Page 201 of Handsome Devil
She said yes.
Obviously, I had to top it.
Competition: the only way I’d ever gotten Devi to even notice me. So, I turned every fucking thing between us into an unspoken competition. Why? Because she rejected me right out of the gate, pretty much the split second she met me, and there was no way I could ever win that battle. I couldn’t make her like me.
Truth was, I’d never been rejected before.
It fucking blew.
Obviously, I’d crossed paths with females who weren’t interested in me before. But I’d never wanted someone who didn’t want me back. And I only realized, when Devi walked into my life, that I’d never really wantedanythingbefore. I’d never wantedforanything.
All my life, I had everything I could ever want laid at my feet long before it could even occur to me to want it. But I knew with blistering certainty when Shane asked Devi to grad that I wantedher.
And she didn’t want me.
I had no idea how to handle it.
So, big fucking surprise, I handled it terribly.
I strolled into our glitzy grad party at the Crystal hotel with the most popular, most dead-obvious beautiful girl in the school as my date, hoping to make Devi jealous. And when that didn’t seem to work, late in the night, I followed her into a hallway and trapped her up against the wall outside the ladies’ room.
I was drunk.
I was miserable, for so many reasons, none of which were really her fault.
I asked her if she was screwing my best friend. I asked her if she was a virgin.
Then I kissed her, because I’d been dying all fucking year to kiss her, when I had no right to kiss her.
She slapped my face.
Before she walked away, she told me, “You’re the devil, Dane Davenport.”
And the thing about that was, I’d always believed her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Dane
When I flew back into Vancouver, I headed straight to a bar downtown where Johnny’s band, Breakneck, was hosting a party. I met Devi there.
I’d been gone less than a week, but it already felt way too long.
I’d been in Toronto over Halloween, and when Devi sent me photos of her, Chaz, and some friends at a party, in costume, Devi dressed up as “cheerleader roadkill”—even the tire tracks across her body and the gory road rash up half her face couldn’t kill how hot she was in that outfit—I knew I had to get my ass back to town before this party.
Couldn’t have her showing up at this thing without me.
When I arrived, she was already inside the bar. She greeted me with a kiss, in her short, sexy teal dress and zebra-print boots. Then she basically deserted me to work the room, while I put in some time with Johnny and his bandmates.
Shane showed up a little later, and Lex did, too. And seeing Shane, Lex and Johnny together, it really occurred to me for the first time how many hang outs I’d missed out on. All the times they’d been able to get together, be part of each other’s lives as we all grew older… and I hadn’t been there. I only saw them when they came out to Toronto.
Johnny spent a lot of time in Toronto, with his band. Shane flew out occasionally, to see me. Lex passed through sometimes, when he was on tour with Dirty.
But Lex didn’t go on this tour, instead staying back in Vancouver, “too busy” with work of some kind for his motorcycle club.
Johnny was spending more and more time in Vancouver when he wasn’t on the road. He’d bought a place here a few years back, an actual house instead of a condo, and he almost seemed to be putting down roots. As much as a world-touring bachelor rock star could put down roots.
And Shane, he didn’t often leave Vancouver.
