“No. Wait.” I let the sound of my desperation hang in the air as I laid my head against the cool window of the cab.
“What do you want?” I could hear her heavy sigh and a creak that sounded like she was settling down somewhere to listen.
“Tell me why you hate me.” I closed my eyes against the spinning interior of the cab.
“That will take all night,” she snarked.
“Very funny.” I ran my fingers through my hair, frustrated by everyone dancing around the answers to my question. “Tell me why you originally started hating me. Explain why we went from having a good time to you flirting with an intern and then bailing on me.” My tone came out more pleading than I meant for it to.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, it was months ago. Why do you want to knownow?”
I thought of all the ways I could answer that question.
Because I can’t stand that you hate me. Because hating you back is impossible. Because I never got to see where this could go. Because I’ve never stopped wanting you.
Thank fuck I wasn’t too drunk to edit all those thoughts.
“Because until tonight I didn’t know it was because of something I did.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I thought you just changed your mind. Like you didn’t want to commit to anything, so you decided the best thing to do would be to bail on our night so you wouldn’t have to see me anymore.”
“If that was my plan, then it didn’t work well. I still see you all the time,” she muttered.
“The plan would have been woefully flawed,” I agreed, leaning back into the seat of the cab.
“I’m not some cartoon villain twisting my mustache, O’Connor. There was no plan. You behaved like an ass at the gala, so I treated you like one.”
“And how is it exactly that I behaved like an ass?” I asked, dragging a hand through my hair.
“Seriously?”
“Apparently, I can’t put two and two together. I can’t stand it that Jack and Liv both know why you’re mad, and I’m sure Brian and David do, too. I’m the one you’re angry with and I’m the only one who doesn’t know why the hell you’re mad!”
She heaved a defeated sigh. “You went to the gala with me,” she said.
“Yeah, I’m aware of that. You’re mad I took you on a date?”
“Shut your smart mouth and let me talk. I swear I’ll hang up if you interrupt me again,” she snipped.
“Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled, keeping all my curses locked behind my lips.
“You were with me, and I thought we were having a good time. The coatroom happened and I—” she cut herself off from whatever she was going to say and cleared her throat. “And then Nora came over and it was like I didn’t exist.”
She paused to take a breath, and it took every last bit of control I had left to not interrupt again.
“You left me at the table to dance with her. And one dance with a friend wouldn’t bother me, but one turned into three and you were looking pretty cozy with your lips to her ear and your hand inching toward her ass. I wasn’t going to continue to make a fool of myself by being the woman you used to make your work wife jealous.”
I waited in silence, partly to make sure she was really finished talking, but also because it was taking my sluggish, alcohol-ridden brain an insane amount of time to figure out what she was telling me.
“Are you even still awake or are you passed out on a street somewhere?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I’m processing.”
“This might take all night after all,” she drawled.
“Har har.”
