Page 63 of The Longest Wait

He stared at her, almost unsure of what she meant. “She won’thear a word of it from me.”

Now it was time for her to save face.

“Good. Honestly, it’s better if we never talk about this. Hell, probably better if we just avoid each other. Do you think you can go? I needto get dressed and all.”

Or more aptly put, she needed to be by herself, so she could let allof the pain from being rejected by him show.

She could see arguing about the new situation was on the tip of histongue, probably to point out he had already seen her naked, so whydid it matter now? Instead, he said, “No loss for me.”

He stormed out of the house and, as soon as he left, Sofia’s tearsflowed free. She went to her room and cried for hours. Figuring whenAlex came home, she would tell him the truth, that he hurt her. By thetime she fell asleep at four a.m., he still wasn’t home.

The next week—he had a girlfriend.

Chapter 21

SOFIA WAS EXPECTING a girls’ night, but w hen she showed upat Daltons, Lucy and Tess were there, but so were the boys. Whendid she become outnumbered? She glared at Alex.

He seriously ruined everything.

She unhappily sat next to Connor, tapping her foot on theground the entire time. It was all of her pent-up energy needing togo somewhere. She was one knee bounce away from auditioningfor the Rockettes.

“How’s work been for you?” Dominic turned conversationto her.

She chugged the remainder of her glass of wine, no small featsince she recently ordered it. “Queen Clarice hasn’t told me I’mactually a princess, so I still go every day,” she snapped at him, eventhough he didn’t deserve it.

Lucy put her drink down. “Proceed with caution, everyone.Sofia has been in a sour mood all week.”

“And work is going great for her,” Tess divulged. “She’s consulting at a local law firm, working on cloud testing.”

“While any new tech feature or application normally makes hernot shut up, she has been very tight lipped about this one,” Lucy added.

Dominic wasn’t paying attention. “Who the hell is QueenClarice?”

Lucy grinned while Tess answered, “A character from PrincessDiaries. When we were in college, whenever we wanted a night in,we watched the movie together.”

“With copious amounts of drinks and quoting most of themovie,” Lucy added.

Alex joined in the happiness, which only curdled Sofia’s mood.“I remember that now. You girls were staying at my parents onenight, and I came home from the bar. You three wore plastic tiarasand were trashed off one bottle of wine. I’m sure my mother haspictures of these nights somewhere.”

All of the fun had to end. Alex, having a great time at herexpense, was enough. Sofia hastily stood, flipping her hair overher shoulder. “I’m working on security testing for cloud controls.Queen Clarice was a badass grandmother. And”—she pointedangrily at Alex—“we were drunk off three bottles of wine, notone. You probably didn’t notice because that was the same nightyou brought home some redhead who giggled at everything yousaid. I’d like to point out, nothing you said was humorous. Thatgirl was an idiot.”

With full dramatics, Sofia stormed to the bar, needing space.

IT WAS CROWDED at the bar, and instead of pushing throughthe sea of people as she normally would, she stood back. Her life offlittering through contract tech assignments and no commitmentrelationships was non-existent.

Life had shifted without her knowing it.

Sure, she still had future consultant work, but that was becoming lackluster. Her no-commitment relationship with Alex endedthanks to her inability to let go of the past. She made these decisions, but she wasn’t happy with them. She wasn’t sure how it allhappened, but she was one more stressful day away from wantinga nine-to-five and husband.

Gag, what a nightmare the idea used to be to her. Now, it didn’tsound so horrific. Which was why she had to abort everythingmaking her feel all Betty Crocker. Assuming Betty Crocker hada husband.

If Betty did, he probably looked like Alex.

Alex and his stupid smile that made everything seem notso bad.

Alex and his stupid humor that both annoyed her and madeher laugh.

Alex and his stupid orgasms he gave out like it was Halloween candy.