“I’ll just take a burger. Whatever one you think is the best.”
Mickey smiled. “That’ll be the Cyrus special. Bacon cheeseburger with Monterey jack jalapeno on a toasted sesame bun. Fries, onion rings, or a salad on the side.”
“Fries, please.”
“I’ll have the same thing.”
When Mickey disappeared again and it was just Perry and me, I got to see how much more relaxed he was here. I didn’t know if he’d been trying to impress me, or if he’d just wanted to experience that kind of place the way he’d said he did, but I knew that it wasn’t somewhere he was comfortable. But it made me wonder about him.
Perry seemed to enjoy the simpler things in life. He was far more at home in a quiet corner of The Anchor. He looked at ease instead of confused, the way he had when he’d first picked up his glass of wine.
“I’m sorry about my ex.” I repeated at some point after our food had arrived.
Perry attacked his burger, taking a massive bite before waving me off. “You didn’t know he’d be there. And even if you did, it’s not like you planned it. Though I do want to discuss your atrocious taste in men now. Has it always been that bad?”
“Nope.” I took a sip of my beer. “It used to be worse.”
Perry’s eyebrows shot up near his hairline. “Worse than Bryson?”
“Bryson wasn’t that bad. At least he didn’t glitter my apartment when we broke up.”
“Shut up.” Perry laughed. “Oh, that’s awful. Glitter never comes out.”
“I think that was the point.”
His eyes sparkled and it was getting harder to remember that this had started because I needed a fake boyfriend for my brother’s wedding.
FOURTEEN
PERRY
“Glitter is diabolical,”I said to Rex, taking a sip of my drink. “What did you do?”
“Maybe this is where you decide that I’m the problem, but he wanted to move faster than I was comfortable moving. When I told him I wasn’t ready to let him move in, he accused me of not caring about him, of cheating on him, all kinds of things. I thought we smoothed it over, but the next time he stayed over, his parting gift was a glitter bomb.”
“That’s not at all mentally unstable.”
“What about you?” Rex asked. “What’s your craziest breakup story?”
My stomach dropped into my shoes and my face grew hot, humiliation burning just under the skin. How did I explain to him that I was good enough for men to want to fuck but not good enough for men to want to date.
“In order to have a breakup story,” I began, doing my best to maintain eye contact, like this wasn’t a secret I was trying to hidefrom or that embarrassment wasn’t churning in my guts. “One must first have someone to break up with.”
Rex was quiet for a minute so I kept going.
“I don’t mind being single, but it’s been fun to see how the other half lives. I’d never even been on a date before all this.”
A serious expression fluttered across his face and he leaned back, his face serious but kind. “I feel like I’m cheating you out of something.”
“Out of what?” I scoffed. “Saturday nights at home alone with my phone? It’s a first date, not baby’s first steps.”
“But shouldn’t it have been with someone you were interested in?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I mean… is something less special just because you’ve already done it? Like, were the flowers I gave you less beautiful because I’d already given you flowers before? Did the existence of the first experience take anything away from the enjoyment of the second?”
Rex’s features relaxed and he gifted me with a smile that said he understood what I meant. “You’re right.”
“Keep that in mind and we’ll get along just fine.”
