edge of the rooftop for how unbalanced I felt at this information. Some bloke? Lily? No way. “What do you mean?”
Zac shrugged, frowning. “What do you think I mean? She hooked up with some guy. I don’t know who he is, but they were all over each other.”
Lily? My Lily? Who had never had a one-night stand in her life? “Are you kidding?”
“No.”
I moved on instinct toward the door.
A strong hand gripped the back of my shirt, jerking me to a halt. I glanced over my shoulder to find Zac glaring at me. “What are you doing?” he bit out.
I shrugged him off. “What areyoudoing?”
“Stopping you from being an utter arse to Lil. She saw you snogging Candice.”
I swallowed hard. “So?”
Zac’s disgust was obvious, and I felt about two feet tall. “You know, I’ve never thought you would deliberately hurt someone, but the way you’ve strung that girl along is shitty. Let her be. Let her hook up with someone else and get over you. Because we all know Lily Sawyer deserves better than you.”
Stunned, I couldn’t speak as Zac turned his back and started chatting away to his companions like he hadn’t torn strips off me.
He was right.
