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Remembering the times she’d left me stranded so she could go home with someone she met in a bar, I didn’t feel nearly as bad as she wanted me to. “I’ll wait until Tony gets here.”

I could do that, at least.

Going to Austin’s place was one thing, driving with him another. I wasn’t going to get in the car with him after he’d been drinking, for one, and for another, I wasn’t going to be stuck at his house without knowing for sure I’d be able to get home.

He grinned when I went over to him, but I fended off his kiss. “I have to wait for Kira to get picked up. I’ll meet you there.”

Austin pulled me close and nuzzled my neck exactly how he knew I liked it best. “Just come with me.”

“No.” I pushed him slightly away. Drunker, I’d have given in. More sober, I’m sure I’d have gone home alone. Stuck in this midway point where I wanted to taste him again and knowing lust is never as pretty the morning after, I shook my head. “I’ll meet you there. Give me the address.”

Maybe things were different, after all.

Austin kissed me again, harder, and this time I let him. He knew just how to do it, where to put his hands and his tongue and how to bump me with his groin to make my breath catch in my throat. My nipples throbbed, poking the silk of my shirt.

“Don’t take too long.” He stepped back, steady on his feet and not slurring his words. He reached as I turned and at the last moment, captured my wrist with his fingers. I let him tug me closer. “You’re not going to bail on me, are you? Like last time?”

Last time I hadn’t had Kira to remind me that I’d vowed never to go to bed with Austin again. Not that it was stopping me. Last time I’d called him just after two in the morning and told him I wanted to come over, but when I hung up the phone, good reason had won over the desire for his hands on me. That had been months ago, before I moved here.

“Are you still angry about that?”

“I wasn’t mad. Just disappointed. Do it again, I’ll be mad.” He grinned and dipped his head to kiss me but stopped short of my lips, just brushing them. “And disappointed.”

His blue eyes bore deep into mine, and for half a minute nothing else mattered. I felt Kira at my elbow, but I didn’t turn to look at her. I looked right into Austin’s eyes when I replied. “You won’t be.”

He let me go with another kiss and a nuzzle that sent shivers marching along every nerve. I found Kira waiting for me by the door. Oblivious to the crowd buffeting her, she held her place instead of stepping aside until I showed up to pull her by the elbow onto the sidewalk.

“You sure you’ll be all right?” The chilly night air had done a pretty good job of sobering me up, but I wasn’t reconsidering my rendezvous with Austin. At least not yet.

Kira nodded. “Fine.”

She didn’t look fine, she looked pissed off. I glanced out onto the street. Lots of cops. No cabs. I’d only turned away for a few seconds, but when I turned back to face her, Kira’s expression had turned stormy.

“You asshole!” She took a couple of steps forward, her heel catching on a crack in the sidewalk, and stumbled.

Jack.

With an inward sigh, I went after her. Jack was with the same woman from earlier and he did his best to ignore Kira. I saw him give his date a pained glance she answered with a shrug, and they started walking.

“Hey, Jack! Jackass! Don’t you walk away from me!”

“C’mon, Kira, don’t.” I didn’t blame him for ignoring her. I was a little less pleased he was also actively ignoring me, even though I knew it was really for the best, all around. “He’s not worth it!”

“Fuck you, Jack!” Kira couldn’t let it go, apparently.

Jack grimaced and pulled his cap from his back pocket. He put it on, but didn’t look at her. We hadn’t gone more than another few steps down the sidewalk when Kira launched herself at his back.

Jack stumbled forward as she slammed into him, her legs and arms flying. She didn’t actually manage to hit him more than once or twice, but the spectators leaped out of the way of her drunken tornado performance. She was shrieking insults, mostly stupid and incoherent ones.

Jack gave me an angry look that pissed me off. It wasn’t like I’d told Kira he and I had hooked up or anything. Her issues with him were his own problem and had nothing to do with me. He pushed her off him firmly and grabbed her arm at the same time so she wouldn’t fall. She kept trying to hit him and missing.

“Stop it,” Jack told her and gave her arm a little shake before letting her go. When she flew at him again she managed to knock his cap off. I stepped forward, wishing I’d gone with Austin and left Kira to her theatrics alone. This was a scene I really didn’t want to see.

“I hope your Prince Albert fucking rips out and you have to piss through three holes!” Kira screamed.

“Kira, c’mon.” I reached for her.

Kira allowed herself to be led away, still shouting insults. By the time we got to the parking garage the crowd had thinned and we had a better shot at hailing a cab. I rubbed my bare arms and shivered, but Kira had anger as her cloak and she danced back and forth on the nubbly pavement, waving her hands and muttering curses.

“He’s not worth it,” I repeated. “Jesus, Kira. What’s wrong with you?”

“He’s a jackass,” she said sullenly. Her makeup had smeared, her hair tangled. She needed to be in bed.

Fuck. I wanted to be in bed, and not alone. Yet here I was, instead, babysitting her while she had a tantrum about some guy she’d had a crush on a million years ago but had never even dated.

I didn’t correct her, even though I didn’t agree. “You’re drunk. Call Tony. Go home.”

She sniffed and crossed her arms. “Oh, you don’t care! You’re going to screw Austin. What difference does it make to you if my heart is broken?”

I laughed and knew I’d made a mistake by the way her brows pulled low over her smeared eyes. “Your heart’s not broken. You didn’t even go out with him. He doesn’t even have the Prince Albert anymore.”

She glared at me. I thought suddenly she was maybe way less wasted than I’d thought. “Did you fuck Jack?”

“It was ages ago.”

“You fucked Jack?” Kira’s fist clenched at her sides, then opened as her shoulders slumped. “I thought you were my friend!”

“Kira, it was years ago, and you weren’t—”

“That doesn’t matter!” she cried, and I knew she was right. “You knew how I felt about him! I loved him!”

I’d never loved him. At least there was that. “I’m sorry.”

Kira whipped her phone from her purse and stabbed the buttons with her fingernail. She turned her back to me. I should’ve counted myself lucky she didn’t try to punch me in the face the way she’d done Jack. As it was, I was cold and my stomach had begun to churn.

“Your sorry is shit.” Kira spoke into the phone next. “It’s me. Come pick me up. Yeah, I know what time it is. I’ll be waiting at Tom’s Diner on Second Street. Harrisburg, you ’tard.”

She hung up and stalked off down the sidewalk without looking back.

“Kira!” She flipped me the bird without even pausing. There was no way I was going to run after her, not in my four-inch fuck-me pumps. I managed a hobble, though. “Kira, c’mon. Wait.”

“You’re supposed to be my friend,” she said, and the quiet affront in her tone was worse than an insult or a punch. “God, Paige. Just because you can doesn’t always mean you should, you know? This isn’t high school anymore.”

I stopped trying to follow her. “No shit, really? And calling out some dude on the street when he’s with another girl, that’s not straight out of high school?”

“That’s different!”

“How is it different?”