Free Betrayed by Kelly Harper Page B

anything to help you.”
    I smiled. “Let me make you dinner, tonight. I’ll get to work tomorrow, but tonight we can just kick back and relax.”
    Her smile faded.
    “I can’t,” she said. “I… have a date.”
    I reeled away from her. “Oh?” I said. “Is it the guy from the other night?”
    I had been meaning to ask her about the guy she’d been on the date with when she’d bumped into Ethan and I. But the topic had never come up - for obvious reasons.
    Her brow scrunched together for a second, then she nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “His name’s Terrence.”
    I smiled. “Are things getting serious?” I asked.
    She grinned. “No, it’s nothing like that. We’re just going out for drinks. And then…,” her eyebrows raised with her shoulders, “Who knows?”
    “I’m so happy for you,” I said. My thoughts trailed off to Ethan as I said it. Dana must have understood what I was thinking, because she instantly wrapped her arms around me and pulled me tight.
    “You’re going to find the person you’re looking for,” she said. “You just have to make it through the assholes to find the good ones.”
    Tears were welling in my eyes again, but I refused to shed a tear in front of her. Somehow, it just didn’t feel right.
    “I thought I had found a good one,” I said, honestly.
    She pulled away from me, and our eyes connected. For a second, I thought I saw a flash of annoyance in her expression.
    “Ethan isn’t one of the good ones,” she said, deliberately. “He’s a manipulative jerk.”
    I nodded. “I know,” I said. I looked away and focused on a spot on the wall. “It’s just hurts, still.”
    She pulled me in tight, again, and ran her hand through the back of my hair. She held me there for a while. It was soothing. The pain began to fade, as though the simple act of touching someone was enough to lift me above it; through it.
    “Thanks,” I said, the tears still threatening to pour free. “You’re a real friend.”
    She squeezed me tight once more before letting me go. I dabbed at my eyes and put on an embarrassed smile.
    “You have to let me cook for you one night before you go home,” I said. “I insist.”
    She smiled warmly at me, and stuck out her hand. I looked down at it, and shook it.
    “It’s a deal,” she said.

    * * * * *

    After Dana left, I laid in bed for a long time. Tears flowed freely under the security of the sheets. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Ethan since she brought him up.
    I had been strong up until then. Aside from his calls, I had been able to keep my focus. And I had hoped that being somewhere new, somewhere with no memories of Ethan in it, I would be able to keep him pushed far from my thoughts.
    But I was wrong.
    As I lay there in the darkness, alone, I wanted nothing more than to have him by my side. I stared at my phone, sobbing and hoping that he would call. He had called so many times, and I had refused every one of them, but I knew it he called right then I wouldn’t be able to.
    The pain wrenched my chest.
    Why couldn’t he be honest with me? He hadn’t told me about Dana, and he hadn’t told me about his brother. How could I trust a guy that I knew nothing about? I was lucky to have a friend like Dana that was there to protect me. She had pulled me out of a dangerous situation that I hadn’t even known I was in. I was lucky she had done it before I grew even more attached to him.
    I tucked the phone under the pillow, but kept my hand near it. I wanted it nearby, just in case he called. The buzzing would wake me up if it were that close. I cried for another hour before I finally fell asleep.
    But the phone was nearby.
    Just in case.

Chapter 8

    The Zen House was a loud, trendy college bar. It catered to the people who wanted to be seen. On any given night, you could see a man with a too-dark tan ordering drinks for a girl with a too-short skirt. People were there to hookup, they were there to forget about their boring