Unexpected

Chapter 30

Dane

I see Mallory's lights are still on as I drive up to park at my house from finishing my shift at the gym. Once inside, I decided to send her a text asking how her neck was feeling. Just some neighborly concern, I tell myself. After a few minutes, she responds.

Mallory:  Dane! I'm so glad it's you and not HIM

Okay, that is an odd reply to my question.

Dane:  Who is him? Jonathan?

Mallory:  Nooo, I wish, but he has not called me either  : (   Why only the bad oness call? Good is what I need, not bad 

Something is not right. She seems off.

Dane: I'm coming over

I knock on her door and hear her sing-song 'Coming.' When she opens the door, I immediately see what the problem is. In her hand is an almost empty wine bottle. Her eyes are glassy, and her smile is goofy as she says louder than necessary, 

"Dane! Welcome to the party!"

"Looks like some party," I say as I eye her cautiously and enter her house, shutting the door behind me. "What are you celebrating?"

"S'not a celebration, silly. It's a pity party," she hiccups her way through her response.

"What brought on this . . . party? Not a sore neck, I hope."

She allows me to take the bottle from her hand, and I sit it down on a side table out of her reach.

"Nope, not my neck now. My heart hurts. Why did he have to contact me?"

She looks at me with searching eyes like I know the answer to whatever the hell she's talking about.

"Who contacted you, Mallory?"

"Josh," she whispers and looks down at the ground.

"Who's Josh . . ." I start to ask, but it dawns on me that he must be the one she was talking about the other day when I almost did something stupid like kiss her. "So your ex-boyfriend called you tonight?"

She laughs. "He didn't even CALL. He TEXTED me. But to be fair, I'd prob-a-bull-lee wouldn't have answered if he called. But I had to read that text, didn't I? I'm so stupid!"

She smacks her palm harshly onto her forehead. 

"Owww," she whines.

"Easy there, killer. Why don't we sit on the couch before you really hurt yourself."

She nods, and I guide her over to it and sit down next to her.

"What did he say?"

Like it or not, I'm invested now. I want to know what this Josh said to have set her off to the point of drunkeness.

"He wants me to give him another chance, to forgive him." She looks up at me with a sad smile.

"What do you want?" I ask anxiously.

"To keep hating him for what he did, but I don't know that I can," she looks down at the ground forlornly. I gently turn her face back up to look at me.

"What did he do? Cheat on you?"

"Yes and no. He did have sex with another girl, maybe more than one, but does that count when the whole relationship with me was just to win a stupid bet? I mean, I thought it was real, so it counts, right?"

I tense at her omission. What the fuck? This guy she's heart-broken over was just playing her the whole time? And even after all of that, she's considering to forgive him?