Page 43 of Heart Breaker

“Pretty sure this is just alcoholism with better branding.”

She laughs loudly enough that Scout lifts his head from where he’s sprawled across the floor at her feet. “Okay, your turn.”

I groan. “I already regret agreeing to this game.”

“Too late.” She grins. “Tell me your worst teenage humiliation, Wes Winters.”

I press a hand into my eyes. “This is going to make me sound deeply pathetic.”

“Oh, even better.”

I sigh. “When I was sixteen,” I start, “I dated this girl for almost a year. First serious girlfriend. I was completely gone for her.”

Lottie’s expression softens immediately, which somehow makes this worse.

“She used to come watch my baseball games after school,” I continue. “Cheered for me, sat with my brothers, all my friends loved her.”

“Oof,” Lottie murmurs.

“Yeah. Oof.”

I knock back another sip of wine before continuing. “Anyway, one Friday night she tells me she’s sick and staying home, so naturally I spend the entire evening being a very concerned teenage boyfriend.”

“Naturally.”

“The next day, Jesse informs me that she was not in fact sick, she was making out with one of the senior football players at a bonfire.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes.”

“But that’s not the most embarrassing part.”

Lottie’s eyes widen. “Would it be wrong to say I can’t wait to hear how it got even worse?”

“Yes,” I reply sarcastically. “But don’t let that stop you.”

“Oh, I won’t. Carry on,” she says, waving her hand at me.

“Okay, the worst part is that she denied it and, like the dumbest sixteen-year-old on the planet, I believed her. Despite the fact that half the town saw it. I told Jesse he got it wrong, told my friends they were crazy. I actually went out and got her flowers because I felt so bad about the rumors. And then two weeks later, I walked into a party and found her sitting on the guy’s lap with her tongue down his throat.”

Lottie winces dramatically. “Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s brutal.”

I shrug one shoulder, though even now I can still remember the feeling. The embarrassment. The anger. The way everybody at school looked at me like I was an idiot who couldn’t see what was happening right in front of him.

“She cried,” I add.

Lottie blinks. “The girl who cheated?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Why was she crying?”

“She said I embarrassed her by breaking up with her.”