Seven Groomsmen from Hell (Love by Numbers 6)

The next morning, I slipped out of bed as quietly as I could and went to go after some coffee and bagels. Now that the wedding was over, we’d be headed back for Texas soon and had a day of packing and getting ready to leave ahead of us. Khloe was going to need a little boost, and as her new love-interest, I was the perfect person to give it to her. I was almost annoyed at myself for grinning like an idiot the whole time I walked down to the cafe and back up to the room, but when I opened the door to the hotel room, my good mood was dashed in a second. I stepped into the living room and Khloe was sitting on the couch with a piece of paper in her hands. Her eyes were red and puffy and the paper was wrinkling at the edges where it was clenched in her hands. I glanced at the desk and my heart shattered. The scorecard was no longer there; Khloe was gripping it, with pain on her face.

“Khloe, I swear to god, that is not what it looks like,” I started.

Khloe looked up and me and I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I couldn’t believe that I had caused her so much pain. “So this isn’t a scorecard with all sorts of points that you all have been getting for doing different sexual stuff with me?”

I could hear Kent in my head telling me that the scorecard was a bad idea. If only we had listened. “Well… technically, that’s what it is, but—”

Khloe stood up and stormed over to me. “I hope you had fun.”

She forced the scorecard into my chest and then started off around me. I didn’t have any free hands to grab her with, so she got away while I was setting the coffee and bagel bag down. I rushed out after her, but didn’t make it before she was in her own room with the door shut and locked behind her. I pounded on the door despite the early hour, just trying to get her to open up.

“Khloe, please, let me explain,” I begged.

Khloe opened the door and looked directly into my eyes. “There’s only one thing I need to know. Was it ever part of some plan to tally points for sex with me?” I stared at her. I knew that if I told her the truth I would lose her, but I also knew that she already knew the truth and if I lied I would lose her too. I didn’t know what to do. “Answer me.”

“In the beginning,” I admitted. “I’m so sorry.”

Khloe shook her head as a few fresh tears fled down her cheeks. “Never come near me again. Tell your friends the same.”

The door slammed in my face, shattering the blissful world I was just getting used to, and dealing me my very first ever heartbreak.

21

Brett

It had been a long 5-hour ride home. Khloe hopped an early flight home, managed to completely avoid us up until the time she had to leave. All flight I had to sit there and imagine her exhausted and upset, and know that her final opinion of me was going to be that I was a guy who tricked women into thinking they actually liked them to score points in some stupid men’s game. None of the women we had ever scored in the past had any false belief that we wanted a relationship with them. They were just in it for the sex as much as we were, they just didn’t realize we were keeping score, but Khloe was different. Khloe actually meant something to us, the first woman who’d ever meant something to us, and her heart was broken thinking that we didn’t care about her at all.

I couldn’t believe my dumb fucking luck. Sharing women with Luke was bound to have a downside at some point, I just didn’t realize it would happen when I’d found such a perfect one. Finally a woman that I could actually see myself being with for the long haul and Luke had to go and mess everything up being an idiot. We’d gathered at his place for him to explain what happened after he’d hastily told us that Khloe ‘probably hates us for good now’ with no additional explanation before getting on the plane.

“Why did you even still have that list?” I hissed. “It was obvious we liked her more than that. You should have shredded it as soon as it became real!”

“I forgot I even had it! Besides, don’t act like this list shit is all about me, we were all there when we made the fucking thing. You were all too stoked about it back when we made it, you’re just pissed that you didn’t get any fucking points!” Luke bellowed.