Page 54 of Cry Baby
“Sometimes. Want a demonstration?”
“Fuck, man, you’re still obsessed with me.”
I looked at Hollis almost sympathetically. “You think I’ve spent five years thinking about you?”
“I know you hate me. You can’t hide your lies either, Jailbait.”
“Hate?” I tilted my head. “Hollis…” I said and genuinely smiled. “I don’t think about you enough to hate you anymore.”
There it was.
That tiny flash.
The wounded ego.
Not pain, exactly, but not far from it.
He remembered someone who couldn’t look him in the eye.
Someone who shook when mocked.
Someone desperate to be accepted.
That person is gone.
Completely.
His jaw tightened, and I smiled.
“Whatever helps you sleep.”
“I sleep wonderfully, thank you for thinking of me.”
He scoffed before wandering back toward his table, and Melodie leaned closer. “I think you bruised his ego.”
“I answered his questions.”
“You enjoyed it.”
“I enjoyed finishing my drink.”
She watched Hollis rejoin a dark-haired man in a charcoal button-up.
Late thirties.
Confident.
Easy smile.
The man clapped Hollis on the shoulder, saying something that made them both laugh, and Melodie noticed my attention shift.
“Oh nooo. What are you thinking, Cry Baby?”
I nodded once toward the man. “He knows Hollis.”
“So?”
“So, he’ll do.”
