I shifted in my seat, grateful for the near-darkness. Was I attracted to her? No way.
Anyway… Tabs and me? Not going to happen.
“Oh, Tim,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I’d forgotten about how you used to make me laugh until I cry.” She sighed. “You counted right. My parents have zero boundaries—they are walking, talking chaos.”
She shivered again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance over the seat, presumably looking for my jersey. She unclipped her buckle, flung herself over the seat, and grabbed something.
“Whoa,” I said. “I could have stopped.”
She flopped back into her seat, pulled on the jersey wonkily, and clipped back in.
Crossing her arms, she pulled her legs against her chest and rested her chin on her knees, my huge jersey puddling around her. She looked bloody cute.
“I’m mad at you.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I needed a rebound after the odious Perry, and I had that guy all lined up.”
I snorted. “You didn’t miss much. Under the disguise of too much hair gel, Barbour jacket, and Chelsea boots, he was just a basic rugby fuckboy.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Sounds like someone not a million miles away.”
Her words were off-the-cuff and joking, but they spun uncomfortable shards down my spine. The teasing jibed with her comments and rolled eyes whenever I mentioned anyone female. Even though the assumption was absolutely not true. But for some reason, instead of correcting her, I played along.
“Hey, enough of the slut-shaming,” I scolded her.
“Sorry.” She turned serious. “I am sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t judge like that.”
Another chance to put the record straight—so why didn’t I take it?
“You’ll have plenty of other opportunities,” I assured her. Even though I believed my own words, a disturbing unease coiled inside me at the thought of the opportunities she would have.
She rolled her head back against the seat, seeming a bit low. “Will I, though?”
“What happened with Perry?” I put up a hand. “No. Sorry. You don’t have to answer that.”
“Actually, if it’s okay with you, I do want to hear a man’s perspective. I’m sure it will confirm everything you’ve ever thought about me.”
I nodded. That would only be true if she knew she was way too good for that prat.
“Well.” She took a deep breath. “Perry took up yoga, which was a shock, to say the least, and he started spending an inordinate amount of time at classes. He fobbed me every night this week, and I became very suspicious. I arrived at his house early this morning and found him and his yoga teacher very naked and very, um,entwined.”
I coughed with the shock. “What the hell? I assumed you saw the light and dumped him. Instead…oh God.”
I couldn’t get my head around him choosing someone else over Tabitha.
“Can I tell you something? Be honest with you?” She turned her head to me. I glanced over—her eyes glimmered with the light of many glasses of champagne.
I felt a stab of trepidation. “Tabs, don’t tell me anything you’ll regret tomorrow.”
“Oh, it’s not like it’s a secret. It’s just that… I don’t have much confidence where men are concerned.”
“Why not?” I liked that she was talking to me like this. It felt natural and more like the old us.
She shrugged.
“If it’s because of Perry, the bloke’s a total fucking drop-kick. Turf his opinions from your brain right now. They’re worthless.”
She groaned and squirmed in her seat. “God, how embarrassing. You heard those acerbic comments he made about my weight. And no doubt the corrections and the snickers every time I opened my mouth. I was such a fool to stay with him.”
“I won’t get any points for commenting on that. I’ll just say this—he was not good enough for you. And he was not goodforyou.” I shook my head furiously, then tried to tone down my anger a little. “What did you even like about him?”
