Shatter (True Believers #4)(48)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“He’ll still be there if we get our shit together.” I started down the stairs to the bedroom Rory shared with Tyler. When I opened their closet, it was a sea of band T-shirts and floral dresses. “Oh my God, Tyler hangs up his T-shirts? Who does that? And where are all your jeans?”

“He doesn’t like the wrinkles when you fold the shirts in drawers.” Rory pulled out a dresser drawer. “My jeans are in here. But I have mostly colored denim. Do you want pink?”

“My cowboy boots are brown. That sounds like an ick combo.” I pawed through her dresses to reach the cardigan section. Her closet was very organized. Mine looked like the discount bin at Walmart. “How about red or blue?”

“I’m going to tell Riley and Tyler what we’re doing,” Jessica said.

“Okay, cool.” Rory skimmed off her pajama pants and put on the pink jeans I had rejected.

She was definitely someone who proved that redheads could wear pink. She looked adorbs in pink.

Jessica dumped out her overnight bag. “Good thing I actually packed jeans. I could never fit in Rory’s. My butt is way more bootylicious than Rory’s dainty ass.”

I didn’t think I would have fit in Rory’s pants either before the pregnancy, but I had lost at least five pounds, maybe more, so it might be a squeeze, but it should work. I took the pastel blue jeans Rory handed me and decided to just wear my ribbed white tank top with a chambray shirt from the closet over it. It was a tight squeeze in the jeans, but the stretchy fabric helped. And the butt cuppage gave me a boost.

“Your ass looks great,” Jessica said.

“Thanks. But my hair looks like shit. I need a hat.” I found a beanie and after aggressively brushing my hair, I put the hat on. Rifling through Rory’s jewelry, I found mostly broaches and weird shit with feathers and pearls, but I did find a long necklace with lots of things hanging from it so I put that on.

“I love how we’re just raiding Rory’s stuff,” Jessica said, snagging a headband and putting it in her hair. She had picked a floral sweater out of Rory’s closet to pair with her own jeans.

“I don’t care,” Rory said. “It’s actually kind of fun. And I’m absolutely convinced that we’ll get to the bar and this misunderstanding will be resolved.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to be a lawyer instead of a doctor?” I asked her. “Though you’re far too cute to be either. I love those jeans on you, BTW. And who has red lipstick I can borrow? I look like I died last Friday.”

“Riley wants to know if he and Tyler are allowed to crash Girls’ Night since we are leaving the confines of the apartment to go to the bar. He wants a beer.”

“I can’t really say no since I’m going up there to try and bust up Jonathon’s date with Chem Cutie.” What amazed me was how productive anger could be in creating focus. I was methodical in getting ready, swiping on eye shadow and lipstick and doing another butt check of my booty in the jeans. I piled on a bunch of bracelets from the drawer where Rory kept her jewelry and I was ready. “Let’s roll.”

I hadn’t gone out in months and I hadn’t wanted to. Yet I had to admit, I felt a little of my old confidence returning. I felt attractive.

Maybe it was the vodka acting as liquid courage, but I felt full of sass and ready to fight for my man.

Because damn it, he was my man.

Whether he liked it or not.

Well, I hoped he liked it.

Otherwise that was kind of counterproductive.

Anyway, point being, I had to tell Jonathon how I felt. I had to show him that despite me making up bullshit excuses for two weeks, I wanted to be with him. That I couldn’t explain why I had done that, not exactly, but that it had been super hard to lose our baby and I hadn’t known how to deal with it. I hadn’t known how to deal with him given the origin of our relationship.

For one of the few times in my life, I hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

Plus, I wanted to show him that I was hotter than Miranda.

Duh.

* * *

“I can’t believe this isn’t a g*y bar anymore,” Miranda said, looking around and clearly lamenting the lack of lesbians. “You know, if a bar is going to shift clientele it should be advertised.”

Since I had no stake in it, I wasn’t bothered either way. “I don’t think the bar determines it. The crowd does. If this is no longer a g*y hangout, it must be because they found somewhere better.” I was on my seven hundredth Captain Morgan and Coke and I was still logical. Damn, I was good. “I mean, this place isn’t exactly upscale or trendy in its décor.”

“There’s mostly men in here,” Miranda complained. “And douchey men on top of it all. Like men who chew tobacco.”

“You’d better redneckanize,” I said then laughed, because I cracked myself up.

“Oh, Lord.” She rolled her eyes. “Darwin, you are drunk.”

“I am aware of that fact, thank you very much.” There was a buzzing in my ears and my tongue felt too large for my mouth. I kept glancing at my phone. “Why doesn’t Kylie want to be with me?” I asked, because that question kept popping into my head and making me feel like shit. And I didn’t want to feel like shit. “I mean, she has a lot of nerve, really, if you think about it. There’s nothing objectionable about me.”

“Let’s put that on your online dating profile. ‘There’s nothing objectionable about me.’ Way to sell yourself, D.”

“Do you think I’m too nice? Do I need to be a dick for chicks to like me?”

“I’ve never actually thought you were super nice. I mean, you’re certainly not a dick, but you are fairly self-absorbed.”

Well, that was helpful. “I disagree. I tried really hard to be there for Kylie. Like . . . I tried.” My thoughts were slower than normal and my vocabulary seemed to have shrunk dramatically.

“Did she answer your text? And please, God, tell me you didn’t ask her what you just asked me.”

“No. To both.” I may have been drunk but I still had a modicum of self-respect.

“Then f**k her. There’s nothing you can do about it tonight. Let’s shoot some pool.” She stood up. Her skirt was flipped up, exposing her butt, obviously crumpled from when she had been sitting.

“Hey,” I said, grabbing at the skirt to fix it. I didn’t imagine she wanted all the douchey guys in the bar to see her ass and her red lace panties.