Chapter 3

I reach for the door handle just as a hand drops onto my shoulder and I'm spun back around.

"Have a nice life?" Leo snaps.

"I—"

"Really?" he says, still snapping.

"I—" I blink, genuinely confused before reality hits. Of course. He did me a favor, retrieving my cell—or sending someone after it anyway—and now he wants… "Uh…do you want money for getting my phone?"

Which, right…

I glance down like my purse will magically transport itself from the bar next to Colleen and Toby and onto my shoulder.

In fairness—and lack of magical abilities aside—they're probably watching that about as well as they did my phone.

Which means I will have credit cards to cancel.

Though, what does that say about me that my worry for my cell was greater than it is for my purse? Probably because my life is in my phone, and while losing my purse would be inconvenient, losing my cell?—

The door swings open again, narrowly missing us—the narrowly part coming because Leo jerks me out of the way.

"Fuck, Theo," Leo mutters. "What's your problem?"

The man—Theo, apparently—draws to a halt, his hand clamped over his heart. "Doors," he mutters. "Jesus Christ." Then he shakes his head. "Sorry. Here," he says, holding out my purse and my jacket, "I figured you'd need these."

"Oh," I murmur, disappointment settling heavily in my belly. Stupid, huh? "I guess Toby?—"

Leo snorts.

I turn, lift my brows. "What?"

A shrug of those big, broad shoulders. "Toby is a dumbass name."

My brows lift higher, but I can't focus on that, not with Theo passing me my purse as I turn back. "He didn't notice?" I can't help but ask.

The expression on Theo's face tells me enough.

No.

Toby didn't notice my purse being picked up by a stranger, nor my jacket. The same as he didn't notice my cell making it into the pocket of Red Hat's jeans.

Too busy with Colleen.

Which…God, that really hurts.

"Thanks," I say instead of letting the pity on Theo's face slice me deeper.

"Honey," Theo begins.

Leo growls.

Theo's brows shoot up, gaze going over my shoulder, but then his expression relaxes, mouth tipping up.

I blink, shake off the melancholy, the confusion, the…mix of weirdness in my belly. Like even though my life has just imploded, I'm standing on the precipice of something…something big. "I—" I clamp my lips together, clear my throat, then exhale, shoving that all aside. "Just, thanks."

Theo nods, turns away with his lips still curved, and grabs the handle, slipping back in through the door, albeit much more cautiously this time.

The wooden and glass panel slams closed, and I ignore the throbbing in my hand as I reach my uninjured one into my purse, digging out my keys. Home, ice, ibuprofen, change the code on my smart lock (ensuring both Toby and Colleen can't get into my place), then sleep.

Tomorrow I'll work.

I'll ignore the hurt.

I'll break up with Toby…and Colleen.

Then I'll drink my frothy hot cocoa, slip into my expensive and cozy jam-jams, and sleep through the night, through the next day, because, thankfully, I take Sundays off.

Then…back to work.

Making money because I can't make my fucking love life work. Or friendships, apparently.

Right.

Not the time to think about that.

Home. Ibuprofen. Sleep.

Good plan.

"Jolie."

I shiver—not because I'm cold, but because his voice and my name and the way it slides down my spine like liquid velvet…undoes me. But I don't have time to process that because he's placing his coat back around my shoulders, drawing me close, rubbing a hand up and down my back.

It takes me a second.

But then I realize he'd noticed the shiver and that he's doing something about it.

Wrapping me in his coat.

Warming me.

Looking out for me.

This man who's a stranger.

Tiptoeing to the edge, glancing down in the precipice, searching for answers at the bottom of a cliff.

"I—" Panic climbs up my throat, and I start to come up with some excuse, some reason to draw away from the big, warm chest, even though there's a part of me that wants to stay close, to lean against the strength, to absorb it into my body, but I don't get far.

Because the door slams open again.

Only, it's not Theo barging through, nearly braining me with the wood and glass.

It's…Toby.

And he sees me wrapped up in a jacket that's not mine, wrapped up in a man that's not…him.

Guilt swirls in my belly, but only for a heartbeat before reality hits, thankfully hard enough to snap my mouth shut, cutting off the apology that is bubbling up my throat.

Jesus, Jolie. Get your life together.

There was no way I was apologizing to him.

Not fucking ever.

I lift my chin, hear Leo chuckle softly. "That's right, sweetheart."

And seriously, why the fuck does it not bother me that he's calling me that, but his friend calling me the same felt…icky. Hell, even the gentle honey from Theo, who was just trying to be nice about the fact that my boyfriend—my ex-boyfriend—is a dirtbag, right along with my best friend, had felt a bit yucky.

But Leo's quiet, rasping velvet of sweetheart, the soft puffs of his words against the back of my neck feels…right.

Still, I don't have time to process what that means.

Because the look on Toby's face…

Is approaching bulldog.

And that means I'm in for a fight that's going to drain the shit out of me.

Probably why I sigh and snap, "Don't you fucking dare."

He freezes.

Another probably—because I don't snap at him. Not ever. But then again, I don't catch him kissing my best friend every day, do I?

"I saw you," I say, still snapping, my chin lifting further. "I saw you kissing Colleen."

His face blanches, and I know that it's all over—that the tiny bit of hope that's buried deep in my heart is for naught—when his eyes dart to the side and he says, "It's not what you think."

It's exactly what I think.

Which is why it's not a surprise that I see Colleen push the door open.

That I see her gaze hit Toby first.

Longing. Need. No. Greed.

For my boyfriend.

A hand settles gently on my back, and I find myself leaning into it, into that strength.

"I saw you," I say again, this time to Toby and Colleen.

"It's not?—"

"I didn't believe you when you said that the first time," I bite out, narrowing my eyes at Toby. "And I don't believe you now." I exhale, shake my head. "In fact, I can't believe you, that either of you—that both of you—would do this to me. I—" My throat tightens.

"We didn't mean for it to happen." Colleen now. Making excuses. Bullshitting. Hurting me.

Again.

"If you didn't mean for it to happen, you wouldn't have made out here, with me just going to the bathroom. I was bound to come back and see you guys, but you got off on that, didn't you?" I step closer, leaving the support of that hand. Not needing it. "Because this wasn't the first time." It couldn't be. Not with how comfortable they had looked in each other's arms. Not with how quickly they had locked lips. "You've been doing this other places, haven't you?"

Guilt.

Greed.

That was all I needed to see.

"We're done. I'm done." I reach for the door. "With both of you."