Charming My Best Friend (Fated #2) Read Free Page B

wasn’t helping. So I set out early,
deciding I’d join the team for an early morning weight room session.
    For some reason- no matter what was bothering me- lifting heavy
things and putting them back down again always helped me clear my mind. And
that’s what I needed right now, to clear my mind of all the confusing shit
she’d filled it with.
    Because the previous night, she’d done something so
unprecedented it threw me for a loop. She apologized. With words. And she did
it without any coaxing.
    Granted, I was pissed, but normally she would sulk when I was
mad and wait for me to be the bigger person. But on this occasion, she owned up
to being wrong right away.
    She claimed she got carried away, not just because of her luck
getting the job she went for, but because she got swept up in the excitement of
my sister’s happy day. Then she admitted that she was wrong to buy the bracelet
for herself, but that the saleswoman was so persuasive that she fell for her
tactics and lost the run of herself.
    And surprisingly, I thought all her excuses were valid.
    But the most ridiculous thing was the personal growth she
demonstrated by calling to cancel the order immediately.  
    It was the most mature thing she’d done in weeks. And while I
knew it was completely idiotic of me, I was kind of proud of her for reacting
so well to a situation that hadn’t gone exactly how she wanted it to.
    So even though I wanted to be mad, I couldn’t sustain it because
she made it all better by undoing her bad behavior and impressing me at the
same time. Plus, it was a little hypocritical of me to be so mad at her.
    After all, I’m the one that started spoiling her rotten from the
minute we started dating. I’m the one that told her to use the credit card if
she needed to, though I explicitly remember using the phrase “for emergencies.”
And I’m the one that had gotten her every gift she’d ever wanted because it
made me happy to treat her so why wouldn’t she think she should just take out
the middle man and pick up her own birthday present?
    She probably thought she was doing me a favor, which I suppose
she would’ve been if I saw any future for our relationship.
    Still, I didn’t want to end things on bad terms.
    Unfortunately, I realized I didn’t really have a leg to stand on
with the black underwear accusation. No matter how I tried to verbalize my
concern, I sounded like a total psycho.
    Can you explain why your black underwear is dirty?
    For whom did you wear this underwear because it
wasn’t me?
    Where were you when you last wore this underwear?
    It seemed ridiculous. Laughable even. I needed to chill out. Our
relationship needed work, not paranoia. As a result, I decided to ride out
Chelsea’s mature mood and have a conversation with her in which we could reset
our expectations. I planned to go over our current financial situation and
figure out exactly what we both considered a fair arrangement.
    I would discuss how I wanted us to argue going forward so that
no one’s feelings would get hurt, and if that went well, I might try to suggest
she go see a nutritionist. I figured that might go down better than the whole
shrink idea did since I could actually sell it as something that wouldn’t
interfere with her relentless ambition to physically disappear.
    In fact, by the time I was done maxing out in the weight room, I
was feeling clear headed and ready to give her another shot.
    I texted her before I got in the shower and asked if she wanted
to meet for lunch. By the time I was out, she’d already gotten back to me
saying that she couldn’t because she was volunteering at the nursing home
again, but maybe we could get dinner.
    And by dinner, I’m sure she meant Grey Goose.
    I don’t know if it was the endorphins pumping through my body
that gave me the crazy idea or what, but I decided that I should go surprise
her at the nursing home. After all, her Grandma Rose was a total sweetheart,
and there was probably at