Page 146 of Stupid Matchmaking Love

“It’s fine.” I pick up my spoon again, even though I don’t want ice cream anymore. “What’s done is done.”

“Aw, honey, you’ll always have us. Besides, men are optional. Friends aren’t,” Rowe says.

“Group hug,” Coco announces, putting her ice cream on the coffee table and coming over to wrap us both in her arms.

We do a group hug, and for a moment my chest loosens, but the walls around my heart stay right where they are.

When we pull apart, I dig my spoon into my ice cream and say, “How about some Legally Blonde?”

My friends look at me for a long beat, and then Coco says with a grin, “You sure you don’t want me to hex Rhett?”

I smile sadly. “Let’s skip the magic this time. It could go sideways.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

I laugh—really laugh—but it’s Rowe who chastises our friend with “Coco!”

“Just saying.” She presses a button on the remote and grins. “Time for movie therapy.”

Chapter 49

Rhett

It’s been days since I ended things with Cristina, and I’d be lying if I said I was fine.

I’ve barely eaten. Barely slept. My life’s running on autopilot, going on without me, and I’m letting it because I don’t know how to function any other way.

I moved back to the suite I occupied before the competition started, and it feels so sterile—just a bed, a few books. There’s no life in it.

I sigh and slump in a chair, staring at the pieces of the Bitty Being on the desk. Maybe if I stare at them long enough, the thing will start talking, tell me how to put it back together, tell me how to put myself back together.

I sigh and close my eyes, then huff out a breath and rise. Time to get back to work.

“Thanks for making me come out,” I say to Pane and Stone when we enter Sparkle Bar.

Stone claps my shoulder. “Anytime.”

“You needed to get away from the resort,” Pane adds.

I did need to get away. Seeing those same walls every day is killing me. It’s too much.

I can practically see Cristina walking through the halls, like a ghost or a memory that’s alive, flickering and pushing into me.

Every once in a while I’ll get a trace of her scent—maybe I’m imagining it, but I’ll enter the lobby and smell her as if she just left it, like she’s leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow.

“I’ll grab us some beers,” Stone says as Pane leads me toward the pool tables.

“How about a game of eight ball?”

“Sure.” I wait as he presses his card against the payment reader and then racks the balls. My gaze drifts to one of the TVs above the table. The news is on. I can’t hear it, but Mina’s face flashes for a second, as well as a clip from what looks like the latest live stream.

Something sour twists in my gut as Jace and Holly lift their hands in victory.

No way. Those two won the challenge? Those two?

Stone steps up beside me and hands me a cold beer. “Can you believe Clarice and Beau didn’t win? My bet was on them.”

I don’t want to ask, I really don’t, but apparently my brain doesn’t get the message, because my mouth speaks without permission.