Fighting Solitude (On The Ropes #3)(17)

Glancing behind me, I saw a girl with a pixie cut and a bold stripe of pink through her sweeping bangs. She was pretty—there was no denying that. But, given her tattered skinny jeans, clingy vintage tee, and a pair of Chuck Taylors, I wouldn’t have considered her any competition. The kind of guys who went for girls like her didn’t go for my style of dresses and heels.

Which was exactly why my heart broke.

When she signed, Who the f*ck is she? I realized she was the type of girl Quarry went for.

Looking back at Q, I caught him signing, Chill.

My head flipped back and forth as they carried on a conversation as if I were invisible—while part of me wished I were.

Not until you tell me why I just walked in and found you dry-humping some preppy bitch.

Clearly she’d noticed how different we were as well.

She’s not a bitch, and we were hugging. That’s hardly dry-humping, he shot back, completely immune to her death-stare.

I wasn’t positive if the sign language was for her benefit or his, so I decided to both sign and speak as I stepped toward her. “Hi. I’m Liv.”

I extended a hand, but her eyes remained glued to Q.

“Maybe I should go,” I said out loud to Quarry.

He too ignored me.

“Mia, this is my old friend, Rocky. Rock, this is my insanely jealous, well…really just insane-in-general girlfriend, Mia.” He smiled patronizingly. Without talking, he signed, There. Now you gonna drop your attitude and get over here and kiss me?

Her attention finally snapped to me. Raking her eyes over me, she signed, I thought you two weren’t friends anymore.

She knew about me. Interesting.

Quarry sauntered in her direction, pulling her into his side and kissing the top of her head. “Well, now, we are. She’s going to dinner with us too, so be nice.”

Suddenly, I wanted to go to that dinner about as much as I wanted to pay full retail for the Louboutins I was saving up for.

“You know, maybe I should take a rain check. I’d hate for my mom to eat dinner alone. She did just drive me here and everything.”

“Bullshit. She’ll be with Erica. You’re going,” Quarry said. “And you’ll need to sign because Mia’s the real kind of deaf. Not the fake kind like me.” He winked.

When he leaned down and caught her mouth in a kiss, I heard the actual crunch of the shards of my heart being stomped on.

I wasn’t exactly sure why though. It had been years since we had seen each other, and even back then, we’d been just friends. I could only think of one reason for the searing pain that consumed me when his lips touched hers.

It was Quarry.





DINNER THAT NIGHT WAS…WEIRD.

Gouge-your-eyes-out-with-a-spoon, swear-you-will-never-do-it-again-for-as-long-as-you-live, push-delicious-food-around-a-plate-while-staring-at-the-clock-on-your-phone kind of weird.

It was great to see Till and Eliza again. They had their daughter, Blakely, with them, and Eliza had just found out the baby she was carrying was a boy—hence the reason for the celebratory family dinner.

It was also nice to see Flint again. He was out of the wheelchair, but he still needed forearm crutches to get around. He remained quiet and cranky most of the meal—only talking to Till and occasionally signing insults at Mia. He’d always grin, and she held her own with rude comebacks, so I guessed it was just part of their dynamic.

In between all of this, I chatted with Quarry while Mia glared at me. She didn’t even attempt to hide her disdain, and Quarry’s only acknowledgement of it was to swear to me that she would get over it. I wasn’t sure I believed him. But, being that I was the random guest at their family dinner, I stayed quiet and tried not to make it as awkward for anyone else as it was for me.

After I’d received hugs from everyone—but Mia—my mom arrived to pick me up.

Even though Quarry had insisted that we switch phone numbers at dinner, I had absolutely zero intentions of using his. I didn’t even have a chance to beg my dad to let me change my number before my phone pinged from a number I didn’t recognize.

It seemed Quarry shared more than just saliva with Mia.

She texted me to see when I would be back in Indy.

Then she texted me the day after that to ask if I would be at Quarry’s next fight.

I knew she didn’t honestly care about seeing me again. She just wanted to know when I was going to be around Quarry. And then she was going to make sure her ass was parked on the other side of him.

She texted me again the following day to find out why I hadn’t replied.

Then Quarry texted me to make sure I was okay because I wasn’t replying to Mia’s texts.

Shoot me.

I finally replied, hoping they’d just leave me the hell alone. It had the exact opposite effect though. That one text opened some kind of magical door to an alternate dimension. Mia started texting me all the time. Most of which had nothing to do with Quarry. It was strange at first, and I ignored just as many messages as I responded to, but God, that girl was persistent.

She was also pretty cool.

Before I knew it, I was the one texting her. Once the bitchiness had melted away, it was easy to see why Quarry was so crazy about Mia.

She was hilarious.

And feisty.

And unbelievably witty.

She wasn’t prissy, but she still loved shoes (flats), manicures (skulls designs), and makeup (her palette of choice: neon.)