Free Crazy About Love: An All About Love Novel by Cassie Mae Page A

It sucks.
    “Here, dude,” Jace says when I flump onto the barstool next to him. Being the good friend that he is, he pushes some numbing juice in my direction. He’s the only one who knows about the night I had a massive brain fart and told Theresa I loved her. It’s good of him, and normally I’d take it. But I push the glass back, the neon light dancing off the bar top. Not tonight. I want to feel something tonight: excitement for Lizzie and Landon (Landon’s been carrying that ring around for weeks now); joy from getting off work; having a good time dancing; pain. Yeah, I’d even take feeling pain tonight. Maybe the sooner I let myself feel it, the faster it’ll go away.
    I push myself off the barstool and head over to the paint drums. A pretty girl with a nice smile hands me a drumstick and pours some neon blue and green on top of the taut fabric. I twirl the drumstick in my hand before crashing it into the paint. The thud of the bass drum rumbles up through my arm as the paint splatters all over my gray shirt. A laugh picks up from my gut, and I hit the drum again and again and again, until I’m covered, and the girl next to me is covered, and the guy next to her is covered, and I decide this is just as good as getting drunk.
    “The engaged couple’s here!” a voice calls out. I pull the paint goggles from my face and watch as Theresa points us all to the front door.
    My best friend and his fiancée are unmistakable, dressed in white from top to bottom, and when congratulations are yelled from every direction in the club, Lizzie jumps back with a large surprised grin on her face, bumping into Landon.
    I’ve known Landon nearly my whole life. He was my best bro growing up, and we’ve gone through different girls and relationships. But the way he looks at Liz as he catches her and kisses her cheek, and even when she gets pulled into the crowd by all the girls in the place to ogle the ring he gave her, I just…I’ve never seen that look on him for anyone else. Makes me think that maybe there is that one person for each of us. Just have to find her.
    My eyes subconsciously drift to Theresa, who’s admiring Lizzie’s ring, cheek painted with a pink streak. I wonder if I have “the look” when I gaze at Theresa, or if I haven’t found the girl to give “the look” to yet.
    After a good internal scolding and a shake of my head, I hand the drumsticks over to the pretty paint girl and make my way to Landon. Tonight is not about me.
    “Hey, finally did it,” I tell him with a pat on the shoulder, staining his blindingly white T-shirt with blue paint. He downs what I assume is the first of many congratulatory shots, then wipes his lips with the back of his hand and throws me a smile.
    “Accidentally.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “It sorta came out when we were in the shower.”
    I bolt out a laugh. “And she still said yes?”
    He shrugs and gives knuckles to one of his buddies from his movie set as he passes. “Guess I didn’t need to drop a paycheck for a suit.”
    I shake my head, remembering the day when Landon said he was going to propose to Lizzie at an outdoor restaurant (what is it about those places?) and he needed a suit. The cheapest one we found was in the back of Jace’s closet—but the legs didn’t cover Landon’s socks, and the shoulders on the jacket were so bulky it looked like he didn’t have a neck.
    “Unless you count your tux,” I say, dismissing the shot that’s being offered to me by Jaycee, another one of Landon’s movie people. He takes it, shoots it back, and then returns the empty glass to her.
    “All right, I’m gonna go stop that,” he says, nodding across the crowded room at Jace, who’s currently spinning Lizzie around in a dizzying circle. I pat him on the back again as he leaves, and Jaycee gives me a wide grin.
    “Feel like dancing?” she asks, setting down the empty shot glasses on a nearby table. I take one look at the dance floor and immediately spot