There was nothing I could say that would make her feel better. She was grieving for everything he’d lost, and my job was to simply stand here so she wasn’t alone while she did that.
The door to the store opened and I turned my head to tell them to leave, but instead, I nodded Sebastian over to me so he could take over.
He clicked the door shut behind him, his lips turning down, and carefully extracted her from my arms and into his.
I offered him a weak smile and a nod, then grabbed my purse and left them alone.
I blew out a deep breath when I stepped out onto the sidewalk. This wasn’t the right moment to feel sorry for myself—as a rule, I didn’t really feel sorry for myself anyway—but I couldn’t help the hint of melancholy that flowed through me with my sigh.
Ivy was married and had baby Teagan. Tori was, by her own admission, way too busy to deal with ‘fuckboys’ as she put it. Kinsley and Josh were serious. Sebastian and Holley barely left each other’s sides and she basically lived at his place.
And then… there was me.
Despite all my blustering, I did want a relationship. A real one. Like they had.
I was lonely, damn it.
Sure, I lived with Dylan, but it wasn’t the same. He was only my friend, and while I was attracted to him, dating him just wasn’t a thing that was going to happen. I didn’t have any of those feelings for him.
At least I was pretty sure I didn’t.
And if I did, they could fuck on off from wherever they came from.
CHAPTER SIX – SAYLOR
RULE SIX: SARCASM DOESN’T TRANSLATE WELL ON THE INTERNET. YOU JUST SOUND LIKE A FUCKING ASSHOLE.
I stretched my arms in front of me and linked my fingers so I could crack my knuckles.
I was going to do this.
I was jumping back into the world of online dating. And I was going to jump in with two feet and hope I could swim.
I was already horribly regretting this decision.
I clicked the ‘log in’ button on the website and breathed a sigh of relief when my internet browser automatically filled in my details.
Well, mostly relief. Part dread. Little bit of shame.
My profile was outdated, so I spent the next ten minutes cleaning it up and uploading a new picture. Satisfied, I saved it, then sat back.
No idea what to do now.
Absolutely no idea. Not a single one.
While Holley and Kinsley always insisted that I was the most out-there one of the three of us, it was really all an act. I was just as awkward as they were, I just wasn’t as shy.
I also had bigger boobs.
Low-cut shirts worked better for me. Broke the ice, if you would.
They also helped to differentiate between the one-nighters and the people who were actually interested in me for more than just a quick trip to pound town.
Unfortunately, a low-cut shirt wasn’t much help on the internet.
I tapped my nails against my laptop and made a low hum as I figured out my next move. Thankfully, I was saved from too much thinking by the pop up that alerted me to the fact I had a new message.
Here we go.
I blew out a deep breath and hit the button to open it.
All right.
I had this.
I was going to do this.
Right after I got a snack.
***
“What on Earth are you doing?”
“I’m trying to flirt,” I said, typing a response to one of the guys who’d messaged who didn’t appear to be married.
Note the ‘didn’t appear to be.’
I’d already outed one guy today.
That, my friend, is why it was worth plumping some money on a background check thingymajig.
God bless Tori for setting that up for me. She was a weird little techy-techy person.
“Trying is a strong word,” Dylan said, leaning on the back of the sofa. “What even is that emoji?”
He pointed to the one that had googly eyes and a wiggly line for a mouth.
“I hit that by mistake,” I replied defensively. “The emojis are slow loading, okay?”
“Is that a background check website?” He reached around and took control of the trackpad, swiftly moving the arrow to the open tab on the browser and clicking on it.
“So what if it is?”
“Why are you using a background check website?”
“Because I’ve already spoken to one guy who’s married and one who just got out of prison.”
He stilled. With his arm still over my shoulder. “Ah.”
“Yes. Ah.” I shrugged his arm off and flicked back to the other tab with my chat window open. “Do you mind?”
He leaned on the back of the sofa. His head was basically right next to mine and our cheeks were all but touching, which meant I could feel his stubble brush against my skin when he moved his head.
I shifted along the sofa so we weren’t so close. “Seriously. What are you doing?”