Anyone But Nick (Anyone But... #3) - Penelope Bloom Page 0,46
so much cologne I caught a whiff from where I was standing. I bet the dickbag was wearing his favorite underwear too. He probably thought he was going to score tonight. Maybe he was. Maybe he already had, and tonight would just be the extra-point attempt.
A strange, stifled groan came from my throat. I coughed, cleared my throat, and waved back. “We’ll catch up later,” I said.
Then I went back in my room and tried to clear my mind. There were a few ways I could handle this. The least productive, but most satisfying, would be to grab a heavy object and go give Max Frost and his stupid name a concussion so he couldn’t try to worm his way into my vice president’s pants. The most pathetic would be to skulk around and try to spy on them so I wouldn’t have to sit here and imagine the worst. And the smartest thing to do—the thing I was going to do—was to sit my ass down and go to sleep.
The hardest things to do were usually the ones that were the most worth doing. And if that saying held any truth, then staying inside my cabin was going to be one of the most worthwhile things any human being had ever done since the beginning of time.
Except I didn’t sleep. I flicked on the TV and tried to find something to watch. It took me several minutes to find a channel that wasn’t on commercial break, which meant I was stuck watching some sort of dog beauty contest. I leaned against the headboard and watched with glazed eyes. At least it meant I could take my mind off what Miranda and that jackass were probably doing right now.
Chapter 13
MIRANDA
Max and I sat down at one of the many bars throughout the resort. This particular bar was a beautiful outdoor space strewn with dangling white lights and a stone patio that overlooked the mountains in the distance. There was a pleasant chill to the air, and it should’ve been a perfect night. No, it was a perfect night.
I’d been doing some soul-searching and decided that I needed to do more than just shove Nick to the back burner in my brain. I needed to aggressively get over him, or it was never going to happen. That meant I had to do something, like say yes when Max asked me if I wanted to go grab a drink with him. Maybe I hadn’t felt any spark between us, but that was the whole point of going on a date, right?
So here I was. A handsome man was sitting at the bar beside me, the view was breathtaking, and I was basically on a free vacation.
“I’m glad you agreed to come,” Max said once the bartender set our drinks down. We had both been pleased to learn that even the alcohol was covered under the company tab. I was never much of a drinker, but tonight, a little liquid courage sounded like a good plan.
“Me too,” I said. I sipped the wine I’d ordered and made an appreciative noise.
“Your boss is kind of an asshole, isn’t he?” Max asked.
I took another sip of my wine that was admittedly more of a gulp at his question. “Sort of,” I said. “I mean, it depends on how you look at it.”
“Then tell me how you look at it, then.”
I sighed. I’d come out here tonight to get Nick off my mind, not talk through my feelings for him. “I don’t know, exactly. Like he has always sent me extremely frustratingly mixed signals? One minute I think he’s romantically interested, and the next he’s actively trying to make me not like him.”
Max looked at his drink thoughtfully, then smiled in a way that made me think he hadn’t really cared about my answer, after all. “You deserve better than that,” he said.
I smiled, but it felt forced. I drained the last of my glass. I could already feel a slight buzzing in my head that told me I was right about where I should stop drinking if I wanted to keep my mind sharp. I hadn’t really eaten since that huge breakfast, and I was already a lightweight to begin with.
“She’ll have another,” Max said.
I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I think I need to eat something before I drink any more.”
“Hey,” he said, leaning in. “What are you worried about? That asshole reprimanding you for having too much fun? If he’s going to