Despite not wanting the flowers, and determined to let another woman catch them, when Quinnie tosses the bouquet over her shoulder, my hands instinctively lift and close over the bouquet that falls into them. Ally and our other friends squeal with joy, and the massive smirk on the bride’s face makes my stomach churn. No doubt they’ll take this as a sign to set me up with every eligible bachelor they know.
Sure enough, when Adrian catches the garter, Quinnie jumps on the mic and announces that the two of us will dance with each other.
Kill. Me. Now.
Knowing I can’t get out of this without looking like a total bitch, I paste a smile on my face and allow Adrian to wrap an arm around my waist, while the other takes my hand, and the DJ playsEverything Has Changedby Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran.
Quinn winks at me, and I really want to send her a death glare, but there are too many eyes on me right now.
“Seems like the universe keeps throwing us together, huh?” Adrian murmurs, his breath warm against my ear as we stand in one spot and sway back and forth to the music.
No one else is dancing. They’ve formed a giant circle around us, and I’m officially going to murder my best friend on her wedding night for putting me in the spotlight.
“Uh… Yeah, I guess it does feel like that,” I say dumbly, swallowing down the bile rising in my throat.
He seems like a nice guy, but I’m barely containing my panic attack with all these people staring at me, and flashbacks of my wedding threatening to overwhelm me.
“This is probably a little presumptuous of me, but I’m flying back to Melbourne tomorrow, so I thought I’d shoot my shot. Would you be interested in coming back to my hotel with me tonight?”
I trip over my feet, but he catches me, pulling me closer. Close enough to feel the unmistakable bulge in his pants.
“Uh, I have to pick up my daughter,” I stutter.Lies.“Sorry.”
He clears his throat and steps back, putting some space between us, but thankfully he’s not a complete arsehole to ditch me on the dancefloor in the middle of the song with so many eyes on us.
“Right, sorry. I didn’t know.”
There’s the blow that wakes me up from my fantasy with my masked stranger. He doesn’t know I’m a single mum either. Men may be interested in pursuing something with me, but will they ever be interested in raising another man’s daughter as his own?I don’t want to find out. Tinsley doesn’t need men coming in and out of her life. That’s why it’ll only ever be me and her.
“It’s fine.”
We awkwardly sway back and forth until the song finishes and transitions into Walk the Moon’sShut Up and Dance.
“Thanks for the dance,” Adrian says, squeezing my hip before melting into the crowd.
Quinn, Ally, and Sophia appear by my side, the bride wiggling her brows at me. I give her a subtle shake of my head and ignore her disappointment, gripping my friends’ hands and dancing the rest of the night away.
Ally and her husband give me a lift home later that night, and I ignore the pang of loneliness that hits when I let myself into the quiet house. I’m half tempted to call Everett and ask him to bring Tinsley home, but it’s past midnight and I know she’ll be sound asleep.
Instead, I shower and climb into bed alone, tossing and turning before I finally drift into a restless sleep.
Chapter 5
Blake
Okay, so this sexual frustration may not make me a nice person to live with, but it is good for my game. I’ve been on fire on the field in the last month, topping the competition for leading goal scorer. We’ve won three of our first four games for the season, and while the team is stoked, Everett is pretty much avoiding me at this point. Either that or shooting me death glares as I stomp around the house.
It was pretty obvious that Coach Johnson thought our captain would best be able to deal with my shitty mood when he assigned Noah as my roommate on our away game last night. He tried to get me to talk, but what am I supposed to say? My head’s all screwed up because of a single fucking kiss with a mysterious masked stranger at a sex club. Yeah, no thanks. Instead, I put my AirPods on and pretended to fall asleep.
I’m not sleeping very well because I’m constantly on edge. It’s like a fucking merry-go-round of horrors. I know I’m being an arsehole, but I don’t know how to fix it.
In the three weeks since I kissedAbigail, I’ve tried hooking up with a couple of different girls, but the same problem keeps happening. The flirting and banter are fine, but as soon as I kiss them, it’s just disappointment. No spark, no excitement downstairs, nothing. I’m starting to think I’m broken, although I can still get hard in the shower and in bed when my mind is free to fall into fantasyland with a certain pixie.
Fuck my life.
Everett’s little sister is staying over tonight, so I escape to Carter’s with Zac, Noah, Dane, and Jasper and his girlfriend, Katie, but it’s much the same with no one there catching my interest. Dane has no such trouble, disappearing with a girl back to her dorm room within an hour of arriving at the campus bar, leaving me as the awkward fifth wheel with the two loved up couples.
It doesn’t take me long to make my excuses and leave.
