Try.
I sit there with a girl draped over each arm, cigar in my mouth, drink in hand, Tristan laughing across from me, X pretending he doesn’t care?—
And for a moment, it looks like everything is how it used to be.
But nothing is like it used to be.
Because my mind isn’t here.
My heart isn’t here.
My whole damn soul is somewhere off the map with Jade.
Her voice.
Her laugh.
Her eyes when she trusted me.
The way I shattered that trust.
All of it shreds me from the inside while I sit like a king holding court among idiots.
Hours pass.
Music throbs.
The pop star sings something shallow and expensive.
People dance and gossip and live like last night didn’t break a girl’s world in half.
Finally, I can’t take one more second of pretending.
“I’m out,” I say, standing abruptly.
X raises a brow. “You good?”
“No.”
But that’s all I give them.
X looks at Mindy, still perched on his lap. “I’ll give you a ride home.”
She smiles like she just won an Oscar.
People whisper the second they see them leave together.
How the hell did Mindy land Xavier?
No way.
He must be wasted.
He’ll regret that tomorrow.
Locker-room material for weeks.
Good.
