The Man I Thought I Loved (Two-Faced #2) - E. L. Todd Page 0,73
help. “Charlie, did you see the game last night?”
Charlie turned back to him and kept dampening the napkins with the booze. “Yeah. The last play of the game…”
I turned to Kat, hoping she hadn’t noticed, but it was obvious she had.
Because she looked like she was about to cry.
When Kat went to the bathroom, I was on Charlie. “Seriously, knock it off.”
“What?” he asked, genuinely bewildered.
“She saw you stare at Denise’s ass, and she’s probably crying in the bathroom right now.”
“I stare at a lot of women’s asses. Doesn’t mean anything.”
“But she knows you have feelings for Denise, so it’s totally different. Charlie, I’m going to bitch-slap you if you don’t get your shit together. You’re being a selfish pig right now.”
“Whoa, sweetheart.” Dax came up behind me and wrapped his arm around my stomach, pulling me back a little bit. “Let’s take it down a notch.”
“I can’t stop you from seeing Denise in private, but you knew Kat was coming tonight,” I said.
“I didn’t know she was here. And if everything I do is going to be dissected, then I can’t hide it from her anyway.” He threw his arms up in the air. “I can’t hide the way I looked at Denise. I can’t hide the way I talk to her. I’ve always looked at Denise this way. Kat is just noticing now. The only way I can truly keep myself in check is if I don’t see Denise at all when Kat’s around.”
“Well, maybe that’s what we need to do for a bit.”
Charlie shook his head. “I’m not a selfish pig. I’m a man with emotions, emotions that I can’t hide. That’s like me telling you not to act like you’re head over heels for Dax. You can’t control it. It’s fucking impossible. If I didn’t stare at Denise’s ass, Kat would have noticed something else I did.”
I knew he was right, so I calmed down. “I’m sorry…”
He looked away, still angry.
Dax remained beside us, his arm still around me. “I think Carson is coming on a little strong right now because she wants everyone to be happy, for no one to get hurt. She wants you to be happy. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have talked to Kat for you in the first place. So, she’s in your corner, man. But she’s trying to protect her friend too.”
Charlie turned back to me, less angry than he was before.
I appreciated that Dax intervened, that he wanted to keep us close and dissolve our fights because he knew how important this relationship was to me. Charlie was my best friend, and Dax fully supported that.
Charlie finally nodded. “It’s okay.”
I moved my hand to his arm and gave him a gentle squeeze. “I should go talk to Kat now…” I left the guys behind and went to the bathroom. There was a long line of girls, and Kat was nowhere in sight. “A crying girl come through here?”
One woman nodded to the closed door. “We let her go first because it looked like she needed it.”
I banged my fists on the door. “Kat, open up.” If she said something on the other side, I couldn’t hear it because the music was too loud. I knocked again and turned to the girl at the front of the line. “Her ex that she’s still in love is hung up on her friend, and she just found out and she’s just upset.”
She shook her head. “Been there…”
Kat opened the door, her makeup ruined.
“Girl…” I shut the door behind me then hugged her.
She held on to me tightly, the music thudding loudly outside.
I rubbed her back. “I know it hurts… I know.”
She pulled away, new tears in her eyes. “It’s just… I can’t even describe it.”
“I know.” I rubbed her arms, comforting her.
“I don’t think I can do this. Even without them being together, just seeing him look at her the way he used to look at me… It’s too much.”
“Kat, don’t say that.”
“Not forever. Just for a while…”
“No. We’re all friends here. We don’t want you to take a step back.” It was the very thing I’d feared would happen. I didn’t want to lose my best friend, for us to talk less and less until she moved on and found a new life.
“I know, but it’s just too hard. What does she have that I don’t?”
“Nothing, Kat. It’s just how life is sometimes.”
“The fact that he won’t just find someone else makes me sick. He’s so selfish…”