Rules of a Rebound (Breakup Bash)

by Crespo, Nina

  Hope diminished some of her fatigue. “So, does that mean the account is definitely mine?”

  “Ninety-nine percent yes. Aaron won’t officially bless it until his sister signs off on it this weekend. But from everything I was told, she’s already on board. But you let me worry about that. I need you focused on the right concepts for a winning campaign.”

  The high over the news followed Natalie all the way to her hotel room. She’d done it! As she went to text Rome about it, she noticed text messages from Cori and Alexa. Normally, they were the ones she shared good news with, but other than check-in texts, she hadn’t spoken with them since the Breakup Bash.

  As she answered them with a “love you” Bitmoji, guilt pinged inside of her. Honestly, she needed to fill them in on the robbery. But she wasn’t ready to talk to them about Rome yet. Eventually, she’d admit that she’d broken a main hookup rule: don’t go back for seconds. But the robbery created special circumstances.

  Heaviness grew inside of her. Instead of sending a text as planned, she dialed his number, suddenly needing to hear his voice.

  He picked up on the fourth ring. “Hey. Hold on a sec. I need to fill Betsy’s water dish. We just got back from a long walk. It was warmer than expected outside.”

  An image of Rome sweaty and shirtless popped into her mind. Damn. Just thinking about it almost made her want to go on long walks with him…and what about afterwards? If they were already sweaty, why hop into the shower right away? The image bloomed into passionately kissing him, pressing herself against his hard, bare chest, feeling his erection pulsing against her lower belly as he cupped her butt and lifted her up…

  “Natalie—you still there?”

  “Yeah.” She licked her lips. Whoa. Was she actually drooling? “So, everything okay there?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine. Oh, I forgot to mention the other day—they did put a sensor on the temporary door. You just need to call them when the new door comes in so they can replace it with a permanent one.”

  He told her more about the alarm, then the conversation transitioned to his work. Security at the club was shorthanded, and he’d been filling in every now and then.

  Natalie lay back on the fluffy white comforter on the bed. “It sounds like you’re enjoying the change from bartending. Are you thinking about changing jobs?”

  “No, that wouldn’t be good. Enough questions about me. What about you and this new account? Are you looking forward to working on it?”

  “I didn’t say I got it.”

  “I know you did. When you get back, we’ll celebrate.”

  The confidence in his tone made her grin. “I can’t wait.”

  “You still on track to fly out on the red-eye from San Diego tonight?”

  “Yes, and I’m so ready to go.”

  She’d land in Baltimore by eight fifteen Saturday morning. That would give her almost a full day and a half before the pet taxi Dorian had hired would pick Betsy up on Sunday to take her to his place in Richmond.

  Rome had just mentioned celebrating. Maybe that would help her not feel so depressed about Betsy leaving and ease some of the sadness about her and Rome going their separate ways.

  “You know,” Rome said, “I’m free in the morning. I could pick you up from the airport.”

  Her phone buzzed with another call. It was Spencer.

  “Can you hold on a minute? My boss is on the other line. He’s probably calling to tell me what time the car is taking us to the airport. This won’t take long.”

  “Sure.”

  Natalie answered the other call. “Hi, Spencer.”

  “Hope you haven’t gotten too comfortable,” he said. “Carolyn Murray flew back early. We’re meeting her and Aaron in the hotel lounge for happy hour at six, and then we’re all going to dinner.”

  Natalie glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was only three thirty in the afternoon. That left plenty of time for her to pack and maybe even sneak in a nap beforehand. “So we’re leaving the restaurant and heading straight to the airport, I guess?”

  “No. Change of plans. We’re not leaving until tomorrow. Since Carolyn is back in town, we’re hanging with the Gull Beach crew tonight. Then we have an early meeting with Carolyn tomorrow to hear her thoughts about the campaign. We’ll catch a late-morning flight out after that.”

  “Oh…” A late-morning flight wouldn’t get her back home until late Saturday night.

  “Is there a problem? Did you have plans for the weekend?”

  “No…not at all. I’ll see you at six.” Natalie ended the call with Spencer and switched to the line with Rome. She couldn’t keep dismay from creeping into her voice. “I’m back.”

  …

  Rome ended the call with Natalie. She wasn’t coming home early Saturday as planned.

  As he set his phone on the kitchen counter, he tapped cancel on the order he’d started to make on the bakery website open on his laptop. He was going to surprise her with pastries and his kickass mimosas. Now, that idea was out, and she probably wouldn’t be up for celebrating anything on Sunday, considering Betsy was leaving.

  Yeah, it was official—he was really starting to hate Natalie’s ex.

  But even if Betsy wasn’t going with Dorian, technically, their extended fling was over. She’d set a time limit—until the security system was installed. Maybe he shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to get it done. But what was best for her had to take priority. Priorities. That was second on the list of things he was officially starting to hate.

  Rome’s bad mood followed him to the club. Dropped glasses, spilled drinks, mixed-up orders—he couldn’t get his shit together, and his leg ached like hell.

  The minute he was done with his shift, he headed straight down the back hallway to the exit leading to the employee parking lot.

  Outside on the way to his car, he took a long breath. He just wanted to go to his condo and sleep. Wait. No, he couldn’t. Betsy. He had to take her out early in the morning. And he’d volunteered to keep watching her until Natalie got back. He didn’t mind. What he did mind was that there was an expiration date looming over his and Natalie’s time together. He could try to convince her that she owed him the days that she’d been gone. But would she go for it?

  “Hey, Rome.” Logan caught up to him in the parking lot. “Damn. Tonight was crazy busy. Wasn’t it?”

  “It was a typical Friday night.”

  “I made decent tips. What about you?”

  Not in the mood for chitchat, Rome called up the last of his patience. He owed the guy some basic conversation. On the day that Natalie’s alarm was installed, it had taken longer than expected. Logan had covered for him for a couple of hours.

  Rome slowed down. “Yeah, it was the same for me.”

  Logan matched his pace. “Hey, do you remember the redhead I was talking to at the Breakup Bash?

  Was Logan serious? He’d talked to at least a dozen different redheads that night. “Vaguely.”

  “Well, I hooked up with her. We got along okay, so I kept seeing her.”

  “By getting along, you mean the sex was good.”

  Logan grinned. “Once she realized hookup sex was much more exciting than vanilla married sex, she flipped the script and turned into a freak.”

  “Sounds like your thing.”

  “It was, but now there’s a problem.” Logan held up his phone and showed him a Facebook profile. “She just announced that we’re no longer in a relationship and that she’s with some other dude. I never agreed that we were in a relationship, but I let her post stuff because she wanted to get back at her ex-husband. Now, I look like the loser she broke up with. I should have read the signs.”

  As Rome got closer to his SUV, he took out his car keys, planning to say goodbye to Logan.

  But, clearly not ready for the conversation to end, Logan followed Rome instead of walking to his car farther down.

  He looked so fucking bummed and friendless that guilt won out, prompting Rome to
keep talking to him. “What signs?”

  As they paused next to Rome’s SUV, Logan ticked them off on his fingers.

  “You know. Just divorced but still tangled up in her ex-husband’s life. Claims she’s over the relationship, but then she’s intent on making him jealous. Off-the-charts sex anytime, anywhere.”

  Rome had been half-listening, but that last one got his attention. Amazing sex was definitely part of what he and Natalie shared.

  “Oh, and then there’s the kiss of death. She’s into you until she decides she doesn’t need you anymore, and you fucking get kicked to the curb for more time with her girlfriends, another guy, or even her job.” He released a derisive snort. “Yeah, you don’t have to tell me I’m stupid. I let her use me as her fucking rebound guy.”

  On the way to Natalie’s house, Logan’s list kept playing through Rome’s mind. Yes, she was recently divorced and still connected to her ex-husband, but not by choice, and she’d never shown an interest in making her ex-husband jealous. A big check mark for off-the-charts sex. That was two out of three so far. And the kiss of death…she hadn’t chosen her job over him, exactly. The San Diego trip was a last-minute thing, and she’d been looking forward to coming back and celebrating with him, until her boss had changed the schedule.

  No. His situation with Natalie was different. He wasn’t her rebound guy. Or was he?

  He reached her house at three in the morning. Drained from a long day, after he checked on Betsy, he showered, pulled on a pair of shorts he’d left there, then lay on the couch. Even though he was tired, he couldn’t sleep. The damn list kept popping up.

  When fatigue finally won, vivid dreams of Natalie in her bed, screaming out her orgasm with some other guy drove him awake. Sleep-deprived, he walked Betsy.

  Natalie had set the rule of them ending things once her alarm system was installed. That was done. She didn’t need him anymore. And that thought he had about trying to claim she owed him the past few days that she’d been gone? That didn’t fit anywhere into what they originally agreed upon for their short-term fling. He needed to let things end just as they’d planned.

  A short time later, as he set the alarm on “stay” so Betsy could freely run around the house, he felt like hell. If ending things with Natalie was the best thing for both of them, why did it feel like the worse decision he ever made?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Natalie closed her eyes, pretending that she was on a warm, pleasant beach, instead of squeezed in the middle seat in coach on a plane.

  The guy in the aisle seat to her right insisted on manspreading while hogging the armrest. The elderly woman sitting in the window seat to her left had talked for an hour straight after the plane had taken off about the six grandkids she’d just visited.

  Pretending to be falling asleep had been the only way Natalie had been able to isolate herself from feeling closed in, as well as cut off conversation with the chatty woman.

  Only four and a half hours until I’m home, after I reach Atlanta. That included a brief layover, the two-hour flight to Baltimore, and the one-hour Lyft ride home. After a hot shower, she’d grab a glass of wine and snuggle with Betsy all night. It would be the perfect ending to a long Saturday. Well, almost perfect. Betsy was leaving her the next day, and Rome wasn’t coming by after work that night. When she’d talked to him before she’d gotten on the plane in San Diego that morning, he’d sounded distant. Yesterday, he’d mentioned wanting to celebrate with her, but he’d obviously changed his mind. Was he tired of helping her out? Or maybe he just had other things he wanted to do besides hang out at her place?

  The chatterbox in the window seat nudged her. “Did you feel that?” The woman’s second nudge confirmed she wouldn’t let Natalie feign sleep any longer.

  “Feel what?”

  “The flight has suddenly gotten bumpy.”

  As if on cue, the plane slightly shuddered.

  Natalie gave the older woman a polite smile. “Maybe a little.”

  “I wonder if we’re heading into bad weather. You know, the last time I was on a flight and that happened…”

  No. Not again. Minutes into the woman’s second longwinded worst-flight-ever story, Natalie stopped giving the perfunctory “huh,” “oh really,” “that’s strange, interesting, or too bad” responses.

  Numbed by word fatigue, Natalie’s eyelids honestly started to droop, but the woman didn’t seem to notice. No one on earth should have that much crappy karma. Hopefully, her luck wasn’t contagious.

  A loud ding sounding in the plane cabin startled Natalie awake.

  Seconds later, the captain’s voice came over the intercom system. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going through a bit of choppy air. For the rest of our flight to Atlanta, I’m going to ask that you keep your seat belts fastened…”

  The woman nodded knowingly. “See. I knew it. Bad weather. Maybe this time, the cheapskates will give me a damn voucher.”

  The plane landed an hour later, after circling the airport due to an uptick in strong winds and incoming rain.

  Getting out of the aircraft took forever. Natalie hurriedly wheeled her luggage down the passenger bridge to the gate exit door and found a monitor on the wall.

  The words flashing on the screen made her heart sink. Flight delayed.

  …

  Rome rang up the charge for two beers and handed the change back to the customer. Without a 2-4-1 or some other special going on at the club, the seven-at-night Saturday crowd was small. That made it even more tempting to keep checking the time on his phone as he thought about Natalie’s flight schedule. No, he wasn’t going by her house later, but that didn’t mean he didn’t care if she made it back safely or not. That’s why he’d asked her to text him when she landed.

  He served up three cocktails to customers at the bar, then worked on a multiple-drink order a server brought to him. As he added the last raspberry Cosmo to the tray, his phone buzzed in the back pocket of his jeans. He intended to just give his phone a quick glance, but the message from Natalie snared him.

  Flight cancelled.

  That wasn’t good. Where was she—Atlanta? He couldn’t slip out and call her to find out until the bartender scheduled to work with him showed up. But that was in about a half hour. No texting or calling from behind the bar. That was the rule. Still, he fired off a quick text before serving the customers flagging him down.

  Can’t talk now. Calling u in 20.

  She probably still wanted him to look in on Betsy. As soon as the other bartender arrived, he slipped into the service hallway and called her.

  She answered. “Rome…hi. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

  “You didn’t. I was working the bar by myself when I got your text. I had to wait until the other bartender got here before I could call. Are you stuck in Atlanta?”

  “Yeah, it’s the weather. I tried to leave tonight, but all flights are grounded. I can’t get out of here until eight thirty in the morning.”

  Fuck. He’d been there, stranded at some airport at the mercy of the next available flight. Right now, it had to be even more frustrating for her, considering she had a reason to get home. “I let Betsy out before I came to work. I can swing by again on my way home.”

  “No. You have plans. I already called Maya. She’s keeping Betsy at her place tonight and dropping her back home in the morning.”

  So…she hadn’t needed him after all. But he did mention to her that he had plans. “Good. Betsy’s taken care of.”

  “Yeah, and maybe I’ll get back in time to give her one last treat and tell her goodbye. A pet taxi is coming to pick her up at three.”

  She wasn’t fooling him. Natalie was trying for an optimistic tone, but she fell short. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be, when I get home.”

  He imagined her forcing a smile, but her eyes would give her away. “I have to get back to work. Text me with updates on your flight.”

  “Okay. Bye.”

  At ten in the
morning, he worked out in the first-floor gym in the high-rise where he lived. Sweat trickled down his back under his gray tank top as each bicep curl punctuated a thought about Natalie.

  She’d sent him a text that morning before she’d gotten on the plane. The flight time from Atlanta was a little less than two hours. Natalie would land soon. She’d make it home long before the service picked Betsy up. Right?

  When he finished his weight circuit, Rome tightened the Velcro on his soft knee brace and hopped on the elliptical machine.

  Behind him, a guy grunted loudly as he performed heavy squats on the Smith machine near the far wall.

  Needing a distraction from the guy and tracking Natalie’s flight progress in his head, Rome took his phone from the pocket of his black workout shorts, chose a random channel on his music app, and turned the volume up on his wireless earbuds.

  Before he’d gotten injured, he’d been that guy, banging out the heaviest weight possible until his muscles screamed for mercy. He’d always walked away from those intense sessions fired up, dialed in, and ready to work. In fact, the gym and the job had pretty much been his life.

  Now, it was entirely different. With physical therapy, he’d built himself up, but admittedly, he’d slacked off on doing all of the stretches and exercises the rehab specialist told him could make his leg stronger and keep his knee and hip from stiffening up.

  His phone rang, and he answered it through his earbuds. “Hello.”

  “Hi Rome. It’s Maya, Natalie’s dog sitter. Do you happen to know what time the pet taxi service was supposed to pick Betsy up today?”

  “At three.” He slowed down to a stop on the machine.

  “That’s what I thought. Natalie hadn’t mentioned a change to me about them coming early.”

  “Wait. Is someone at the house to pick her up now?”

  “Yeah, but I convinced the guy to make his other pickup and then come back. Great. Now Natalie’s ex-husband is calling me.” She released a harsh breath over the phone. “I can’t reach Natalie, and I don’t feel right handing over Betsy without her okay.”