Tripping (Iced #2) - Kristine Allen Page 0,61

it.

Alex stepped in between us, forcing her to move back. She huffed, and I waved. “See you later!”

Finally, she took the hint, and I watched as she moved on to one of the rookies. It made me wonder if we’d actually gone to school together. Though it had been several years, she still hadn’t rung any bells with me from that time.

“What the fuck, Cam? What if Bleu sees that? You might want to let her know.” Alex asked as he gave me an incredulous frown then glanced back at Tiffany. Though I hadn’t wanted Tiffany’s attention, I wasn’t in the mood for answering a bunch of questions either.

“I’d say it doesn’t really matter since she dumped my ass,” I said as I motioned to the bartender for another drink.

“What? When did that happen? Why didn’t you say anything?” he demanded. Tired of the night already, I slugged the drink down and pulled out my phone.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I insisted. “I’m out.”

He and Jordan called after me, but I kept walking through the crowd. When I got outside, I went through my contacts and hit Send. It rang a few times, then stopped.

“Hello, stranger!” she said.

“You home tonight?”

“Of course. I have work in the morning, so no partying for me. Good game tonight, by the way. If you were a really nice guy, you would’ve made sure I had tickets.” I snorted. Maybe I should have, but my mind hadn’t been thinking about anyone but Bleu.

“Can I come over?” I leaned against the wall of the club as the door opened, letting the music and laughter escape before two people exited and the door closed to muffle the sound again.

“Are you drunk?” she asked.

“Not near enough,” I muttered. She was silent for a bit.

“Okay, come on over,” she conceded, and I hung up to call for an Uber.

“Breakaway”—Kelly Clarkson

When I woke up, I decided I was done procrastinating and being a chickenshit. I was going to call him as I was getting ready. I remembered him saying they would fly out late morning, so I figured he should be getting up soon.

My heart raced as the phone rang. I’d rehearsed what I wanted to say last night even though I’d wussed out. On the fourth ring, someone answered, but it wasn’t Cameron.

“Hello?” the woman said.

A. Woman. Answered. His. Phone.

“Hello?” the woman repeated.

I wanted to hang up then and there, but some sadistic part of myself refused to end the call.

“Is Cameron there?” My voice cracked, and I hated it. My heart was in my stomach and my stomach was on the floor.

“He’s in the shower. Can I take a message?” She sounded snooty and smug, and I instantly hated her.

“No. No message,” I said, then ended the call. I burst into tears and cried until I was all cried out.

Then I blocked his number. My heart couldn’t take hearing the excuses. That’s if he even bothered to try to give me an excuse. He likely was perfectly happy to have moved on.

I did my best to cover my swollen eyes with makeup and went to work. All day I was useless. I couldn’t concentrate and I was easily distracted, so when the day ended, I was relieved. Thankfully, I only had one lesson and I ended it early. It was a Friday, and Meghan was perfectly happy to wrap up our session ahead of time.

Too sick to my stomach to eat, I decided to skip dinner. Instead, I drove around for a while, then decided the week called for ice cream—and a lot of it. I ran into H-E-B and grabbed a half gallon of my favorite flavor.

As I walked to my car, I saw the restaurant next door with couples going in to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and the tears rolled. “I could’ve been celebrating with Cameron tonight in Montreal, but I was too damn stubborn to let him come in to talk it out.”

When I got in my car, I blew my nose in a napkin and called my sister. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so guilty about being a pig if I shared the ice cream with her.

She answered with a shriek, and I had to hold my phone away from my ear.

“Damn, girl, my ears. Okay?”

“Where are you? I got your message. I meant to call you earlier, but it was a crazy shift yesterday, and today wasn’t any better.” She sounded weird.

I told her where I was and laid my head on the