Seven Groomsmen from Hell (Love by Numbers 6)

“Fuck you, you dick!” I yelled back. “Finally, Khloe actually starts coming around to the idea of being with us and you actually let her see the scorecard? How dumb can you be?”

My skin started to sizzle with heat. That he could even suggest that I was upset for any reason other than losing Khloe made me feel like he sabotaged us on purpose. All he had to do was not let her see the damn thing, so instead he goes and leaves it out in the wide open for her to view at her leisure. What a moron. Luke continued to glare at me as though I actually had some role to play in costing us all the best woman we’d ever had, and something in me just snapped. I cocked my fist back and blasted it straight at Luke’s face, making hard contact with his left cheek.

“Brett!” Cody barked. Luke lunged back at me, trying to get a lick back in to retaliate for mine, but I ducked it and pulled him into a standing chokehold. “Guys!” I felt a few sets of hands on me, forcing Luke and I apart. I let him go and David and Mason pulled him away and held him back, while Cody and Bram held me. “It doesn’t make any sense to fight,” Cody continued.

“You mean to tell me that you aren’t pissed as hell that you lost Khloe because of this jackass?” Christian cut in. “She hates us now, because of him.”

Cody shook his head. “We all made that list.”

“Yeah, but only one person threw it in her face,” I said. “It doesn’t bother you. Imagine how Khloe must feel about you right now? She thinks that she was just points to you. Everything you did, all of that work we put in to get her to see us in a different light, all she thinks now is that it was all for show. All that horrible stuff she thought about us, Luke made it true.”

“She’s so great, and you knew that more than anyone,” Christian said, with a look of disappointment on his face. “Why would you screw that up?”

“I honestly didn’t mean to,” Luke said. “I forgot I had that paper.”

“Did you also forget that you pulled it out and filled in all the points?” I asked, irritation thick in my voice.

Luke bowed his head, his cheek already bruising from the punch. “I should have thrown it away; I just thought it would be funny. An inside joke for us, and nothing else. She showed up at my door and I was so distracted by her being there, that I completely forgot I’d even taken it out.” He looked at me and he looked like he was on the brink of tears. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head. “I don’t wanna hear it. I’m out.”

“Me too,” Christian said.

We both grabbed our things and left the apartment without another word. I headed straight for my gym, found a punching bag, and went to town. I needed to call Khloe on my own and see if I could at least get my own name cleared, but I had to calm down first, and I definitely needed to have a better idea of what I wanted to say.

“Hey Khloe,” I greeted her voicemail when I called her a few hours later. “Luke told us what happened and I just wanted you to know that I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how hurt you must feel, but you have to believe me that we made that scorecard way before we started up anything with you. Even before we thought we really had a chance. As soon as you were willing to be with us, we all couldn’t get over how great it was. We all said how we really liked you and that it wasn’t just a typical girl for us. Luke was supposed to destroy that thing… not that that’s any excuse. Anyway, if you feel like hearing me out, give me a call. I don’t plan on getting over you anytime soon.”

Over the course of the next week, we all tried to reach out to Khloe, and all tried to get her to hear us out. We left her as many voicemails as we could before her voicemail box started reading as full, and then we took to sending her texts and emails; anything to get to her. It wasn’t until Bram cautiously reminded us that we were bordering on harassment that we decided to lay off.

We met at a bar to mourn the death of our relationship before it had even begun, but both Christian and I struggled with Luke being there. It was his fault that everything went awry, and I just couldn’t bring myself to forgive him. Every time I even thought about it, I remembered our nights with Khloe and it made my blood boil all over again. I couldn’t enjoy sex like that with a different woman even if I wanted to, they may be good, but they would be no Khloe.