“Don’t I know it.” I force a smile.
“What did Finn say?”
“Nothing, I mean he wanted to backpedal and talk but enough is enough.” I shrug. “I told him that I’m done with this stupid game I never should have started playing.”
“I think you should stay.” I shake my head and look down. “Sophie.”
After a few seconds I look up at her and notice the shift in her expression. She feels sorry for me and it flips a switch in me. “I am so tired of being the girl everyone pities. I’m tired of being the girl that can’t ever win. I’m tired of being the girl that a guy thinks needs a fake boyfriend because I can’t get a real one. Or at least a good real one. I’m just tired, Kendall.”
She reaches out and pulls me in for a hug, and then I feel several others grab hold of me. I’m trapped in the middle of twelve arms as they all hold me close.
“We don’t pity you,” Kendall whispers. “We love you.”
They hold me, and for the first time in a long time, I cry. I let go of all the frustration and anger. I spent months with Ryan, always feeling like the homely girl he brought along to all his fancy dinners. He’d play dress-up, putting me in these dresses I hated, and I’d sit at his side always feeling inadequate. Never felt like I fit in his world.
Now Finn, though the table turned, I did feel like I fit. Let myself love it even, but this time it was all fake.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Finn
“Damn you area grumpy son of a bitch today,” Troy says as he carries in another box and sets it down by the loading dock. “What’s got your panties all tied in a knot?”
Choosing to ignore him, I grab a box of items that go to the front and walk off. His chuckle echoes behind me.
I’ve spent more than twenty-four hours sending message after message, and call after call, all going unanswered and straight to voicemail. I screwed up and I know this. It shouldn’t bother me that this crazy plan has come to an end but it does. What may have started out as nothing more than a game quickly became real…and I miss her.
It hits me that I wasn’t ever faking it. I looked forward to seeing her or hearing her voice. I set out to make a point to Ryan but I don’t think I ever thought about what happens when it’s over. Because in my mind Sophie became mine the second she let me in. The lines were blurred from the start.
As I make my way to the front I am greeted by not one, but five, irritated looking women. I pause, look over at Maggie, and she shrugs before going back to counting her drawer. We are twenty minutes from opening and I find myself wondering which employee of mine I need to fire for letting in the wolfpack. I should know, you piss off one, you get the wrath of them all. I’ve seen it happen a few times over the years, and it never ends well.
“We need to talk,” Kendall takes lead on this one. Of course it’s the one that drives a big ass tow truck and can disassemble a car motor and rebuild it by memory with a second thought.
“Can we do this outside?”
“Here is fine,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. Setting down the box I match her movements and wait.
“Let me have it,” I say and Kendall narrows her eyes at me. Apparently I would be doing this with an audience.
“What did you expect to accomplish when you threw out the idea to fake date?” she asks, holding my stare. “Can you explain it to us, because last night we all sat around with a dear friend of ours and couldn’t quite understand how she’s come out the other end of it in worse shape than when it started.”
“What?”
“Don’t what me.” She drops her hands and closes the distance between us. “I’ve always thought you were a good guy Finn, but last night I held Sophie while she hit bottom and I’m here today demanding you tell us all what in the hell you expected in the end. Because if this was your endgame then I’m not sure you are any better than Ryan.”
“That’s low,” I tell her, holding her stare. I have to give it to Kendall, she has never been afraid to run toe to toe with any man. She has more backbone than most men I know. Nothing ever seems to phase her, or at least she never puts on that it does.
“So clear it up for me, make me the liar here.” She holds her hands out at her sides. “Make me eat those words, Finn. Believe me when I say, I want you to put me in my place and show me I’m wrong.”
“I was an asshole yesterday,” I confess, no longer caring that Maggie is standing a few feet away seeing this all unfold. “I overreacted and Sophie didn’t deserve me throwing shit at her. It wasn’t fair.”
“It wasn’t fair, but that wasn’t the question I asked.”
This girl is a tough one and she has her crew waiting patiently letting her take lead.
“She deserves better.” I throw my hands out.
“Better than you?”
