of chemical that lures assholes to me like a bee to honey.
“Have you heard from Dom?” I ask Gabby, changing the subject. Once she gets started on Dom she forgets everything else. She’ll whine about him for the rest of the day, which sucks, but it’s better than me having to tell her about Luke.
“Not a fucking word and I’ve about had it, Jazz. If he can just throw me to the curb like that, I don’t need his ass.”
“To be fair, he’s in a bad situation, Gab. I mean, his brother is hung up on you.”
“I love Thomas, don’t get it twisted. But, he’s like my brother. Kissing him was like…kissing someone’s ears. Kinda gross,” she says, scrunching up her face like she just sucked a lemon.
“Hold up,” I cry, sliding back from the table to look at my best friend who just apparently grew another head while I wasn’t looking. “You kissed Thomas?”
She looks up at me, her mouth open, as if she didn’t realize what she just confessed. Her cheeks turn pale pink—and since her complexion makes her look like a bronze goddess, that means if it were me, I’d be red as a beet.
“Well, yeah.”
“Oh my God, Gabby! What were you thinking?”
She slaps her fork down against her dish. It makes a large clanging noise that sounds like it might have possibly cracked the plate. I ignore it however, never taking my gaze from her.
“Quit acting like that, Jazz.”
“Like what?”
“All holier than thou. Like you haven’t done worse!”
“You kissed Thomas!”
“So? I had to see if there was anything there, didn’t I? Dom was being an asshole and I just needed to feel… special. Thomas has me on a pedestal. It was…”
“Stupid. Stupid is the word you’re searching for Gabby.”
“I just needed to feel like someone cared for me, okay? Quit acting like I killed someone, for fuck’s sake.”
“You didn’t kill him, but you might as well have torn his heart out. No wonder Dom walked away. Did you think Thomas wouldn’t tell Dom that you kissed? Fuck, you didn’t do anything more than that did you?”
“I…”
“Oh my God, Gabby! You Ho!”
“No! I mean we didn’t do that. It didn’t go very far. It was like second base, maybe leaning into the third, but I was drinking, and the phone rang… so it stopped.”
“It stopped because the phone rang?”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have gone very much farther. I was already going to call a halt to it.”
“Jesus, Gabby. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I knew this was how you would react.”
“Because you knew it was wrong. I bet Dom lost his shit.”
“I wouldn’t know. He’s not talking to me.”
“No wonder. Christ, Gabby. They’re brothers.”
“I know that!” she cries. “Don’t you think I know that better than anyone?” I can see that Gabby is close to crying, so I reach out and pat her hand. I suck at giving comfort. It makes me feel uncomfortable.
“It will be okay.”
“I don’t see how. Dom won’t talk to me, and I’m pretty sure Thomas hates me now.”
“Maybe it would be good to distance yourself from them both, Gabby.”
“I know. I know what you’re saying. I’ve been trying. I just… I love Dom, Jazz,” she says sadly, her voice breaking. “I’ve always loved him.”
“Sometimes love ain’t enough, baby girl,” I tell her sadly, sounding like some fucking greeting card.
“It hurts.”
“I know, Gab, trust me.”
“Did you love Dewayne?”
“I thought so at the time, but it’s hard to love someone you didn’t truly know,” I confess.
“Do you think you can ever truly know a man?”
My mind goes to Luke and how he was with me and then going quiet for three days.
“No. I don’t,” I confess. “And I’m tired of even trying. I’m going to stick with the only boyfriend who never lets me down.”
“Who’s that?” Gabby laughs.
“My vibrator,” I joke, laughing with her. We clink our glasses together in toast and I push all thoughts of Luke from my head. I don’t need another man that plays games.
7
Grunt
“Why aren’t you going near her?” Jonesy asks in that annoying voice he has when he thinks he has something on you.
I snort under my breath, but don’t bother answering. My silence just makes the asshole laugh, but I don’t have much I can say.
Because I don’t know what in the fuck I’m doing.
When I got back to the club the other day, Ford was waiting on me. I should have known he’d be watching the girl too. He wasn’t happy that I wasn’t there. I