Page 35 of Good For Me

“Holy shit.” She raises an eyebrow. “Tell me he got the job done for you.”

“Oh, he did.”

“Every time?”

“Even more than that. I lost count.”

She gives me a look and I don’t need her to speak to know exactly what she’s thinking.It was that good and you’re seriously thinking about walking away from it?

I’m starting to realize she has a point.

Later that night, once we’ve both collapsed into my bed and Brie is snoring softly beside me, I can’t seem to stop the memories of Friday night from repeating again and again in my mind. It’s a long time before I fall asleep and when I do, I’ve decided that Brie might be right after all. Maybe I was too hasty in closing the door on more time with River.

For all you know, he was about to give you the exact same speech,I remind myself. But I’m really starting to regret not giving him the chance to even talk that night.

Maybe I should have at least heard what he had to say. River was really nice to me on my birthday, and I basically shut him down the second I saw him again. Would it be insanely awkward to try to talk to him again at this point? The least I could do is apologize for being so short with him last night.

And if that goes well, maybe we could see each other again. I wouldn’t mind another night like we had—either the hanging out portion of the evening or the wild sex in his bed part. And Brie might be right—maybe I do need fun in my life on a more regular basis.

I wake up in the morning feeling resolved. I’ll wait until his shift tonight and stop in at the bar. I could offer to buy him dinner on his break. Then I can apologize for being so dismissive and go from there.

But when I come back to the bar after a long day of classes and a shift at the bank, River is nowhere to be seen. I’m sure I didn’t get the schedule wrong, so I’m assuming he’s on his break already. I take a seat at my usual table and busy myself with paperwork until he gets back. When a half hour passes with no sign of him, I start to wonder if maybe he called in sick. When a full hour goes by, I finally gather up my courage enough to ask my uncle about him.

I find him hefting a crate of whiskey from a storeroom shelf, an annoyed expression on his face. “He quit this morning,” Dave grunts. “No notice, just said he couldn’t come in anymore.”

I stand there blinking at him, feeling stunned. River quit? Without saying anything?

Even my uncle—who is not the most observant man on the planet—notices my reaction, though he misjudges the reason for my shock. “It’s fine, kid. You know turnover in a business like this is a given. I’ll get another bartender in here before the end of the week and Brad and Kim both said they’d pick up extra shifts. I might need to sling a few drinks myself for a couple weeks, but this won’t screw up our bottom line.”

I nod, feeling completely off-balance. River is really gone? “Let me know if you need me to fill in.”

He scowls at me. “You concentrate on your studies, Jasmine. You already do more than enough around here.” He peers a little closer at me over the crate still in his arms, concern replacing the scowl, and I wonder what my face looks like. “You okay?”

“Sure,” I say, trying to snap myself out of whatever this stunned, disbelieving state is. “Just a little tired. Stayed up too late with Brie last night.”

He grunts. “If you think you were hiding that empty tequila bottle from me by putting it right in the recycling bin, you’re not as crafty as you used to be.”

I force a laugh and leave him to deal with the whiskey, my mind spinning. I know I shouldn’t be this surprised. He quits every job, right? Isn’t this exactly why I didn’t want to get involved with him in the first place?

But I didn’t think he would leave without saying a word to me. Not after Friday night.

Except you gave him exactly what he was after on Friday,I remind myself. I think about what Brie had said last night—that River is obsessed with me. That he couldn’t keep his eyes off me whenever I was in the bar. I’d be lying if I said I had never noticed before. And now I’m realizing I let it go to my head. I really did think he was into me.

But I guess his interest was limited to wanting a hook-up with a hard-to-get girl. Once he got what he wanted, he was done. It really shouldn’t be so surprising—River Ransome is clearly a player. This is exactly what I should have expected.

So why the hell does is hurt so bad?