Payback's A Bitch (Awkward Love 6)

“Calm down.” She laughs, trying to pull me off her. “Fuck, Sash, get her off me,” she gasps, laughing.

I pull back and wipe the tears from my eyes.

“Shit, are you crying?” She laughs. “You never cry.”

“I’ve got something in my eye, you loser,” I blubber. “Leave me alone. I’m not crying, you’re crying.” I wipe my eyes again. “Seriously though, I’m so happy for you.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of getting that.”

“So, when’s the wedding?” Sasha asks, as she gives Katie a tight hug in a much more subdued display of affection than mine.

“No time soon, I can promise you that. We’re thinking maybe over Christmas next year.”

“We should totally toast this,” I declare, holding up my glass. Then I narrow my eyes. “Unless there’s a reason you can’t drink?” I ask suspiciously.

Katie chuckles. “Hardly. Are you forgetting that I’m two thirds through my glass of wine?” she asks. She lifts the glass to her mouth and drinks down the rest. “Someone get me another one,” she demands.

“Um, something tells me you’ve already had one too many,” I say, making a face at Sasha, who giggles.

“Excuse me, this is my first drink,” Katie huffs.

“My point exactly,” I say. “In fact, we should start cutting you off before you even start.”

“Whatever,” she says, rolling her eyes. She glances at my phone and frowns. “Why does it keep flashing with texts?” she asks suspiciously. “The ad’s been deleted, so why are you still getting messages?”

“Hmm, what?” I murmur, in a very non-committal way. Katie’s eyes narrow and I get why, playing innocent was never really my forte. “Hey,” I gasp when she reaches over and snatches the phone off the table.

“My twelve-year-old soon-to-be stepbrother did the same thing this morning,” I snap. “Him, I expect it from.”

“That’s because he’s tiny little player.” Katie giggles then hiccups.

“Which reminds me, I’m pretty sure Mack was flirting with me when we were at your house last week,” Sasha chimes in.

“He’d flirt with anything,” Katie says to Sasha. Then she turns to me. “And you know me well enough to know I’ll snoop.” She shrugs and keeps scrolling through my texts. “If you didn’t want me looking, then you wouldn’t have left it sitting there like that.”

I shake my head because she’s channeling Mack, again.

“So, who is this guy?” Katie asks. She reads through a few messages, then starts giggling. Sasha leans over Katie's shoulder so she can read them too. “Any photo’s?”

I frown. “No.”

Sasha snorts. “Then I can tell you right now. He’s a total dud.”

“What?” I laugh. She nods solemnly.

“Trust me. Meet him as soon as possible, because at least then you know he’s real.”

“So attractive people are all assholes and nice people are ugly?” I ask, snatching my phone back.

“Yep.” She nods.

“Well, you break the mold then, don’t you?”

“Hey.” She laughs and tosses a straw at me. “Hold on, so are you calling me ugly or mean?” She chuckles.

“Why not both?” I reply.

She shakes her head and gets to her feet.

“I’m just saying I’ve had bad experiences with online dating,” she says with a shrug. “Anyway, I have to go.” She grabs her jacket and shrugs it on. “Just meet him.”

“Fine.” I sigh. I wasn’t planning on letting this drag out anyway.

Sasha nods. “Good. And if he is who he says he is, then just remember, technically I set up that profile, so he thinks he’s talking to me.”

“Ha, bullshit.” I stand up and yell after her. She waves at me, without looking back. “I don’t care if he masturbates to pictures of his dead grandma in his basement, this one’s all mine,” I holler.

Yeah. That got me some odd looks.It’s late when I get back home.

I exchange a few texts with James as I get ready for bed, but just as I’m about to dive under the covers, I get an overwhelming thirst. I sneak back downstairs to get myself a drink. I open the fridge and frown at the lack of choices. It’s milk or water. I crouch down to grab the milk off the bottom shelf, but it’s caught on something.

“Oh, come on,” I mutter.

I’m twisting it at all angles, trying to dislodge it, but the darn thing won’t budge.

“I was trying to figure out if that’s a long shirt or a short nightie you’re wearing, but then I just wondered why the heck you’d forgo underwear wearing either of those two things.”

Gasping I stand up and spin around, narrowing my eyes at Cameron. He sits at the table, smirking at me. My heart races as I glance down. Of course, I chose tonight to wear the shortest nightie I own which, by the way, is over a pair of underwear.

“Do you always sneak up on people like that?” I ask, glaring at him.

“Sometimes. Did you forget your underwear on purpose?”

He lifts his eyebrows, his eyes full of amusement while I glower at him.