Searching for Neverland (20 page)

“Then how come you’re not taking
him
to Marissa’s wedding?”

Yeah, she had me there, but I wasn’t answering her. She and I both knew our parents hated Alex after the way he’d treated me, so there was no way I’d bring him to a family function. If we started seriously seeing each other again, I’d have to warm my family up to the idea very slowly.

“It’s because he’s an asshole, and you’re going to regret making the decision to date him again, because he’s going to hurt you,” she answered for me.

And then I heard the song abruptly change on the jukebox and looked up at Josh who was grinning at me. I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he was pushing my buttons. He’d ventured close enough when he’d been pouring a beer for a customer to hear me confirm I was seeing Alex again, and the song he’d asked one of the waitresses to put on was so not funny.

“You are hilarious,” I called out to him, shaking my head.

“Just listen to the words, Swift. They describe Alex perfectly.”

“The fact that you know the words
to
this song troubles me,” I called back to him, playing on the lyrics, as Josh sung probably the only line of the song he actually knew.

My sister raised her eyebrows. “Josh knows the words to a Taylor Swift song? Are you sure he’s not gay?”

I laughed and almost snorted vodka and cranberry juice through my nose. “No, he’s not. I share a wall with him, remember? The things I’ve heard – all female, of course.”

“Eww,” Taryn said, wrinkling up her nose before she changed the subject. “So speaking of things that happen in the bedroom, doesn’t Alex have a small penis? Didn’t you tell me the sex was sub-par at best?”

Yeah, I’d told her that one night when I was pissed off after our break-up. Oops.

“No,” I lied. “I just said that because I was mad.”

“Well, I think you’d be much better off with Josh,” she said matter-of-factly.

I looked over at Josh and his toned arms and his firm jawline and felt all quivery inside. I imagined those arms braced on either side of me, as he hovered above me, naked and ready to– No! No, that was not an acceptable image to conjure. That was really bad, Taylor!

My alcohol-soaked brain obviously had a mind of its own, and I had to remind it that Josh and I were just friends, and I was just drunk.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Taryn, you’re insane.”

“Of course, if you don’t make a play for him, I might,” she said then, and I felt the sudden urge to elbow her in the ribs.

“No! You can’t,” I said quickly, realizing too late that my reaction had been much more aggressive than I’d intended.

“Why not? He's freaking hot,” she said, eyeing Josh as he wiped up at the end of the bar.

As if on cue, he looked up and smirk-smiled at us. Yeah, he was hot alright.

Dammit!
I did it again.

“You got awfully territorial there for someone who’s ‘just friends’ with him,” she teased, and I knew I had to respond very carefully.

“He has a girlfriend,” I said, both explaining my reasoning and telling her she could not
make a play for him. I knew
she was considering it, and something about that just didn't sit right with me.

“Damn, that sucks. All the good ones are taken.”

Amen to that, sister.

“No,
she
sucks. I can’t stand his girlfriend, and I don’t think she likes me very much either.”

Taryn laughed. “I’m going to guess, and this is just a hunch, that she is not cool with you working in such close proximity to her hottie boyfriend and wearing little sexpot outfits like the one you have on?”

No, she’d probably hate it if she knew.
That thought made me smile.

“I don’t think she knows we bought the bar yet, so yeah, we’ll see how that goes,” I said, as I took a long pull of my drink, and Taryn shook her head at me.

An hour later, several beers, and few minutes before Alex arrived, as if it couldn’t have been timed better, Kimmy sauntered into the pub dressed in a suit and flanked by who I could only assume were her friends. They both had a stuck-up bitch look about them that told me we just wouldn’t get along.

“Josh baby!” she called out to Josh, who looked surprised to see her.

I was annoyed that she was there. I hated seeing them together. And that nickname was horrible.

“So
that’s
his girlfriend?” Taryn asked loudly.

“Yup, that’s Kimmy,” I confirmed, as I finished off my beer in one big gulp. I’d switched over to beer since the liquor had started hitting me harder than I liked. I wanted to be sober when I met up with Alex.

“
Kimmy?!
” my sister clarified, her eyes going wide as she took in the petite blond batting her eyelashes at Josh.

She’d walked right up to him at the bar, leaned over, and waited for a kiss. He obliged her, but it was a quick, chaste kiss. Then he gestured for her and her friends to have a seat, and he’d be with them in a minute.

It was then that she spotted me and my sister sitting at the other end of the bar and walked right up to us.

“Taylor, how are you?” she asked sweetly, but it was in such a way that I could practically smell the venom on her breath.

“Hey Kimmy,” I said through almost gritted teeth. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled, but her eyes drifted over my barely there outfit and narrowed in response. “I just wanted to see
my boyfriend
before I headed out with the girls for dinner since he
h
as plans to go out with the guys for some manly fun tonight,” she said, and my sister nearly choked on her beer.

“Manly fun?” Taryn muttered, and I elbowed her as discreetly as possible. “Where are they going? Mons Venus?”

Mons Venus was an infamous strip club in Tampa, and I was pretty sure that wasn’t where they were going.

“And you are?” Kimmy asked haughtily, turning to glare at my sister.

“Her sister,” Taryn said, gesturing to me with her thumb. “And the bitch who’s going to fuck your boyfriend out from under you if you don’t keep a tight rein on him. Yum-my.”

“Taryn!” I hissed, smacking her on the forearm.

I knew she was kidding, but it was likely that Kimmy didn’t know that. And now that I think about it, Taryn’s comment
was
pretty freakin’ hilarious. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. I didn’t want to piss Kimmy off.

Kimmy appraised Taryn with a distasteful look on her face, but she didn’t visibly react to my sister’s threat. “Yeah, you’re cute, I guess, but I don’t really see you as a threat,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

And that set my sister off.

“Actually, Josh and I used to sleep together,” she responded, in an attempt to further goad Kimmy, and my jaw dropped.

Not only was that a complete lie, but Taryn had just pushed Kimmy over the edge, and she knew it. She was such a trouble-maker, and I loved her for it.

“How nice for you,” she said coldly, as she clenched her fists at her sides.

“Tell his dick I said hi,” Taryn said casually, and I wondered if there was any end to her raunchy thoughts. “I hear he misses my blow
jobs.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Kimmy said haughtily, hands on her hips. “Josh doesn’t like blow
jobs.”

Taryn laughed out loud, and I almost followed suit. Was Kimmy kidding her
self? What guy didn’t like blow
jobs.

“He loved them when we were together,” Taryn defended, and Kimmy started to open her mouth to respond.

“Okay! Don’t listen to her, Kimmy,” I said, jumping in before she or my sister could say anything else. I didn’t need Taryn causing a rift between Josh and Kimmy no matter how much I didn’t like her. “She never slept with Josh. She’s just drunk.”

“I didn’t believe her anyway,” Kimmy said. “And besides, it’s you I’m concerned about.”

“Me?” I questioned, wondering what exactly had led her to believe that. She’d barely seen Josh and me together.

“He’s not going to fall for your tricks, you know,” she said then, completely catching me off-guard. “Nice outfit, by the way.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, turning my bitchiest voice on for her. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re outfit. It’s trashy, and it’s a pretty pathetic attempt to get Josh’s attention.”

I wanted so badly to tell her that he’d seen me in much less over the years, but I was fighting to keep my cool, and opening my mouth at that moment was so not a good idea.

“You’re so pitiful,” she continued, and from the corner of my eye, I could see Taryn’s hand make a fist, and I knew she wouldn’t be above swinging at Kimmy if it came down to it. My sister could be a little bit of a loose cannon. “I see how you look at him, how you always have to be the center of attention when it comes to him, and how you guys have your little inside jokes, but it’s no use. He’s with me. He’s not interested in you. You’ll never have–”

I could not believe that bitch had the nerve to go there. I put my hand up to stop her.

“Okay,” I said, cutting her off. “First of all,
Kimmy
, I’m not interested in Josh. Our ‘closeness’ has a little something to do with the fact that I’ve known him since we were kids. Second, there’s going to come a time when he’s going to see what a bitch you are and dump your sorry ass. Third, I’m seeing someone else, so please, get over yourself, and get a life. Quit worrying about mine. Oh, and by the way, I bought this bar this afternoon, and as the owner, I do have the right to refuse you service if I choose to do so and kick your sorry ass out. And I’m not sure Josh would try to stop me if he found out how you’d been talking to me just now. Think about that.”

She was looking at me in a dumbfounded sort of way, and I wondered how she fared in a courtroom if I could render her speechless with one blow. Next to me, my sister was staring at me with an open mouth and wide eyes. And I think she was hoping I really would kick Kimmy out of the bar.

“Do it,” she muttered under her breath. “Kick her out.”

“What’s going on?” Josh asked, looking confused but guarded as he approached our side of the bar, his eyes darting between the three of us.

“Did Taylor buy this bar today?” Kimmy demanded, and it was as if she thought he’d tell her I’d been lying, she was that smug about it.

“Yes, we bought it together.”

“What?!”

“Taylor and I went into business together,” he reiterated. “I told you I was thinking about buying the bar.”

If Kimmy had the ability to shoot fire from her eyes, Josh would have been an incinerated pile of ash at that moment. “You never said anything about
buying
it with
her
,” she spat, pointing her finger sharply at me.

“Is that a problem? I don’t understand.”

Jeez, he was so cute and clueless sometimes.

I turned to him before Kimmy could respond to his question. “It seems that your girlfriend thinks I like you, and she was just staking her claim, and now she’s uber-pissed that you and I are business partners. Bottom line, she was just being a bitch, and frankly, it was a little inappropriate, not to mention unjustified.”

“Kimmy?” Josh asked, looking at her for confirmation.

She was staring back at him with wide-eyed innocence, all the anger gone from her expression.

“Jesus. I’m out of here,” I said, pushing away from the bar.

“Taylor, wait,” Josh called after me.

“Wait up, Tay,” Taryn said, and I heard her say something to Josh that I couldn’t make out.

“Jo-osh,” I then hear Kimmy whine and rolled my eyes back in my head.

Taryn caught up to me at the gate to our backyard. “Do you want me to come inside? We could hang out and watch a movie or something?” she offered, almost as if she knew what was going through my mind in that moment and what I really needed.

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I’m just going to call Alex. He was supposed to meet me here anyway, but I don’t really feel much like being here when those two come back. Go meet up with Noah, and I’ll just take a cab to Alex’s place or something. It’s fine.”

Taryn was supposed to meet Noah at Hyde Park Café, so it was sweet that she was offering to cancel on him for me.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, positive,” I said, doing my best to shake what I was suddenly feeling from my mind.

“Okay, well, call me tomorrow,” Taryn said, hugging me tightly. “We can talk through whatever you’re feeling – no judgment, okay?”

I nodded. “Thanks,” I said, as I pulled out my cell and called Alex.

“Hey,” he said. “I just parked. I’ll be inside in a minute.”

“Don’t bother,” I said, walking back toward the bar. “I’m leaving. Can we just go back to your place?”

“Sure. Where are you?”

I saw him then as I circumvented the outside of the bar. “Fifty feet in front of you,” I said and watched him look up.