Chapter Three – Chloe

 

There was a reason they called it verbal diarrhea.

It was shit.

“What?” Dom froze and stared at me. “Find him? You want me to search the universe for the guy who can put up with you?”

No.

Why did I say that?

I mean, yes.

I did. I wanted him to find me someone to date, but not like this. I wanted it to be a gentle conversation—like those ever happened—and not in the middle of one of our screaming matches.

But, hell. Screw it. I’d said it. I had to follow through with it.

“Yes,” I replied, setting my mug down and pretending I’d totally meant to say it. “You think you can’t, so find him. I bet there’s someone in our database who’d be a good fit for me.”

“I think you’ve lost your mind, Chloe.”

“I dare you.” My lips twitched up into a smirk. “I dare you to find me someone to date.”

His jaw clenched, and the twitch at the corner of his eye gave away his frustration.

Dom was many things, but a chicken was not one of them. As evidenced by the dare he’d had with his sister about falling in love with a hook-up.

I knew he’d accept. There was no way he wouldn’t. He might hate it, but he’d do it.

“Fine.” He scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes for a brief second. They landed back on me with a hard gaze that was indescribable. Stormy and intense. Dark and reserved, they made a shiver run down my spine. “But, if I’m matching you, you’re finding me a date, too.”

Wait.

No.

I didn’t sign up for that.

“Um…You want me to match you?” I asked warily. “Aren’t you worried I’ll put you with a demon of a woman?”

Dom’s nostrils flared. “Yes. Terrified, actually, but it seems fair. If I’m matching you, you match me. And we both have to stick out three dates.”

“What is your obsession with the number three?”

“It’s the average number of orgasms I give a woman during sex,” he said without batting an eyelid. “It’s the magic number. It’s enough to know if you’re compatible with the person you’re dating, but not so much you want to stab yourself with a fork.”

Well. He had a point, as much as I hated to admit it.

“Fine,” I replied, using the same tone he had. “I’ll find you a date. But, and we both promise on this, we won’t fuck around. We’ll actually find each other someone decent. Compatible. Good people.”

He nodded quickly. “Done. How long do we have?”

“Three is the magic number, according to you, so three days.” I swallowed. “We blind date at the same time on the same day and report back the next morning.”

Something flashed across his features for a moment, but whatever it was disappeared quickly, and he schooled his expression into one of indifference. “Three days including today?”

“Yes. And the first date should be Saturday night.” I felt sick. “Done?”

“Done,” he said, voice firmer than I’d ever heard it. “What if we get it wrong?”

“Eternal bragging rights for me when I nail your date,” I shot back.

He flipped me the middle finger, and without another word, disappeared.

I let go of a deep breath and sagged into my chair. Had I really just done that?

Had I really just not only asked Dom to set me up with someone but agreed to set him up with another woman?

Shit.

 

***

 

“Well, that’s a hot mess if ever there was one,” Mellie said, her wine glass hovering in front of her mouth.

“You are the authority on hot messes,” Peyton pointed out, poking a breadstick in her direction.

The theme for tonight’s girls’ night had been chips and dips, so naturally, I’d loaded up on ten different dips and a variation of chips and stuff you could dip.

I also had pizza, because you could totally dip that into ketchup, so it counted.

“I want to argue, but yeah, no.” Mellie shrugged. “Chlo, what are you gonna do?”

“What do you mean?” I asked around a mouthful of chips and guac. I swallowed. “I’m gonna match him. How else am I gonna get over his stupid ass? He’s gonna match me to someone I’m compatible with, and I’m gonna do the same for him.”

“This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.” Peyton clicked her tongue. “Trust me. I was the disaster a few weeks ago.”

“But you had history with Elliott,” I pointed out.

“And you don’t with my brother?” She leaned forward and picked up her glass from the coffee table. “You’ve been in love with him since before you knew what love was, Chlo. That’s history. How are you going to do this?”

“Easily.” I put my glass on the table and resisted the allure of another chip dipped in guac.

I’d had a lot of time—several hours—to think about this, and I knew for a fact I had this all figured out. From beginning to end. I’d nailed it. The plan was foolproof.

Given that Dom was a fool, that didn’t mean a lot, but I wasn’t one. A fool, that was.

“I need to get over him. I might have strong feelings for him,” I admitted, “But I’m not beyond help. Besides, I don’t even like him. I think he’s an intolerable human being who will, one day, be the victim on one of those Investigation Discovery murder shows.”

Mellie snorted. “We’re with you there.”

“Pretty much,” Peyton agreed.

“See? So, I figure, if I do this, it kills two birds with one stone. I meet someone who could potentially allow me to get over him, and I get to see him with someone else. It’ll remind me that he’s not The One.” I chewed the skin on the side of my thumb. “He’s The One, but not for me. I think that’s what I need. To see him with someone who’s compatible with him, because I’m not it.”

A look passed between Peyton and Mellie.

I chose to ignore it. I didn’t care what they thought—Peyton was on my ass to get over Dom, and there was no way I was wrong. Anyone who fought the way we did were polar opposites to the point that there would never be a common ground.

I knew that. I accepted that.

I was okay with that.

After all, I’d had enough time to accept that Dom and I would never be a thing. It didn’t matter if I’d spent years denying how I felt about him. Some things needed to be denied.

“Seriously,” I said after a moment of silence. “I’m determined to do this. I’m committed, you guys. I’m going to use this stupid challenge to get over him once and for all. It won’t be hard to find a guy better than he is.”

“He’s not that bad,” Peyton said reluctantly. “He’s enough of a tool to fill an entire box, but he’s not bad.”

“That doesn’t help, Peyt,” Mellie said, tipping her empty glass toward her. “We’re supposed to tell her how bad he is.”

“He’s my brother. I tell him how much of a dick he is to his face. She already knows that.” Peyt grinned.

She wasn’t wrong.

“I can’t think of him like that,” I said. “I need to think of him the way I do right now.”

“The sexy, hot-as-fuck brother of your best friend?” Mellie asked.

“No,” I said. “The huge ass pain-in-my-butt, ignorant and dickish brother of my best friend.”

“How in the hell are you in love with him?”

“I don’t know.” That was the damn truth. I didn’t know. I never had done. I just was. “But I don’t want to be anymore. It’s time that Chloe Collins broke free of the crap spell Dominic Austin wove on her. Sabrina the Teenage Witch wouldn’t tolerate it.”

“She’d tolerate it,” Mellie said.

“Salem would be the opposition,” Peyton added.

“Whatever.” I flicked my hand in dismissal. “The point still stands. There’s a freaky spell on me, and I want it gone.”

“You should try self-control.”

“You should try not being a bitch,” I muttered.

Peyton grinned. “I have to curb those tendencies around Briony. It’s a true exercise in my own self-control. You’re now the outlet.”

Mellie raised her eyebrows. “Make Dom the outlet.”

“He’s the primary one.”

“Well, I’d hate to hear the shit he gets.”

“I’d like to hear it,” I input. “God knows he probably deserves it.”

Mellie paused, a chip halfway to her mouth. “True. Hey, can I send you Jake’s way?”

Peyton’s head jerked around so fast I thought it might snap off her neck and spin away. “What did he do?”

Like a dog with a bone…

“He made me fire Harley today.” She twisted her lips to the side that was neither a grimace or a smile.

“She was shit,” Peyton said bluntly. “I agree with him. She had too many chances.”

“Wow. One speech about how much of a strong woman you are, and you suddenly like the guy.” I snorted. “Does Elliott know you’re this easy?”

“I slept with him on the first date. Of course, he knows I’m easy.”

“You were supposed to sleep with him on the first date.”

Mellie sighed. “Are you sure you two weren’t born siblings?”

“She’d be dead if we were,” I said with a grin. “Besides, that would make my situation completely awkward, wouldn’t it?”

Mellie paused, then nodded. Peyton also nodded.

“What are you going to do, Chlo? Seriously. It’s not a joke. You just agreed to set him up with someone else,” Mellie said softly.

I stood up and turned my back to them, folding my arms over my chest. “I’m going to set him up with someone. And she’s going to be as insufferable as he is. She’ll be perfect for him. She’ll be super organized and patient and able to handle all his bullshit. I’ll set him up with someone so incredibly meant for him that not even I’ll be able to look at them and feel like he’s with the wrong person.” I turned, taking a deep breath. “And then I’ll be able to get over him. Right? That’s how it works. He’ll be happy with whoever I match him with, and I can move on.”

“Chlo…” Peyton pushed off the sofa and walked to me. She gripped both my shoulders. “That’s not how it works. You’ve denied being in love with him for years, but we knew. I don’t get it. I don’t pretend to understand how you can possibly be in love with him, but—”

“I get it,” Mellie said softly from the sofa.

We both looked at her.

She shrugged one shoulder. “Best friends are honest with each other. We haven’t made our friendships last this long by bullshitting our way through it.”

“I bullshitted,” I offered.

“All right, so not all of us made this friendship last this long by bullshitting.” Her lips twitched. “But, I get it. Dom is many things, but he’s also the guy who stood up for all three of us when we got bullied in school. He shut down rumors and made sure to put the fear of God in every guy who wanted to date us.”

“Didn’t work with Elliott, clearly,” Peyton muttered.

“Not his fault, idiot,” Mellie shot back. “And you know it. Stop playing the victim.”

I laughed and hugged Peyton. “She can’t help it. I still don’t know how she never ended up in Hollywood.”

She shoved me off with a playful grin. “Mellie was saying?”

Mellie rolled her eyes. “I was saying I get it. I might even have had a crush on him when I was a teenager, but I had a period longer than it. That said, he’s always had a softer spot for Chloe, so…”

“A softer spot for me?” I snorted. “We fight more than him and Peyton!”

“All right, so he used to,” Mellie acquiesced. “Now, you’re like chalk and cheese. Whatever. I’m just saying that I understand how you could fall in love with him.”

“Fair enough.”

“But I don’t know if this is how you get over him,” she continued, finally standing and coming over to me. “You’re forcing yourself to. You’re focusing on the fact you’re setting him up with someone and not the fact he’s setting you up on a date, too.”

“She’s right,” Peyton admitted gently. “Stop focusing on him, Chlo. Focus on who he’s gonna set you up with.”

I swallowed, briefly looking down. I knew they were right. I was thinking of it all wrong, but after twenty years of being in love with Dom, I knew one thing.

Fools in love were fucking idiots.

“Okay, fine. I will,” I said, wrapping my arms around my waist. “I’ll focus on the guy he’ll set me up with and the guy I should fall in love with.”

“That’s the spirit,” Peyton said. “And, hey, if you can’t use him to get over my brother with, you can just get under him anyway.”

We all burst out laughing.

I guess, if there was a logic I had to take, it’d be that one.