“There you are,” Stephen exclaims, as I pull back from Ryan. “Oh my God, I’m not interrupting anything between you two old flames, am I?” Stephen’s brows rise as he pulls a vape from his pocket and takes a draw.
“Well…” Ryan begins before I interject.
“Not at all.” I pull Stephen in, but wave his vape away when he offers me a drag.
Stephen may be on the wrong side of tipsy, but I’d take that over being left alone with Ryan. Right now, I feel unable to trust my body to comply with my rational brain.
“I heard you and Marcus broke up,” Stephen says, taking another draw of his vape and tilting his head upward to blow the smoke up.
Stephen has never been one for subtlety.
“Yeah, a couple of weeks back. It wasn’t working out.” Ryan’s gaze darts from Stephen to me.
“Hear that, Chris, he’s single too.” Stephen chides me with his elbow.
Maybe I’d actually be better off without Stephen here after all.
I rub my hand across my chest to calm the flicker of irritation inside.
“I’m actually in a relationship,” I say, removing my grip from the golden pole and standing upright. Almost as tall as Ryan.
“Since when?” Stephen scratches his jaw, cutting me a look of disbelief.
“Since yesterday.”
“Well, I think you should ditch whoever that guy is and get back together with Ryan.” Stephen winks at Ryan and grabs his bulging bicep.
I want to high-five Stephen, around the face, with a chair. But the police car driving down the road puts an immediate stop to that thought. It’s replaced by another.
How fucking dare you say that?
Stephen knows what Ryan put me through when we were together. And Ryan is thelastperson I would ever go back to. Even if Earth’s survival depended on it.
The way Stephen’s hand lingers on Ryan’s bicep a couple of seconds longer than one would expect instantly adds fuel to my anger. Stephen has always had a crush on Ryan.
“Wait, is that Gaga?” Stephen drops his grip when the bar door opens andBad Romanceleaks out.
Before I have a chance to blink, Stephen has turned and hot-footed it back into the bar without as much as a goodbye, leaving me alone once more with Ryan.
Great.
“How long are you in town for?”
“I leave Sunday.”
“That’s a shame, it would have been nice to catch up properly,” he says, stepping forward.
“Gotta go back for work,” I say, retreating and almost knocking the pole over.
“Maybe we should have a Jägerbomb for old times’ sake.” Ryan lifts a brow.
Nothing good ever comes from a Jägerbomb.
“Who are you here with?” I ask, pivoting the conversation.
“Oh, just my sister. She’s having a whale of a time with a bunch of gays on the dance floor.” He shakes his head at the thought.
Claire always was the life and soul of his family.
