Torn - Part Three (The Torn Series) Read Free

nothing but memories - maybe they’d always be a little painful, but even that would fade. Soon I wouldn’t think about them at all.
     
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    We gathered at Martin and Shawn’s apartment, as usual. Their place was ideal since the rest of us had roommates who weren’t so appreciative of parties that only got started after last call. Particularly not on a weeknight. It was fine for us, though, night workers that we were. I’d get to bed sometime during sunrise and I wouldn’t need to be awake until the late afternoon.
     
    “Cheers, my vampire bitches!” Adele announced, and we clinked our shotglasses together. She was sitting on some cushions on the floor next to Martin on one side of the coffee table while Shawn and I shared the couch across from them. Adele had brought along a bottle of some fancy whiskey that the guys got excited about. They said it was some expensive and hard-to-find brand but I could hardly even taste the difference. Though it didn’t burn quite as much as normal whiskey going down. Still, I was beginning to wonder if I was simply the worst bartender ever.
     
    “So, this date,” Adele said, slamming her glass back down to the coffee table, “was one for the books, let me tell you.”
     
    “Are you sure you weren’t a theater student in a past life?” I teased her.
     
    She shot me a playful middle finger before continuing. “First thing when we meet up, he insists that I let him pay for everything. So I said fine. Whatever, we can do the traditional first-date thing, and I’m broke as shit anyway.”
     
    “Cheers to that,” Martin said, pouring another round of shots.
     
    Adele went on, “So we went to this like, Japanese fusion sort of place. Not fast food but not expensive. And he says ‘I’m short on cash, you can only get something that’s under ten bucks.’” Martin snorted. “I told him we could just split the check but he was really fucking insistent!”
     
    “Since when are you a pushover?” Shawn asked. “I’d expect you to shove the cash in his mouth if he wouldn’t take it.”
     
    “I was trying to be nice,” Adele pouted, “It was a first date. I try not to unleash the bitch until at least the third.” I giggled - Adele certainly could be a bitch when she was in a mood but she did have a thing about proper manners. “May I continue?” she asked. We waved her on. “Anyway. So I go along with that even though I totally would have paid my share. But whatever, he’s broke and old-fashioned.” She snorted. “But then he scratches his head and gets fucking dandruff on the food!”
     
    We all groaned. “Where do you find these people?” Martin asked.
     
    “Internet,” Adele said, rolling her eyes at herself. “On top of all that he wouldn’t quit talking about his ex and about how I look so much like her. And then he was shocked and offended when I didn’t want to go home with him.”
     
    I shook my head. Adele seemed to have the worst luck. I blamed online dating overall, but a dark cloud with a wicked sense of humor was following that girl around.
     
    It occurred to me then that I’d never dated around like she was doing. I had few funny stories to share, few experiences, had met very few people since moving to the city. Maybe once I’m over Mallet I ought to ask her advice. I knew Adele would love nothing more than an “internet dating buddy.” She’d brought up the subject more than once. None of us were in any shape to join her, though. Martin and Shawn were happily together and Vanessa - who was absent that evening - was afraid of most things online-related. The girl didn’t even have a Facebook page.
     
    Sitting there with my new friends, fantasizing about the future, I still felt that lingering sense of loneliness that had settled in my chest since I walked out on Mallet that morning. I wasn’t over it just yet, wasn’t over him. But I was damn well going to try to get there.
     

CHAPTER 2
     
    I