Speed Dating (Speed Dating #1)
Page 1
Copyright © 2014 by Tabatha Vargo
All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any hat manor whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events or real people are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Speed Dating Series/Tabatha Vargo/Dawn Robertson/Melissa Andrea
Formatting by Inkstain Interior Book Designing
Cover Art by Cover It Designs
ALSO BY TABATHA VARGO
Little Black Book- co-written with Melissa Andrea
On the Plus Side
Hot and Heavy—Coming Soon!
Playing Patience (Zeke)
Perfecting Patience 1.5 (Zeke)
Finding Faith (Finn)
Convincing Constance (Tiny)
Having Hope (Chet)—Coming Soon!
Wicked Fate
Wicked Hope –Coming Soon!
The Wrath of Sin- co-written with Melissa Andrea
STALK TABATHA VARGO
www.tabathavargo.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/tabathadvargo
www.twitter.com/tabathavargo
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MORE FROM DAWN!
Hers
Finding Willow
Kink the Halls (Novella)
This Girl Stripped
Seven's Diary (Novella)
His (Coming Late 2014)
Take Me Out
Crashed
The Good Girl
Statistic
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BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MORE FROM MELISSA!
The Edge of Darkness
The Grace in Darkness
A Darkness Wedding, Novella – Coming Soon
The Beauty in Darkness – Coming Soon
Flutter
Shatter – Coming Soon
Little Black Book
(Co-Written w/ Tabatha Vargo)
A Mortal Sin Novel
The Wrath of Sin
(Co-Written w/ Tabatha Vargo)
EXPOSED
Volume 1 – Coming Soon
Stalk Melissa Andrea
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www.melissaAndrea.com
Chapter1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
To all the women who are searching for the one and not finding him: You have to dig deep to find a rare gem, which means finding lots of clumps of dried up shit and clay rocks first.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. My fiancé, the man I’d been with since high school, was in our bed, and he wasn’t alone. Instead, he was bent over, mouth open in ecstasy, while another man probed him repeatedly in the ass.
Oh, it was happening. I hadn’t had a stroke and passed out. As far as I knew I wasn’t seizing. No. It was a total nightmare, but very real.
Words I’d never heard Bryan say fell from his lips.
“Yes, fuck me, baby.”
Baby being the burly man who was grasping Bryan’s hips and lunging his large body back and forth. The name baby didn’t suit him at all. It was all kinds of wrong.
I wanted to turn around and run away. I wanted to go back to work where the only thing I had to worry about was the coffee stain on my blouse, but I just stood there while the man I loved took a penis in a way I never had.
“Bryan?”
His name felt wrong. Altered—as if I’d never known a man named Bryan in my life. As if we hadn’t spent the last seven years together.
The smacking sounds that filled the room ceased and I stood there in the doorway of my bedroom while the two looked back at me like two dogs in need of a good spray with a water hose.
“Jules?” Bryan said.
He said it in the form of a question. As if he didn’t know me.
“What’s going on, Bryan?” I asked.
They say there’s no such thing as a dumb question, but I knew I had just asked one. It was especially obvious when Bryan and his man friend looked at each other before turning pity filled eyes on me again. It would go down in the history of dumb questions.
It was obvious what was going on, yet somehow I needed to hear him say it. I’d never been more certain I was losing my mind.
“Jules, this isn’t how I wanted you to find out,” he said, pulling the sheet around his waist and maneuvering himself off the bed while his friend sat back and pulled my fuzzy blanket over his lap. Damn it! That was my favorite blanket!
“Is covering yourself supposed to make this less—” my hands moved up and down as I searched for the right words to describe what was happening, “appalling?”
“Let’s go into the living room.” He was pushing me out of the room and into the hallway while shutting the door behind him.
I wanted to ask if I was making his friend uncomfortable, but my tongue felt too big for my mouth and I couldn’t get the words out.
An hour later, I sat on the couch and tried to come to terms with everything that was going on around me. Bryan’s words reached my ears, but not my brain.
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“I’m saying this isn’t working for me anymore. It hasn’t been working for a long time, Jules.”
The words cut through my stomach leaving me feeling as if I were bleeding internally. The look in his green eyes was ice cold. I wasn’t used to him being so callous.
An hour ago he was treating me like I was going to shatter, but now he was holding the hammer as he stared uncaringly at the pieces of what was left of me.
The Bryan I fell in love with seven years before didn’t have a mean bone in his body, yet there he was, casually breaking my heart.
“It hasn’t been working for a long time?” I was flabbergasted.
He sighed. “No, and I think you know that, Jules.”
I’d known something was up, but catching him with another man, and then later seeing his bags packed by the couch was far beyond what I was thinking,
The apartment looked empty without his sports memorabilia crap everywhere. I could see down the hallway how empty our bedroom looked. We’d moved in together, picked the carpet out together, yet he packed up all his stuff like he couldn’t get away fast enough.
Yeah. It sucked, and there was nothing I could do or say to make him stay. Trust me, I tried. Even after catching him with another man, I tried. It made me pathetic. It made me stupid. It made me desperate. It was embarrassing how weak he made me.
I shook my head, “I didn’t expect this, Bryan.”
Things like this didn’t happen to me. Sure, it happened to those women on Maury or the Lifetime Network, but not me.
His flat screen had been taken out of the living room making the wall it used to be attached to look bare. Cords fell from the entertainment shelf where his electronics and gaming systems used to be. Looking away from the mess in the room around me, I tried to figure out exactly what he wa
s saying.
“What’s not working anymore?” I asked, swallowing hard.
Part of me felt like I should have left well enough alone, but this was like a car accident and I couldn’t look away much less stop asking questions. I was beyond baffled.
Honestly, even with the few doubts I’d had, I was still surprised by everything. I thought our relationship was perfect. At least as perfect as a relationship could get. We had our disagreements on occasion, but nothing to end things over. Or send him running into the arms of another man.
Evidently I was wrong, and that hurt. It hurt even worse how nonchalant he was being about the whole thing. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe, and yet there he was, saying cutting words as if he couldn’t care less… as if he’d never felt anything for me.
We’d only been together since our senior year of high school. He was only the only man I’d ever slept with—all I knew in the way of relationships.
“Let’s just leave it at that, Jules.”
“I want to know,” I demanded.
He gave me a look like I was on my own. “It’s the sex. I’m sorry, Julia, but it’s boring. We’re not teenagers anymore. I have needs and you’re not fulfilling them,” he chuckled uncomfortably.
He chuckled. The bastard had the nerve to chuckle as if we were having a discussion about our favorite food or some stupid unimportant crap like that. It was another slap in the face. He was giving me a serious case of whoop ass and all I could do was sit there and listen. I secretly imagined myself ripping his eyes out with my nails before ripping out his vocal cords.
“Boring?” I asked. “You think I’m boring in bed?”
Sure, our sex life had slowed down a bit since I started working again, but I thought we had good sex. There was nothing too freaky or crazy, since I’d always thought Bryan wasn’t into that. Boy was I ever wrong.
“I’m ready to try new things. Things you wouldn’t be into. I don’t know. I think maybe I’d like to be with other men and women. I just know this isn’t working anymore. I’m sorry.”
Suddenly I felt very angry. I should have been angry the moment I caught Bryan, but I was finally playing catch up and I was ready to raise hell. I had finally reached my melt down point.
“Don’t you think I had the right to know about this before I caught you getting ass pounded by another man in my bed?” I nearly screamed, jumping up from the couch.
I felt a quick moment of triumph when Bryan jumped and his eyes widened in response.
“Maybe if you had told me the kind of things you were into I could have strapped on a big dildo for you every now and again. Maybe then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
His cheeks burned a bright red and that only added to my victory.
“Get out,” I growled.
He actually had the balls to look confused. “What?”
“I said get out. Get your crap—” I managed to pick up two of his smaller bags and throw them at the door of the apartment, “and get out!”
He actually looked afraid of me and I wanted to laugh, but I knew that would turn into crying and I didn’t want to break down any more than I already was in front of him
I was done being weak and boring.
The next day I skipped work and spent the day in bed. My empowerment was short lived and twenty-four hours later I found myself drowning in post my-fiancé-left-me-for-another-man-break up junk food. It involved a ton of chocolate, Kardashian re-runs, and bad soap operas. The same soap operas that resembled my life. I had a lot to think about seeing as I really didn’t know how to be single. I hadn’t been alone for a long time.
By the time the sun went down and the moon took its place, I’d cried all I could and I was determined to make the best of a very shitty situation. I still had my friends and co-workers. I still had my life, even if Bryan wasn’t in it. Maybe I’d be better off without him.
He wanted to see other people? Fine, I’d see other people. He wanted crazy, wild sex? Fine, I’d be the wildest nympho he’d ever met. I’d show him what he walked away from. He’d regret the moment he told me we were over.
“And you asked him to stay even though you caught him with another man balls deep in his ass?”
Leave it to Sadie to clarify the situation so nicely.
“Yes. I know that makes me stupid, but I kept thinking that maybe it would just be a phase,” I said.
“Sweetie, men don’t just randomly go through phases where they suddenly desire getting ass fucked. I’m pretty sure this is something he’ll always be into.”
I groaned. “I know. I hate this,” I said, running my fingers through my greasy hair. “I did redeem myself though. I demanded that he get out and I even threw around some of his stuff.”
She gave me a smile. “Good. I would have broken something of his, too, but that’s just me.”
“He said I was boring, Sadie,” I admitted, trying not to curl into a ball hearing his words echo in my memories. “Maybe if I had a penis I wouldn’t be boring.”
“Jules, not having a penis doesn’t make you boring, it makes you a female. Fuck him. I never liked him anyway,” Sadie said, dipping her spoon into the pint of ice cream we were sharing.
She came over after I didn’t answer my phone for two days. Apparently, she’d heard through the grapevine what happened since she showed up at my house with ice cream, a few of my favorite comedies, and a bag of popcorn.
I could only imagine the terrible things people were saying about me and Bryan. Oh that poor Jules. Who knew Bryan was using her to stay in the closet all these years? That boy had more style than her, it was clear as day. He was on the wrestling team, which should have been a red flag. Blah blah blah!
“I have no idea what to do with myself. It’s weird. I’ve always had everything together and now everything feels scattered,” I said around the cold wad of cookies and cream on my tongue.
“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to pull yourself together, wash your ass, brush your teeth, and get back on the horse. Because seriously, bitch, you stink.”
I loved Sadie, but she was my complete opposite. She was rough to my soft, wild to my tame, and together I was sure we made the perfect woman, but I couldn’t even think about moving on. Not until I had a proper grieving period. I say grieving because splitting up with someone you’d been with for a huge chunk of your life felt like the equivalent of losing a loved one.
“I’m not ready,” I stated.
“Sweetie, the only way to get over one man is to get under another,” she said.
Sitting up, she grabbed a hair tie from my bedside table and pulled her blond hair out of her face.
It had always been easy for Sadie. She was tall, leggy, and hot. Then again, she wasn’t much for settling down with anyone. Maybe she had it right. Living the way she lived she was sure to never get her heart broken.
“I’m not like you, Sadie. I can’t just jump from one man’s bed to another.” She looked over at me like I was a crazy and I held my hands up and smiled. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Bryan’s the only man I’ve ever been with. I wouldn’t know where to start with another man.”
“That’s just it. You say you guys had a great sex life, but really, how could you know that? You need to go out and try on some guys, find out what you like. Consider it a rite of passage. We’re grown women and there’s nothing wrong with us experimenting. Men do it all the time.”
Her words sank in and something nasty settled in the pit of my stomach.
“Do you think Bryan was experimenting before I caught him? Do you think he’s been cheating this whole time?”
I’d always thought it was weird that he worked late nights in his line of business. I mean seriously, how late can a doctor’s office stay open? He was a nurse and there were many nights he didn’t get home until almost midnight.
Looking back wasn’t lying from the start. Most women would have picked up on it, but apparently I wanted to t
hink he would never do something like that to me. Yep. Complete asshole.
The look on her face gave me my answer before she now, I’m a total asshole for thinking he even spoke.
“Oh, honey. I don’t want to make it worse, but you can bet your sweet, sexy ass he’s been getting ass pumped for a while. I didn’t want to say anything, but I mean seriously, babe, what doctor’s office do you know stays open until midnight?”
She took the words right from my thoughts and I knew she was right. She usually was when it came to men.
Three days later, on the way out to put some normalcy back into my life, I saw Bryan holding hands with another woman. He held the door open as she stepped into the restaurant. She was tall and leggy, the total opposite of me. And in that moment, Sadie didn’t sound so crazy. It was time I started to live for me.
I wanted to keep driving—ignore Bryan and whoever the bimbo was, but I couldn’t. The inner crazy I had been battling for days reared its ugly head once again. I found myself swinging my car over to the side of the road with screeching tires. Thankfully, there was no one coming. If there had been, the only attention I would’ve gotten was the police having my trashed car towed away after I got creamed.
Rational thought slipped away from me and was replaced by a Britney Spears sized meltdown. I swung my car door open, taking out a man on a bicycle in the process. Instead of apologizing to the man, I yelled at him.
“There’s a sidewalk here for a reason!”
I think he called me a bitch. I couldn’t hear past the roaring rage in my ears. My sanity was officially gone.
All eyes fell on me when I pulled open the door of the fancy, upscale restaurant. I’m sure it had more to do with the way I looked and less to do with the loud crashing sound the door made when it hit the wall.