But no, that wasn’t what we were. She was Denny’s. She’d made that clear the other night. Our friendship would never cross that line again. We really were over.
My stomach throbbed, but I forced the feeling down. It was just the way it was, no need to get an ulcer about it. My heart was pounding as we stared at each other. I couldn’t read her emotions. Knowing she couldn’t read mine either, I gave her a small nod and a smile. See, Kiera, I can play nice, even if you did rip my heart out. We can still have a friendship, although just being friends with you kills me a little.
I thought Kiera would smile in return, maybe look relieved that I wasn’t angry or hurt, but instead, she frowned at me and stormed away. What the hell? I knew I’d crossed the line, but it’s not like she hadn’t eagerly met me on the other side of it. After all, wasn’t she the one who undressed me?
Irritation bloomed in me the longer I watched Kiera working. She completely ignored me. And not in an aloof way like she just didn’t care. No, every look she wasn’t giving me was very deliberate. She wanted me to know she was fuming. I just had no idea why she was so angry. She wouldn’t even approach our table, which was probably a good thing, since Griffin was regaling some random guy next to us with sex stories about Anna. God, he was going to repeat that night to people for the next six months, I just knew it.
After twenty minutes of absolutely no service, Evan finally managed to flag Kiera down. She looked over at our table, blatantly ignoring me sitting at it, then rolled her eyes and headed up to the bar to get our drinks. She wouldn’t even take our order? Why the hell was she so mad at me? A little mad, sure, completely understandable, but this seemed over the top, even for her.
A few minutes later, she stormed to our table. Without a word, she slammed down a bottle of beer in front of each of us; a bit of foam frothed from the top of mine thanks to the force of the impact. I was a little surprised the bottle hadn’t broken. Still silent, she then twisted on her heel and strode away from the table as quickly as she possibly could.
Matt looked at Evan after she left. “What’s her problem today?” Both men then turned to look at me, like I was suddenly the keeper of Kiera’s mood swings.
I shrugged and grabbed my beer. “Don’t ask me. I’m not her boyfriend.” I didn’t mean to say it harshly, but it came out a little rough. While Evan frowned at me, I took a swig of my beer. Grimacing, I pulled it away from my lips and looked at the bottle. Lite beer? Really? I fumed in silence for a few seconds while the other guys drank their perfectly normal, calorie-laden alcohol. What. The. Hell.
A few minutes later, I noticed Kiera disappearing down the back hallway. Not able to stand her silent treatment for another second, I stood up with a screech and followed her. I was going to get my answers, and I was going to get them now. I caught up with her as she was coming out of the bathroom. By the look of shock and irritation on her face when she spotted me, it seemed like she wanted to dart inside the back room and hide. Fat chance I’d let that happen though. Wherever she went right now, I was just going to follow her. I wasn’t leaving until she talked to me.
Maybe seeing that hiding was futile, she exhaled a frustrated sigh and tried to stalk past me. I grabbed her elbow. “Kiera…” Her hazel eyes burned when she looked up at me. The heat in her glare stole my breath for a second. She jerked her arm away while her eyes continued drilling holes into my head. “We should talk…”
“Nothing to talk about, Kellan!” she bit out.
Wondering what the hell I had done to make her so mad at me, wondering why she hated me so much and loved him so much, and wondering why just the sound of her voice made my knees weak, I quietly told her, “I disagree.”
Leaning into me, she sneered, “Well…you can apparently do whatever you want!”
Her snotty attitude mixed with my pain and frustration. Even I could hear the sharpness in my voice as I responded to her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means we have nothing to talk about,” she snipped, bumping into my shoulder as she brushed past me.
I let her go, more confused than ever. What the hell was that about?
Chapter 22
I Only Wanted to Help You
At the end of the night, Kiera was still doing her damnedest to ignore me. Equally amused and irritated by her avoidance, I didn’t try approaching her again. Maybe she just needed another day to cool off.
People started filtering out as the bar started shutting down. Eventually, there were just a couple of regulars left, Kiera, Griffin, Evan, and me, and Evan was heading out the door with Cassie, the cute blonde who had been hitting on him all night. I leaned against a table with my arms folded across my chest, watching Kiera as she realized that she didn’t have a ride home. Guess in her pissy mood, she’d forgotten to line one up. I would take her, of course, if she wanted me to.