Once in a Lifetime Read Free Page B

Guy.”
    “We’ll see,” Dorothy said, taking a seat. “You’ve only been together this night, but give it time. I’m going to have a bet that before the year is out you and Guy will end up in bed together.”
    “I’ll put a hundred dollars to that,” Lilly said, slapping notes on the coffee table.
    Grabbing the wine bottle from the kitchen counter, Emily topped off all of their glasses. “Not going to happen.”
    The women took their money back. Her thoughts drifted back to Guy, seeing him against the wall. God, she must be a sucker for bad guys. There was no way she was letting herself fall for a man who used women the way that Guy did. She would put up with him for her friends and not for any other reason.
    Throughout the night the wine was flowing, and her friends even started to joke about their men in the bedroom. Emily saw through the laughter. All of her friends were completely smitten with their men. She wished she could join in, but she was not interested in dating anyone. Her breakup had only been a month ago, which had been the best month of her life. She glanced around her apartment and remembered Nathan trying to convince her to get rid of this place. Emily had put her apartment up on the market with the intention of selling it. She’d moved in with Nathan, and he’d even convinced her to quit her job as a secretary in a law firm.
    Every request he made, she’d gone through with. When he asked her to lose a few pounds she’d done everything she could to do to please the fucker.
    She was so stupid when she looked back, pretty much kicking herself at her own stupidity. Nathan wasn’t an all-bad guy. Being away from him made her realize the good in the relationship along with the bad. There would be a woman soon enough who liked his overly possessive ways.
    Going out shopping for their week’s groceries and coming back to see Nathan fucking a blonde had been the wakeup call she’d needed. She hadn’t even been hurt by seeing him screwing another woman. If anything, she was happy they were ending the relationship because of him.  Immediately she’d packed a bag while he’d been stumbling around the place they shared. She’d called the agent who put her apartment on the market to take it off. Within a matter of hours she’d been out of his life for good. Only, he kept calling her to apologize and ask for forgiveness. He’d not become stalker-like, but she was waiting in case he decided to turn into a problem. At the moment all he wanted was her forgiveness and to see if she would give them a chance. She doubted he would cause any other problems. Nathan was a lot of things, but he wasn’t intentionally mean. Thinking about it, Emily wondered if Nathan had been with the right woman. Maybe the person he cheated on her with was his Miss Right? She didn’t know if that was the case, but it made her feel optimistic about her own future.
      “We’re going to crash here for tonight,” Dorothy said, drawing Emily out of her thoughts.
    Nodding her head, Emily got to her feet and started to get the blankets out for her friends. Before she met Nathan and he took over her life she’d had plenty of sleepovers with her friends. After him, those sleepovers had all but stopped so that he was happy with her.
    So stupid for trying to please a man who cannot be pleased.
    She hated the way her life had turned out with Nathan, especially when she thought he was the one for her. In the beginning everything had been perfect. Then over time, life had become difficult with him. No more wasting her life on men who were going to hurt her. She put the bottle in the recycle bin as she cleaned everything away.
    “You should see the way Guy looks at you,” Dorothy said, slurring her words.
    Rolling her eyes, she helped her friend get out of the clothes she was wearing. “Not going to happen.”
    “He keeps everyone at arms’ length on purpose.”
    “I think you’re too busy looking at the good in him instead of