My grand plan of not being affected by the sight of him wasn’t going so well.
And he seemed mad.
Spinning around to face him fully, I pointed a finger at him. “You are ruining their party and embarrassing me!”
“Ha!” He scoffed. “Embarrassing you…that’s rich coming from you, of all people.”
Fletcher was furious. The look on his face was almost as bad as the time I left my keys hanging in my front door overnight. I was pretty sure he’d never forgiven me for that. His lecture resulted in him threatening to put an alarm system on my house.
Unfortunately, he was still hot, even when he was angry.
“You’re going to stand there and pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You were the one who decided to put me on display.” He shook his head and snorted at the same time.
“I’m not the one who gave up on us!” I growled back at him.
“Are you sure about that?” He leaned closer; the soft hint of shaving lotion drifted toward me. His eyes glinted dangerously.
Then he said three little words that chilled me to the bone.
“World’s Worst Boyfriend.”
Chapter Twelve
Fletcher
I smiled with grim satisfaction as Saidy’s eyes widened to an adorable width.
She should be panicked. She’d signed me up—and won—as the World’s Worst Boyfriend. I wanted to watch her squirm.
“Wha-what are you talking about?” she asked as she shook her head rapidly.
“I saw an article in some hip magazine.”
She tilted her bottle toward me. “First of all, no one says hip anymore.”
“All right, grandma.” I smirked and folded my arms across my chest.
She gasped, leaning forward like she had a right to be mad. “What?”
“I just found it interesting coming from the person who drinks her chamomile tea every night and gets up at precisely six a.m. every morning.” Oddly enough, her routines were comforting to me. But they weren’t something I could enjoy anymore. And I knew it would rile her up to be teased about it. The same way I felt after finding out what she thought of me as a boyfriend…well, it was time I had a little fun at her expense.
“Oh, so now we’re talking about me, are we?” Her cheeks flushed. “Thank goodness you don’t have to put up with my old lady routines anymore! Not that you were even around to experience those things very often.”
“I was around enough for you to think I was the worst boyfriend ever.” I grasped the top of her bottle and pushed it back upright, trying to avoid her tipping the contents down the front of my shirt. My fingers brushed against her long blue nails. “How did you manage to nominate me for that? How many lies did you have to tell?”
She audibly swallowed as she tugged her hand away from me. “No lies! I was mad at you when you stood me up on that last date.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have nominated you. But I thought it was anonymous! I didn’t think anyone would know! How did you find out?”
“I saw it in a magazine. From that dumb podcast you like to listen to.”
“Dumb podcast!” She gasped. “It is not dumb. It’s very helpful.”
“Hmm, is it? What has it helped you with?” I thought back to the article’s pieces of advice, like picking a one-night stand, not a life partner.
“Choosing myself! It’s all about being the best me I can be! Having morning routines, and not letting others dictate anything in my life, especially not my schedule.” She scoffed. “It’s about learning to excel at life!”
“Honestly it sounds like a lonely life to me.”
“You don’t get to make that choice. I tried, Fletcher. I tried to be there for you.”
“I know!” I bit out. I knew. Unfortunately. “If you had only held on a little longer—”
She leaned toward me. The earnest look on her face cutting straight to my heart. Her soft perfume made me want to bury my face in her neck. “What? What would have happened, Fletcher? You’ve been getting progressively worse the last two months. And that night at dinner? The way you talked to that man about me? It hurt. That hurt me, Fletch! I waited on you to explain, but you haven’t.”
My heart cracked at the pained expression on her face.
“I wish I could explain.”
“Why don’t you?”
“Because I can’t tell you just yet.”
“Yet?” She shook her head. “What does that even mean?”
“It means…” I bit my tongue to keep from throwing it out there. This was the woman who’d nominated me for World’s Worst Boyfriend. “How big of a gift card did you get?”
“Five-hundred dollars. To Target.”
I nodded. “That is your only weakness.” She didn’t like having weaknesses. She especially didn’t like to admit she had a weakness for shopping.
With a final glare, she turned around and stomped across the yard. I wasn’t her weakness. She claimed that I hadn’t cared for her, but now I knew our relationship wasn’t as far along as I’d thought. I was ten steps ahead of her. I’d already been looking at rings. Something that I hadn’t even told her. Then she broke up with me.
With a sigh, I turned toward the ice bucket and pulled out a drink for myself. It was a rare afternoon where I didn’t need to be doing anything for Sullivan. The demanding bastard.
Two more weeks.
That was it. Just two more weeks until the hand off where I could happily arrest Sullivan and all of his counterparts. It was the only window of opportunity where we could arrest the whole network. Sullivan had planned an in-person auction. I don’t know if he was feeling pressure to move merchandise or if he was really just getting that cocky about being untouchable, but it was a chance to put him and his buyers behind bars.
“I didn’t know you guys had broken up,” a voice said behind me. I turned around to face Milo, who looked a mixture of strained and humorous.
“Yeah,” I replied
