The Doctor Who Has No Chance (Soulless 11)

“This is pretty good.” I took another sip. “Never had one before.”

“Why are you going to pay for a drink when I have this sampler set right here.” Daisy looked at the drinks her admirers had bought.

“I’m good.” Dex squeezed my thigh before he got up and headed to the bar.

Daisy kept eating her fries. “My brother is really happy. It’s nice.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

She nodded. “I haven’t seen him this happy in, like, years.” She gave me a thumbs-up. “Keep it up, girl.”

His family already felt like my family, and I didn’t have to put in any effort to be accepted by them. I was just some assistant with no college education and no awards, but I never felt like I was inferior to them. “How are you doing?”

“Great.” She dunked her fry into the ketchup before putting it in her mouth. “I won my tournament last weekend. I’d take a trip, but I’m too caught up at work right now…and have no one to go with. If I’m gonna go all the way to Bora Bora, I want to have some good sex while I’m there.”

“I mean, how are you really doing?” She was a tough cookie in front of her family, but I knew there was more to her than that.

She gave a slight shrug. “I mean, it’s hard…not gonna lie.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.”

“I’ve gone out, done some flirting, but I’m still so hung up on Mason that I haven’t bagged a new guy. I thought I would just jump into bed with someone new, but when you love someone, that’s a lot harder than it seems.”

My eyes glanced at Dex across the bar, seeing him talk to the bartender and get his drink.

“And I wonder, has he already jumped into bed with the next lucky girl…?” She shook her head. “I’m sure he has, and that stings.”

“I’m sorry, Daisy.”

“Yeah.” She continued to focus on her fries. “There must be something wrong with me, because I only like the guys who aren’t right for me. You know, playboys, bad boys, not good men like my dad and brothers. I wish I’d like a good guy, but I just don’t. And then I fall head over heels for a guy who says he wants to be with me, but when push comes to shove, he’s a deserter.”

“He wasn’t good enough for you anyway.”

She released a sarcastic laugh. “I know, right? That makes it worse. I feel like I have a lot to offer, like I’m one in a million, and you still do that shit?” She shook her head as she chewed her fry. “Whatever. I’ll get over him…at some point.”

“Have you ever considered online dating?”

“Not my thing.”

“Some of those sites match up people really well, so maybe that would be a good way for you to find someone who’s more compatible with you.”

“I’m just not interested in that. I’m not trying to force a relationship or settle down. If I fall in love, great. But I’m not gonna put effort into that when marriage and children aren’t important to me.”

“They aren’t?” I asked, slightly surprised.

“I just mean, they’ll be important when I find the right guy. But without the guy, they’re just goalposts, you know what I mean? I see so many women get trapped into this fear of not getting married and having kids, so they feel prompted to go find someone, and that’s not how it should be. This societal pressure on women just needs to stop. No one pressures men, right?” She shrugged and continued to eat. “If I have all those things, I want it to be right. I want it to be like what my parents have. And if it’s not…then I don’t want it. I don’t want some cheap, generic, knock-off version of the real thing.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” I looked at Dex again, who’d gotten his beer and was headed back over here, attracting head-turns in his wake. That was exactly how I felt about Dex, that Vince was just a knock-off version of what I had with him.

Before he made it to the table, a woman intercepted him, a very pretty woman.

I turned away and tried not to stare. I didn’t want to watch some hot woman hit on Dex. He probably got hit on all the time, and I just had to make my peace with it.

“Sorry, I’ve got a woman.” He gave her a thumbs-up before he approached the table. “A bangin’ babe who’s got one hell of an ass. I’m all set.” He fell into the chair beside me, and his arm moved around my waist as he pulled me in for a kiss. Then he groped my right tit a bit.

I gave him a playful smack. “Whoa, let’s settle down.”

He chuckled and turned back to his sister. “Sorry. Hard not to.” Like nothing happened, he dived his hand back into the basket of fries. “What were you guys talking about?”