“I hate you.”Bethany sulked as she slumped further down into the couch cushions.
Another pack of Cheetos was flung at her head moments later.“Look, I get it.He should have told you.But I also understand why he didn’t.”Bethany’s gaze lifted at her friend’s more serious tone.“He was scared, B.Young and scared.And he knew you’d wanna stay with him, ‘cause that’s just who you are.And he didn’t want that...he wanted you to live your life, follow your dreams.It’s actually quite romantic.”
Romantic?Clearly her friend had been binging too many romance novels again if she thought heart-shattering break-ups and ugly crying to the point of dehydration was even remotely romantic.
Suddenly, Bethany’s spine snapped straight, Lucy’s words sinking in.“Did you know?”she accused.“‘Cause you seem to know a whole hell of a lot about why he did what he did!”
“Of course, I didn’t know!”Lucy sat up too, finally showing some of the outrage Bethany expected to see earlier.“You don’t have to be a genius to figure out why he did what he did, I mean, the man loved you for Pete’s sake...if anything it was totally suspicious for him to just randomly change his mind about going with you, like he said he did.”
“Now you tell me that!”Bethany threw the bag of chips back at Lucy’s head.“Now you tell me I should have been suspicious the first-time round!You didn’t think,oh I don’t know, to tell me ten freaking years ago, when I was unable to crawl out of my dorm bed?”
Bethany was being a bitch and she knew it.She wasn’t really mad at Lucy.How was her friend supposed to know what happened and why?She had her own shit to deal with when she was nineteen.But she could be mad at herself for not asking questions back then, instead, she just slinked away like a wounded stray, licking her wounds in silence.
And I can definitely be annoyed with Benny.
There was that, too.
“Why are you making that face?”Lucy asked, eyeing her warily.
Bethany rose from the cushions with enough adrenaline to make her heart hammer and her hands unsteady.
“I need answers,” she declared.“And I’m going to go get them.”
“It’s midnight?”Lucy heckled.
Like that was going to stop her.
***
“Open up, Benny, I knowyou’re home!”
Was this a little dramatic?Yes.Did she care?No.She’d walked out on a wedding two weeks ago—what was a little extra drama now?
Finally, the wood door flung open.“Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on?Why are you banging down my door...what time is it?”
Benny’s ruffled hair stood to attention as he attempted to rub the sleep from his eyes.But it wasn’t his face Bethany was looking at, not for long, anyway.Her gaze went straight to his bare chest.Correction, the six-pack that had replaced it.
Where the hell did that come from?
“My eyes are up here, B.”
She didn’t miss the amusement in his voice, yet it wasn’t quite enough to muster the willpower to drag her eyes away.
Benny had always had a good body, sure, and yes, she wasn’t blind, she’d noticed he’d bulked up.But thinking it and seeing it were two very different things.
Wow.
“B?”
“Shush.”Yes.She shushed him.She was concentrating.
“Are you being serious, right now?”Benny tried again.
Is that one of those V muscles?
“B?”
This wasn’t fair.The dumpee is the one who gets a revenge body, not the person administering the dumping.When she was done looking her fill, she was angry again.Irrationally angry.
