“No can do.”
“Why are you being such a pain in the ass?” Blaire protests.
“I’m always a pain in the ass, remember?”
“But you’re being anextra bigpain in the ass today.”
“I’m giving you five seconds, then I’m coming in. I hope you’re decent.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“One,” I start counting. “Two. Three.”
“You won’t do it,” she says.
“Four.”
“Thatcher, come on!”
“Five.” I twist the knob and push the door open.
The sight before me can only be described as sad chaos. Her suitcase is open on the floor, clothes everywhere. Three cups, two soda cans, and a wine cooler bottle cover her nightstand, among a sea of bunched up tissues. A couple of empty chips bags are crumped up on the floor, alongside a half-eaten package of cookies.
And one Blaire Sutton is tangled in her covers, looking a little bit like death warmed over.
Fuck, I hate seeing her like this. So…defeated.
“Out of bed, Sleeping Beauty.”
“You can’t make me.”
“I can.” I close the distance, approaching her bed.
“What are you?—”
I scoop her up with the blanket she’s cocooned around her body and carry her down the hall to the bathroom. She fights me for all of two seconds before relenting.
“I’m standing guard outside this door until you’ve showered,” I insist.
“I’m too tired to be a flight risk,” she says as I set her back on her feet and nudge her into the bathroom. I’ve set out fresh towels and all of my sister’s toiletry items I could find. I’m about to ask if she wants me to grab her a change of clothes, but she cuts me off by closing the door in my face.
“You really don’t have to wait outside the door,” she says.
“Actually, I do.”
“Why? Did Raelyn put you up to this?”
“Because I need a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“I want to make my ex jealous.” I’m glad she can’t see me shaking my head. If I wasn’t a man of honor, I’d have laughed at my sister and hung up. Instead, here I am, inventing a bullshit story to convince a stubborn, heartbroken woman to leave the house for an hour.
“Why does that involve me?”
“Because it’s a lot easier to make her jealous if there are two people in the pictures I post than one.”
Raelyn made it very clear that unless Blaire felt like she could do something to help me, the chances of her going out, even for a quick meal, were almost certainly zero. My sister suggested we stop by the local brewery this afternoon, where something called a Cupid’s Crawl is happening. But what she failed to offer up was a reason I would want to take her best friend to it. So, I had to improvise.
