Chapter Five
AUSTIN
“So?” I twisted my hands in my lap while Lucas took a painfully long time to pull off his sunglasses, shrug out of his jacket, and lift his coffee to his lips.
By the time he took a sip, I felt like I was at the sloth DMV from Zootopia. My eye was starting to twitch, and I’d bitten my tongue twice to keep from yelling at him or launching myself across the table and demanding answers.
“Easy.” Lucas shrugged. “He’s a coldhearted bastard, who’s going to most likely die alone—or with a prescription of Viagra in his bedside table and a girl thirty years his junior telling him to go harder.” He leaned forward, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “I gave him the list.”
I exhaled while Avery busted out laughing. “Oh, this is classic, you’ve even managed to turn his best friend against him. Well done, Austin.”
Had I not been focusing on Lucas, I wouldn’t have seen the horrified look on his face. Was he really on our side? Or Thatch’s?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Lucas held out his hands. “It’s not like I wanted to undermine him.” He coughed. “Again. But he was being so—”
“Thatch,” we said in unison. There wasn’t really a way to explain the guy. He wasn’t arrogant, not necessarily, but he was the type of guy that once he let you in, you realized you never really knew him in the first place. He had layers, and he only showed as much as he wanted. Basically the guy had pretty severe trust issues, thus our remark.
“Right.” Lucas breathed out. “Plus he lied to me and then tried to blame me for his own cheating behavior.”
The table fell silent.
Lucas cursed. “Fine, so I wasn’t exactly the best influence.”
“You had a calendar,” Avery pointed out.
“For women,” I added. “Multiple women.”
“Scores of women.” Avery nodded. “Who you dated at the same time.”
“And slept with.” We shared a look.
“Whoa!” Lucas scooted his chair back and held his hands up. “I just joined Team Austin! I’m on your side! And yes,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair and tugging at his black tie, “I wasn’t a good influence, but I’m happily living on the other side of that leaf, whereas Thatch set up camp on the dark side, alright?”
“Man has a point.” Avery sighed happily and kissed Lucas on the cheek. “Thanks for handing him the list—it will make things so much easier for Austin.”
Lucas shook his head. “It’s cruel what you’re doing—you know that, right?”
“But, Lucas”—I batted my eyelashes—“I’m not doing anything—that’s the best part.”
He snorted. “Exactly, you’re just making him paranoid as hell until he goes insane. Trust me, he’s going to lose sleep at night and give someone a third tit. The poor guy is already stressed enough as it is. Do you even realize how many breast augmentations he does in a day?”
“Malpractice lawsuit.” Avery nodded, completely ignoring Lucas. “We could work with that.”
“We aren’t getting him fired,” Lucas said in a steely voice. “He needs his job. He loves his job, he likes cracking bone on people’s noses and injecting them with God knows what, plus he’s good at it. Just . . .” He stood and reached for Avery’s hand. “Torture him for a few weeks so he feels a bit of pain, then drop it.”
I gulped. He was right.
And hurting him wasn’t going to make me hurt any less.
But revenge—it did feel good.
But so did kissing him.
That meant his mouth was a very dangerous and addicting thing.
Like his hair.
His body.
His taste.
Ugh.
“Austin,” Lucas called. “I may have also mentioned to him that I’m setting you up on a blind date. That seemed to make our friend Thatch want to rip the wallpaper from the wall and scream in caveman-like fashion.” He lifted one shoulder in a half-assed shrug. “Thought you might want to know.”
“Don’t,” I whispered. “That just gives a girl like me hope that he’ll pull his head out of his ass and see what he lost, and I’m pretty sure my only chance of that is if Santa gives Thatch a soul for Christmas, or at least a heart.”
“Ouch.” Lucas winced. “Alright, whatever you say. I have to get back to work, so try not to get arrested.” He paused and then shared a look with Avery. “But if you do? Try to keep the cuffs, yeah?”
With a laugh, she gave him a quick kiss before walking him to the door.
I lay back in my chair and sulked.
We were at the same coffee shop where Avery had told me she’d been confused over Lucas. I had been blissed out over my relationship with Thatch at the time and told her how real it was, how honest, how wonderful.
Now she and Lucas were in love.
And I was in hate.
It sucked.
I checked my phone for any texts from Thatch. See! I needed to nip that right in the bud!
“Crap.” I stood and grabbed my bag. I was going to be late for class. Again.
“Avery!” I elbowed her and Lucas on my way out. “I lost track of time. Gotta go, my social media class starts in ten.”
“Call me?”
“Yup!” I ran toward my waiting Mercedes. As I drove, I cranked the music.
At least I had something to distract me from heartache.
A professor who hated my guts.
I hit the accelerator harder—I couldn’t be late. Not again.
Come on, come on!
I prayed for time to slow and for my car to gain speed as I finally made it to campus.
Only to see the old parking lot under construction.
“Shit!”
Yeah. I was going to be late.
So late.