Page 106 of Twisted Beauty

“What could that possibly be?”

“You’re over Grant, and you know you can fall in love again. That’s kind of huge.”

Liv shook her head and tightened her hands around the coffee mug. The afternoon sun warmed her skin but she felt cold from the inside out, and coffee couldn’t fix that. “I’m starting to think I was never in love with Grant. Maybe I was in love with the idea of being the person everyone else thought I should be. I might have to hate myself for that.”

“Well I love you for it. Because it means you care. That you want to make people happy.”

Liv felt the tears well up again and spill down her cheeks before she could stop them. Thank god for Katie, or she’d never have survived all her disastrous life choices. Katie had a way of putting a positive spin on every braindead thing Liv had ever done. She wrapped her free arm around Katie and gave her a long hug before leaning back against the headboard and taking another sip of coffee.

“I don’t think I even want to fall in love again. Matt was something special. He is something special. But I screwed it up.”

And she hoped she hadn’t done more damage in the process. He deserved to be happy, to find someone to love who would erase all the pain and doubt he’d suffered at the hands of his ex. Not someone who’d exacerbate it, like she’d done. Knowing she hurt him made her sick to her stomach.

“You’re such a hopeless romantic. You know that, right? There are tons of awesome guys out there. Your perfect man might be walking on the beach outside the window right now. Let’s go look.”

Katie stood, but Liv grabbed her arm and dragged her back into a seated position. “I don’t want another guy.”

“Fine. But how special can Matt really be if he walked away from you after one little mistake? It was barely a white lie. It’s not like you were offering random blow jobs to the local hotties at Starbucks behind his back.”

Well, there was a visual Liv didn’t need. “Nobody does that.”

“Whatever. You’re the best person I know. If he doesn’t see that, he’s a douchebag too.”

Liv stared out the window into the endless blue sky. She was all too familiar with douchebags. Grant was the biggest, with his huge ego and his obsession with appearances. But pretty much every one of her ex-boyfriends fit the definition in one way or another. You couldn’t say the same about a man who set aside his dreams to take care of his aging grandfather, and who went out of his way to help out a woman he didn’t even like when she was, oh, say, caught in a storm with her expensive camera because she was too clueless to check the weather before leaving home.

Liv shook her head. “He’s not. He’s a really good guy who’s had a bad break with women and doesn’t trust anyone. And I made it worse. God, I’m such an asshole.”

“Do not talk about my best friend like that.” Katie took her hand. “Come on. Get out of bed, get cleaned up, and let’s go somewhere fun.”

Fun? Unlikely in her current state of mind. But she was still here, in this beautiful country. Maybe she should try to enjoy it. At least for Katie’s sake.

“Like where?”

Katie strummed a finger against her lips. “Hmm. How about drinks at Burros? That bar where we met Nate and Garrett? We could sit out on the beach again.”

Liv winced. Matt probably didn’t eat crap like that, but what if he happened to be there? Or what if he walked by on the beach while she was sitting there with her red-rimmed eyes and wallowing in her beer? “Too close to Tito’s. I can’t handle seeing Matt today.”

Katie nodded. “Okay. Let’s shop, then. You wanted to check out some of those little boutiques on Basilio Badillo. Let’s do it.”

“Even closer to Tito’s. You know that.”

“Yeah. Right. Hmm.” Katie started tapping her index finger against her lip again. “Ooh, I know. Let’s go to Sayulita. It’s only like forty-five minutes away. Really cute shops there too. And the beach rocks.”

Liv swallowed back a new wave of tears. God, she was sick of crying. But was there anywhere in Mexico she wouldn’t associate with him? “Matt surfs there. What if we run into him?”

Katie rubbed her forehead, clearly frustrated. “Fine. Where do you think there’s a zero chance of you running into him?”

Liv thought for a minute. And there was only one place she could come up with that fit that description. “Home.”

“What? Like your apartment in LA, home?”

Liv nodded. It seemed like her whole trip had revolved around Matt. Her whole I’m staying away from men until the end of time trip. Because, naturally, being her brilliant self and all, that lasted for about a day and a half. After that, Matt was there for all the best parts of her visit to Puerto Vallarta.

And now? How quickly would he forget about her? Start dating someone else? God, she could be stuck in this small town, watching him go on with his life without her. For all of a week, anyway. And then she’d be going home. So why wait? She might even be able to get out of here tomorrow.

Kind of a depressing ending to such a wonderful trip. But it would be easier to go home and deal with all the faceless haters on Grant’s Twitter feed than to be heartbroken here, on Matt’s home turf. Where she couldn’t even stop in and visit Tito.

And her heart broke just a little bit more at the thought of never seeing Tito again.