The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,16
Kat would dump Nathan so unexpectedly, but I suspected it had something to do with Charlie and Carson. Maybe she didn’t want to date a guy who was mutual friends with the people she never wanted to see again. Or maybe she realized she needed to find a guy she really liked so she could get over Charlie for good. Nathan just didn’t fit the bill.
“I suggested that we be friends since we all hang out now,” Nathan said. “She seemed fine with that.”
Charlie released a quiet sigh beside me, likely suspecting that was bullshit.
The waitress brought out the hot wings. She handed out the plates, made small talk, and then turned to me. “You come in here a lot.”
It took me a second to respond to her, because I was still immersed in the news I’d just received. I finally gathered my thoughts and addressed her. “Good beer. Good food. I’m a happy customer.”
She chuckled as she slipped her hand into her apron and pulled out a napkin with her phone number written on it. She set it in front of me and walked away.
The guys all watched her go before turning back to me.
Her name was written on the napkin in pretty handwriting along with a :-). I slid it across the table to Nathan. “I think you can get more use out of this than I can.”
Nathan folded up the napkin and put it in his pocket. “Sounds good to me.”
“Wow.” Jeremy shook his head as he looked at me across the table. “Dax Frawley is really off the market.”
“Yep.” I took a drink as I watched the TV. “And I hope I’m off the market for a really long time.”
“Carson is pretty cool,” Jeremy said. “But she seems to go back and forth a lot… Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Charlie got fired up immediately. “Excuse me? What exactly do you mean by that?”
I gave him an angry look across the table, silently telling him to keep his mouth shut.
“Nothing bad,” Jeremy said quickly. “It just seemed like they had a lot of problems and Carson wasn’t interested. Just don’t want to watch my friend get smashed again.”
“If he doesn’t lie out of his ass again, we won’t have any problems.” Charlie raised his voice a little higher, growing more menacing.
The nice atmosphere had been demolished, and now it was just tense. I tried to smooth it over. “Jeremy is just looking out for me. He doesn’t mean anything bad by what he said. But Carson and I are really happy. It took some time for us to get there, but we made it, and the destination was worth the journey.”
That seemed to quiet everything down, so we went back to watching the game and eating the hot wings.
Charlie was the only one who still seemed angry, but I suspected it had nothing to do with us. He had a lot on his mind and shoulders—and it showed.
The guys took off after the game, so it was just Charlie and me. He’d had more beers than I had, either because his tolerance was somehow higher or he just didn’t care right now.
“You seem down.” I’d moved to the seat across from him once the guys left. Since the game was over, there was no point in looking at the TV anymore.
“What gave me away?” Charlie said sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, man.” It was unfortunate that I was happier than I’d ever been, but Carson and Charlie were dealing with this problem that weighed them both down.
He shook his head as he looked out the glass doors that showed the street. “I don’t know what to do. Most of the time, exes just can’t be friends, and I think Kat and I are an example of those kinds of exes. Losing her friendship permanently is a bit sad, but if she feels as strongly as she does…maybe it is best if we go our separate ways. I want her to find someone she really loves and be happy. But I really don’t want Carson to lose her too. It wasn’t her fault.”
I thought Carson got the short stick in this cruel game. No matter what she did, she had her loyalty pulled in three different directions, every single person expecting something from her. Of course she couldn’t live up to everyone’s assumptions. She was a victim of a problem that was bigger than herself.
“And now Kat isn’t seeing Nathan anymore… That’s not a good sign.”