“No, I mean?—”
“I can assure you, Phoebe, you’re thelastthing I want right now.”
Her face fell, and for just a split second, it felt like someone had stabbed me straight in the fucking heart with my own knife of self-destruction. I wanted to apologise immediately for taking my issues out on her, but I didn’t have time.
Phoebe licked her lips and shook her head before she huffed out some indecipherable words of insult my way and rose tostand, brushing off her toned arse cheeks with the palms of her hands as she looked down at me in disgust.
“Then, consider it my pleasure to remove myself from your presence. Sorry you had to slum it with the least desirable woman around here for a few minutes.”
“That’s not?—”
But she was walking away back to the others before I could respond, leaving me to sigh heavily, let my head roll back between my shoulders, and look up at the cloudless sky in frustration. Unfortunately for me, the distance she put between us still wasn’t far enough, because the moment she dropped down beside Andy, and he asked her what had happened, everyone around the pool must have heard the hatred in her response.
“Your friend is the biggest arsehole I’ve ever met. Why you chose to spend two weeks on holiday with him, I’ll never know. I think I’d have more fun and find better company in prison,” she said with a frustrated sigh, leaving me to stare up at the sky as my heart raced wildly, my stomach turned aggressively, and my mind gave up completely.
It was the same old, same old.
Too bruised to be carefree.
Too angry to be thoughtful.
Too bitter to be gentle.
Too tired to even care anymore.
Chapter Five
Phoebe
You’re thelastthing I want right now.
That arrogant son-of-a…
I’d made one promise to myself before taking this trip. Just one: no men were going to ruin my holiday. Yet here I was, brooding over a guy who seemed repulsed by the very idea of me. Though I wasn’t exactly looking to hook up with anyone, his reactions still felt like tiny needles of disgust being injected into my own confidence. Severely dented confidence I was desperately trying to repair after everything Rob had done to damage it.
Even several hours later, as Bailey, Rhea, and I got ready for the next night out, taking it in turns to use the bathroom to take showers, I couldn’t get the disgust on Henry’s face out of my mind.
The balcony doors were wide open, allowing the last remnants of the falling sun to filter into our room with only a small, welcomed breeze airing the apartment through. Bailey sat on the tiny white stool in front of the mirror, clipping her earrings in, while Rhea waited out on the balcony, sitting on aplastic chair, her feet up on the table in front of her. The two of them hadn’t stopped going on and on about Jace and Andy in the last hour, and given the fact that Henry came with them, the entire conversation had started to piss me off.
Was this how it was going to be for the next two weeks?
I hated even the thought of it.
“Are we really going to tie ourselves to these guys for the entire holiday?” I asked a little too grumpily from my position on the edge of Rhea’s bed, cutting Bailey off halfway through waxing lyrical about Andy.
She turned to study me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. Just… What happened to this being a girls’ holiday?”
“Wenever agreed to your no men rule, Bee. That was all you.”
“Still. You literally landed in Greece, turned your head in one direction, andbam!Those two guys are everywhere we go now, tagging along like lost little puppies.”
“You don’t like Andy and Jace?” She raised a brow. “Have you not seen how hot they are?”
“Yes, Bails, I’ve seen that they’re attractive, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend all my days and nights with two guys I met barely two days ago.”
“We won’t end up spending the entire trip with them. This is just us having a little fun.”
