Face-Off at the Altar
Page 21

“Yeah, I hear you,” he answered back, squeezing her hand.
“But wait till after my wedding,” she said with a grin, and he nodded.
“Can do.”
While he made it sound like it would be easy-peasy for him, it felt like it would be the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. Because no matter how much he apologized, he knew he had lost her.
And there was no coming back from that.
“He is so gorgeous! Ugh! Why is he so damn gorgeous? Why can’t he look like a goblin or something? Why do I freakin’ care? It isn’t fair. He cheated on me. Yes, we weren’t official, and yes, I may never have put out, but I wasn’t ready. I wanted to know we loved each other, I wanted to know he loved me. But no, he goes and fucks my sister, that fucking whore Skylar. It isn’t fair! Why do I still care?”
Kicking the floor, Mekena let out a long breath and then looked back at Mr. Right, who was perched on the end of the bed, his expression bored.
Like always.
“Explain it to me. How and why do I care? He didn’t care about me when he put his penis in my sister! Why didn’t he want to put his penis in me? What’s wrong with me?”
Looking for any kind of support from Mr. Right, she got none as he slowly yawned, blinking a few times. That only made her madder.
Snorting in frustration, she yelled, “I don’t even get it. He never even apologized, which, really, why would it matter? I don’t want his apology—wait, yes, I do. No! I don’t want anything from him. He’s a big ol’ buttface miscreant! I hate him!”
When Mr. Right meowed in disbelief, she yelled her irritation. “Okay, maybe I don’t hate him, but I sure hate that I still love him because that is idiotic. He cheated, Mister. Cheated. On me. With my sister! That’s unforgivable, that’s ridiculous! He chose her over me! I mean, why wasn’t I enough?”
“Meow.”
“Exactly!”
Falling back on the bed, she covered her face with her hands as she sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. “It just isn’t fair, Mister,” she said, her voice breaking as the tears started to well up in her eyes. “I love him, still, and I knew that the moment he looked into my eyes. I thought I was over him, I thought I had let him go, but I think all I did was try to hide him from my life. I didn’t do anything to get over him. There was no closure.”
But did she really want closure?
She wasn’t sure, and she sure as hell couldn’t let that be known. Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she swallowed hard just as Mr. Right crawled his big butt onto her chest, his head nuzzling into her hands. Melting a bit, she hugged him to her chest as she cried into his soft fur. It only lasted a second before he dug his nails into her chest, and she let him go with a cry of pain. “You have a split personality, Mister! One minute you love me, the next you want to hurt me.”
He only whipped his tail at her, which made her glare. “You’re a Markus Reeves. That’s your new name. Meanie!”
He hissed at that, and for some odd reason, that made her feel a little better. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. How in the ever-loving God was she supposed to work at this wedding and ignore Markus? Not feel even an inkling of emotion for him, and not want to ask him why he did what he did. She remembered like it was yesterday when he said he was sorry, but his apology was for the fact that she caught him. Not for hurting her. But then, did she even give him a chance? She ran off, didn’t talk to him or answer his calls. Then the calls stopped, and he walked the other way on campus, ignoring her too.
It killed her.
Every time she saw him, she’d hold her breath and worry that her sister would be holding his hand like he used to hold Mekena’s. She fully expected him to start dating Skylar, but it never happened. She never saw him with her. Truth be told, she’d never seen him with anyone since. Not that she was checking or asking Avery for information on that…daily. Maybe monthly… And that should have been a clue Mekena wasn’t over him. That her heart was still his, no matter how much she didn’t want it to be. Yet, she ignored it and pushed on.
She tried to make a life she would love. But it hadn’t happened yet. She loved taking pictures, she did, but she hated living in Florida. She missed Nashville; she missed her home. After eighteen months, one would think she would have adapted, but she hadn’t. She wanted to come home, but she couldn’t with Skylar being there. She couldn’t look the person she once loved in the eye and act like everything was okay.
Skylar broke her heart and, yes, Mekena knew it took two to tango, but Markus wasn’t that guy. He wasn’t a cheater. A little whorish, sure, but he was a good guy. He cared about her feelings, walked her to class, and never once pushed her for sex. When she said no, he said okay, and then asked what show she wanted to watch next. He let her take the lead; he let her decide how far they went.
He respected her.
At one point, she thought maybe he even loved her.
But that was all a fairy tale. It was all too good to be true. He was too sweet, too amazing to be that understanding. Being twenty-three and able to deal with a virgin who was scared of sex because what if she sucked so bad that he left her? She had no clue what she was doing. Who would want that? Yet Markus made her feel safe, and she had been getting to the point where she was ready. She wanted to give it a go… But again, all a fairy tale.
Too good to be true.
Rolling over, she dug her face in the very soft pillows of her bed and let out a scream. She was never going to find anyone. She was too nervous around everyone. She didn’t know how to talk to guys, and the fact that she even got Markus for as long as she did was a miracle in and of itself. She’d never forget the way it had all begun either. She’d be a hundred years old, and she’d still remember the way his shirt clung to his shoulders, so tight from how wide they were. Yet the rest of his shirt was loose on him. He wore those jeans that were as relaxed as he was. His hair was cut very short, but he had one hell of a five-o’clock shadow going.
He was beautiful.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. She had crushed on Markus for years after seeing him at one of the Bullies games when she was still in high school. She had thought he was dreamy, but it was a young, stupid crush that escalated into something she had no control over. It was supposed to be a quiet night, at least that’s what Avery had said. That they’d go out, eat a little, and dance, but when they got there, Markus was at the table with Jace.