Bait: The Wake Series, Book One(40)

Some of his weird messages ran through my head.

Casey: Did you know that you can use semen for invisible ink?

Casey: I read that the inside of a female's nose plumps up when she's aroused. Like a nose boner. LOL

Casey: Bees have five eyeballs. Gross.

Casey: Only one state has one syllable. Maine. Boom. Betcha didn't know that.

I went to sleep happy every night.

Now seeing this message, although I had absolutely no right to be angry, I felt like I was the one who'd been cheated on.

How f*cked up was that?

A surge of some type of territorial feeling flooded me.

Me: I am texting your boyfriend because he sold me some line about Bait, and I think he's right.

Delete.

Me: Who is this? I think you have the wrong number.

Her: He calls you honeybee.

It wasn't a question. He called me honeybee in San Francisco and sometimes in our messages. She'd read our messages. She wasn't asking. Thank God for the most part they were harmless.

Thank God? What was I hoping? That he didn't get caught?

I don't know what I was thinking. I was so damn confused.

When I'd been typing the messages, I felt like I'd been good at staying in a friendly zone. But now thinking about them through this girlfriend person's eyes, they'd seemed anything but.

Unease moved straight into anger, then it turned around and headed to denial.

Me: We are only friends.

Her: Leave him alone.

Me: I told you we were just friends. I think he can decide on his own if I should leave him alone.

Girlfriend.

Yes, from that point forward that would be her official name. Not like his girlfriend. In my mind it sounded a lot more like bitch.

Her: He said you were nobody when I asked. That doesn't seem too friendly.

Bitch. Girlfriend. Girlfriend. His girlfriend. Who obviously cared about him enough to stand up for herself and their relationship.

Who does that make me?

Nobody? Casey's nobody? I'm nobody's nobody. I'm Grant's somebody.

My mind struggled with what she'd told me. Did I believe her? If I were her I would have said the same thing. Hell, I'd say anything to make me leave him alone.

Her: He was with me today when you sent so many messages. Maybe you should have taken the hint. He said you won't leave him alone. In fact, he gave me your number. Don't call him later.

Her: Leave.

Her: Casey.

Her: Alone.

If only it were that easy.

It had to be. I was with Grant and Casey was with this girl, Girlfriend Bitch, who seemed to be ready to throw down if I got in their way.

I felt another rush of that cold hotness spring to the surface of my skin.

I needed a shower. Grant was going to be there in a little while and I needed to wash the grossness away. I needed to get my shit together. I needed to grow up.

Casey wasn't my cheater and I wasn't his hypocrite. Or maybe it was the other way around.

I turned off my phone. I couldn't allow myself to think about it anymore. That was it. It was done. I could finally move on. I needed to focus on the man who I had. A man who would never text another man’s girlfriend behind my back. A man who was faithful and in love with me.

It was time I let this thing with my perfect stranger go. Let the secret become a memory. I didn't want to though, I only told myself I did.

I'd miss him. Even only spending one weekend with Casey, and barely a dozen days texting, I'd come to rely on him for something. Friendship, I guessed.

Maybe we were friends after all. I guessed I'd never really know.



Grant was a little late, a bit unlike him, but it was good. It gave me more time to regroup, get my game face on, and prepare myself.

I'd known for a while now that he was waiting for the right time to propose and I'd given him some pretty obvious “not now signals” in my Casey fog.

I was just angry enough to make a decision. That's the thing about anger. It makes you decisive.

I wasn't taking what I had with Grant for granted anymore. Not after Girlfriend's messages.

When he came to my door with flowers, I looked at him like I hadn't seen him in weeks. Then I realized I probably hadn't.

He looked nice. He was still wearing his work clothes, brown pants and a blue shirt. He'd even had a haircut. He handed me the roses and I took them, feeling a little shy and unworthy.

“Thank you, they're really pretty.” I turned back around then glanced back at him. “Come in for a minute? I'll put these in water.”