How to Steal Your Best Friend's Fiancé (How to Rom Com Series Book 2)

by London Casey

  “So basically you can’t tell me a thing,” Jacob said.

  “I’m not responsible for you, kid. You are. For yourself.”

  “Can we get past this?” He asked.

  “Only you and Janelle can decide that,” I said.

  Jacob stuck his hand out.

  I shook it.

  “You’re a good kid, Jacob. You’re smart. Capable. You have a long life ahead of you.”

  “I know,” he said. “That’s why I’m quitting.”

  “Good.”

  “Can I tell you you’re a fucking prick and to shove your computer up your ass?”

  “If you do that, I’ll knock your teeth down your fucking throat,” I said.

  “Then I won’t say it,” Jacob said.

  I nodded to him and he ripped his tie off and ran to the door.

  As he left the office, I saw him with his phone in his hand.

  I hoped only the best for him and Janelle.

  Young love was tough.

  Any love was tough.

  I waited all those years for Emily.

  I hoped I never had to do it again.

  I walked into Emily’s bakery and made a line right for her.

  For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about Jacob and Janelle.

  A goddamn intern and his fiancée or whatever she was by then… stuck in my head.

  I thought about what would have happened that night with Emily and I if I hadn’t gotten chased away by the cops. If we had kissed. She would have moved away. Then what? Would we have made it work? Gone to college together? Then what?

  So many different paths that could have happened…

  Yet we were together now.

  I walked behind the counter and touched Emily’s arm.

  I looked at a woman placing her order.

  “Give me one second, ma’am,” I said to her. “Your order is on me.”

  I pulled Emily toward me and kissed her like a woman of her beauty should be kissed all day every day for the rest of their life.

  We got a few aww sounds, which I wasn’t going for.

  After a few seconds, I stopped kissing her.

  “I love you, babe,” I whispered.

  “Um, I love you too,” she said. “But I’m running a business.”

  I reached into my pocket and slipped Emily some money. “The next few orders are on me.”

  I walked away and waited for Lucy to come from the back and help with the register. When she saw me, she winked.

  All I could do was laugh.

  When Emily finished helping a few more customers, she snuck away and joined me at the small table I sat at.

  “What was that kiss about?” she asked.

  “Years in the making,” I said. “What are you doing tonight?”

  “Tonight… hopefully you.”

  I growled in my throat. “Fuck, babe. You know how much the smell of this bakery turns me on.”

  “Ember is in the back, so we can’t fuck there.”

  “Send her on a long lunch,” I said.

  “Oh, is someone feeling up to fooling around longer than a few minutes?”

  “You can’t say that with a straight face,” I said.

  “I know. It’s just fun to watch you squirm.”

  “I’d like to make you squirm right now too, babe,” I whispered.

  “Later,” Emily said. She stood up.

  “After dinner,” I said as I stood up.

  “Dinner?”

  “You and me. Jackson and Callie.”

  “Okay. I’d love that.”

  What? No fighting? No arguing? No hating Jackson?

  “Jackson is excited,” I said.

  “Why’s that?”

  I opened my mouth but collected myself.

  No bringing up that other person’s name.

  “Jackson gets excited by the clouds moving in the sky,” I said. “He’s a weirdo.”

  “Can’t wait for tonight,” Emily said.

  I moved closer to her and slid my right hand to the small of her back. “You have no idea what you mean to me, babe.”

  She put her hands to my chest. “You make me flustered, Liam. But I love you. Now let me get back to work.”

  I stole another kiss and watched Emily get back to work.

  She took a few deep breaths but her cheeks remained bright red.

  Tonight was going to be unforgettable.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Emily

  I went too far with the makeup.

  Way too far.

  As I stared at myself in the mirror, I heard circus music playing around me.

  I groaned.

  Makeup was not my thing. I didn’t banish it from my life, but I also didn’t do…

  This.

  I touched my cheeks.

  My coverup was a blanket on my face.

  I looked down at the sink and there were sprinkles of the coverup all over the sink and the faucet.

  That’s when I realized I was nervous.

  Nervous to go out with Liam.

  It seemed kind of dumb though.

  Liam and I had been spending almost every day together. And every night too. We told each other our feelings. We said we loved each other.

  I had met Jackson before. I knew how he was.

  It wasn’t even that.

  It wasn’t about Jackson and Callie.

  It was about Liam and I.

  This whole thing.

  I thought about what I was doing with my life.

  Running a struggling bakery. Singing on stage (which didn’t pay, but oh well).

  Somehow I connected the dots between all that and the makeup on my face.

  I put up a finger and stepped away from the sink.

  I swiped my phone off the edge of the sink, left the bathroom and made a run for the apartment door.

  No, I wasn’t taking off to another state to change my name, dye my hair, and forget about my life.

  I needed advice.

  After a short run, I stood outside Miss Crabapple’s door and knocked.

  She answered it with a smile on her face.

  “Emily,” she said.

  “I look like a clown.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “I don’t wear makeup. Help.”

  “You want me to do your makeup for you?” Miss Crabapple offered.

  “Yes, please.”

  “Wait right here,” she said.

  Miss Crabapple disappeared and returned with a wet paper towel.

  “This is all you need,” she said.

  “Meaning?”

  “Emily. You’re beautiful the way you are. I assume you’re trying something new because of Liam.”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I see the way that man looks at you. You don’t need makeup. You just need to be you. Be yourself.”

  “Not look like a clown?” I asked.

  “You do not look like a clown at all. But I can tell you’re flustered. What’s the big occasion tonight?”

  “I don’t know. There isn’t one. We’re just going out. I just…”

  “Ah,” Miss Crabapple said. “You’re happy. You deserve to be happy. Go be it.”

  I clutched the wet paper towel. “Thank you.”

  “I guess this means he’s declared his love for you?” Miss Crabapple asked.

  “Yes.”

  “So I better tame myself around him.”

  “You could,” I said.

  She smiled. “Have a good time tonight, Emily.”

  I looked at the wet paper towel and shook my head.

  I hurried back down to my apartment so I could clean myself up and just be me. Just be Emily. Just be Em.

  I shivered thinking about Liam calling me Em.

  I opened the door to my floor and took three steps before stopping.

  Somebody was at my apartment.

  Sitting on the floor.

  Their back against my door.

  I took a few
more steps and stopped again.

  I gasped.

  Miranda looked at me, her eyes filled with tears.

  “I need a drink, Emily,” she said in a low voice. “Right now, please.”

  Her voice cracked and I ran to the cabinet to get wine.

  I opened the bottle and casually kept looking at Miranda.

  She was in my apartment, at my counter.

  She had been here before. Plenty of times.

  This shouldn’t have been anything out of the ordinary… other than the fact that I was in love with the guy she had once said she was going to marry.

  But they’re done. They broke up. The engagement ended. This isn’t…

  It was.

  There was no hiding from it.

  This was bad. Maybe.

  I poured the glass of wine and Miranda chugged it.

  She put the glass down and nodded for more.

  I poured her more.

  “H-how are… I mean…” I cleared my throat. “What are you doing here?”

  “I had to come back to see it for myself,” she said.

  “See what?”

  “See that it was real. It’s all over. I don’t even know how this happened, Emily.”

  I licked my lips. “I heard about the engagement ring. I should have called or something. I didn’t know… I mean with us… things really haven’t been much of a friendship, you know?”

  Miranda nodded. “I know, Emily. That’s my fault. It’s that damn building. And it’s Liam. It’s been so hard for me. All I’ve tried to do is fight back and stand my ground.”

  She drank the second glass of wine.

  My heart twisted.

  Now she comes to apologize?

  “Look,” Miranda said as she slid the empty glass toward me for more wine. “Forget about everything, Emily. The building. The charges. I can’t live like this anymore. The truth is, my only option is to just get rid of it all. But if I do that, then your business could get shut down.”

  “I don’t want to talk about this,” I said. “I hate talking about this. I hate that you bought that building and convinced me to stay there. I knew it was a bad deal but I wanted to help you.”

  “Wow. I’ve never heard you talk like that.”

  “I’m not talking about it again,” I said. “You’re here because…”

  Miranda stood up and took a deep breath. Just like that, she had full composure.

  She took her glass of wine and paced for a few seconds.

  “Everything was there for me,” she said. “The city. The job offers. It was too good to be true. Yet I had something in me… I needed an answer. I needed to know-”

  Miranda stopped herself and stared at me.

  My fight or flight tried to kick in, wanting me to run.

  There was no more running for me.

  Emily wasn’t a doormat anymore.

  “You’re all dolled up,” she said. “You’re going out tonight.”

  “I had plans…”

  “And I just show up like this. Let me get out of your hair, Emily.”

  “Miranda, stop,” I said. “I can cancel plans or change them.”

  “You look pretty.”

  “I look terrible,” I said.

  I walked to the kitchen and started to wash all the extra makeup off my face.

  It also gave me a second to gasp for a deep breath because fucking Miranda was in my fucking apartment.

  “Do you want to know why I’m really here?” Miranda asked.

  I took a handful of paper towels and dried my face.

  I turned to face her and nodded.

  “He never chased me down,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “Liam. When we were first dating and getting serious, he would always chase me down.”

  “Chase you down?”

  “If we argued. I would run away. I would say mean things. I would do anything to hurt him. And he always came after me.”

  “You hurt him…?”

  Miranda nodded. “It was my way of testing him.”

  “You did that all these years?”

  “Of course. But this time when it counted the most… nothing.”

  “Miranda…”

  “Just listen to me,” she said. She drank more wine. I knew where this was going already… “Just listen, Emily. We had a huge argument over the phone. We both said we didn’t want to get married to each other. How can that be true? We didn’t do anything for the wedding together. Then he didn’t call me so I sent the ring back. I wanted to see what he would do. Because the Liam I knew would find me. And put that ring back on my finger.”

  My heart was done twisting.

  Now it was racing.

  I was feeling a mixture of anger and guilt.

  This new feeling wasn’t that great at all.

  “That meant he got the ring and just ignored it. Ignored me. Ignored us.” Miranda groaned and wiped her cheeks with her free hand. “I’m not letting that happen.”

  She chugged the rest of what was her third glass of wine.

  And when she tried to put it on the counter, she missed completely, letting the glass fall to the floor and shatter.

  “I’ll find out the truth,” Miranda said as she walked away without even offering to clean up the mess she made.

  I looked down at the broken glass and nodded.

  This wasn’t Miranda’s mess.

  This was my mess.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Liam

  I had a drink as I looked around the apartment.

  Tonight I was going to talk to Emily about finding our own place together. Unless, of course, she wanted to stay in her building. If that were the case, then I’d get my own place until she was ready.

  Or, shit, maybe I’d pull a Jackson and Callie and become Emily’s neighbor.

  Whatever it was, I was going to get out of this place and put everything in the past where it belonged.

  All that mattered was going for-

  My phone screamed with a text.

  I saw Emily’s name and smiled.

  Miranda is here. She’s drunk. You need to get here RIGHT NOW.

  I put my phone down and shut my eyes.

  When I opened them, I told myself the text message was going to be different.

  It was going to be Emily telling me she loved me. Or a dirty text about my cock. Or maybe a dirty picture from her.

  Nope.

  It was the same text message.

  I started to reply with questions that weren’t Emily’s to answer.

  So I deleted the text before sending it.

  I sent a different text.

  I’m on my way right now.

  There were a million thoughts going through my head on the ride to Emily’s place.

  The one thing that could cause problems between Emily and I was here.

  Miranda.

  My past.

  My regrettable past, in a sense.

  All I wanted was to steal as much of Emily’s time as I could and make up for all those years we had lost.

  I knew I had to deal with Miranda at some point, but in typical Miranda fashion, she showed up and made it about herself.

  When I stepped out of the car and walked into the building, my emotions were scattered all around me.

  I already had to text Jackson and cancel tonight.

  He wanted to know if Emily and I were too busy fucking each other’s brains out. I replied that Miranda was in town.

  His reply?

  Fuck.

  That was my reaction too.

  I knocked on Emily’s door and when she opened it, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the apartment.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I whispered.

  Emily shoved at my chest. “She fucking showed up. I was getting ready to go out with you and she showed up. She’s drunk. I can’t get her to stop drinking wine or talking. I told her I was calling you.”

  “I’m supposed to go into y
our apartment and do what?” I asked.

  “It’s your ex.”

  “Your best friend.”

  “No,” Emily said. “Not even close.”

  “I’m not standing in there with her. Your apartment…”

  “I’m going up to the roof,” Emily said. “Alone. Do what you have to do, Liam.”

  She took a step and I touched her arm. “Em. I’m so sorry about this.”

  “I know,” she said.

  I moved to block her path. “Hey. I love you, babe.”

  I reached for her face and she moved my hands away in a hurry. “Go deal with her. I can’t be mixed up in this anymore. I can’t believe I was to begin with. Look at me, Liam. The new Emily? This is who I am!”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said. “This is just… I don’t know. It’s residual. It’s my mistake.”

  “Well, your mistake is on my couch.”

  When Emily turned and walked away, I felt like someone crushed my heart with their hand.

  “Emily?” Miranda’s voice said.

  Except her voice was like Eee-mmm-eee-lleee…

  I gritted my teeth.

  I had no choice.

  I had to face Miranda.

  All I wanted to do was to run away with Emily.

  Miranda looked at me and burst into tears.

  I slowly shut the apartment door.

  “Miranda, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I came to my best friend’s place to vent,” she yelled. “Because I didn’t want to face you!”

  “You’re drunk.”

  “I have to be. How can I mask the pain otherwise?”

  “The pain…?”

  Miranda stood up. She put her hands out to keep her balance. “You never came after me.”

  “What?”

  “Why didn’t you come to Boston?”

  “I told you I was busy with work…”

  “Not at the beginning,” she said, her drunk eyes shutting, staying shut for a second or two, then opening. “I meant now. Right now.”

  “If I was in Boston now, I wouldn’t find you.”

  “What?”

  I opened my mouth. “Nothing. It was a joke.”

  “Oh, I’m a joke to you?”