Everyday I'm Shuffling: Book 2 Ch. 02

🎼Wrecking Ball

Forrest : So your relationship didn't survive Vegas?

I smiled at the text message Forrest sent me. He was a relatively new friend I met through my job when I moved back to Texas. I was still getting to know him and his fiancee Rachel, but I appreciated his straightforwardness and his unique way of checking up on me without making me feel pitiful.

Me: Shut it Forrest! 😂😭💀 Vegas was great, coming home was the problem.

Forrest: Good to know! We were planning a coed bachelor/bachelorette trip to Vegas, but not if it's a relationship killer. How are you doing?

Me: I'm doing alright 🤷🏽‍♀️ Coed party? Super lame. Can't y'all have that apart? You will have the rest of your lives together.

Forrest: Lol true but we have the same friends from college, so we decided to plan a group trip. Still coming to Darren's game this week?

Me: Sure will!

Forrest: Cool. Talk to you then.

"Hey, I'm ready." Jordan called to me from the waiting area.

I put my phone back in my purse and followed her out. While I waited for her to get off work, I responded to Forrest's text. Rachel was one of the ones that texted me right when the breakup happened, but this was my first time talking to Forrest about it. I was glad he didn't push for details. He called Jake's behavior out as problematic a long time ago too. I should have listened.

Jordan and I were going to my apartment to get dressed to meet Derek, Steven, and Q at Twin Peaks. Q's girlfriend worked at the location in Addison and Jordan asked me to join them. It sounded so much more fun than TV and the grilled chicken I set out for dinner, so I agreed. Instead of driving all the way back to her apartment and then to Addison, I offered to loan her an outfit so we could change at my place.

While she rummaged through my clothes, we caught up. Jordan was contemplating moving in with Derek.

"I don't know Lily. I really want to, but I don't know if he wants to." Jordan explained, looking through my dresses.

"Who brought it up?" I asked, wiggling into a pair of denim skinny jeans. I paired it with a white, off-the-shoulder blouse and black booties.

"He did, only after I told him my lease was up next year. I told him the rent was increasing, and I didn't think it was worth it and he was like 'wanna move in?'" Jordan said.

"OK... What did you say?" I asked.

"That I'll think about it."

"I don't know if anyone should take relationship advice from me, but you want to. He offered. Why not just go for it?"

"Because I don't know if he offered because he feels like I was fishing for it and he thinks that he has to. You should have seen his face when his mom asked us if we were getting married." She said, shaking her head.

"Geez, subtle mom."

"There is nothing subtle about her, at all. I just said there was no rush, but you know how guys are."

I gave Jordan a smirk. "I kept a boyfriend for like a month. I really don't."

"Aw, I'm sorry. I'm being a bitch. How are you doing?"

"Better. I'd rather talk about when you and Derek are getting married." I teased.

"Now you're being a bitch." Jordan smiled. "Wow, these are interesting." She said, holding up black harem pants- the ones I wore on the first night Jake and I slept together.

"Wanna wear them?" I said, forcing away the memories of that night.

"I don't think I can pull them off." She put them away and pulled out black shorts and a white button-down.

I went downstairs as she got dressed.

"Sammy!?!" I called. I found her in the kitchen talking on the phone.

"Hey Corey, Lily needs me. I'll give you a call-" Sammy said before I stopped her.

"No, it's cool. We're going out to eat. You and Corey should join us!"

Sammy gave me an annoyed look, but she told Corey she would call him back with details.

"Where and who?" She sighed.

"Work friends, including Jordan, at Twin Peaks."

"Do you know what Twin Peaks is?"

"No..."

"It's a Hooter's knock-off." She informed me.

I grinned. "Sounds fun!"

After Sammy got dressed, we headed out together. Derek, Q, Steven, and Corey were already seated. There was an extra seat for Kendal. I wasn't aware he was joining us.

"I didn't know you lived in Addison." Q said to me as I sat down.

"You never asked." I replied.

"My girlfriend lives here too. We hang out here all the time." Q said.

"Cool. My new favorite bar is down a block. It's called Memphis"

"Never been." He said.

Q's girlfriend, Yolanda, came to take our order. We just ordered beers since we were waiting for Kendal.

I asked Steven about his job at the children's hospital. He was telling me how different it was working with children and their parents. He said it was tougher than he imagined. He had just finished telling me about a 6-year-old with cerebral palsy when Kendal arrived. He took the seat next to Q.

"You drove all the way to Denton?" Q asked him.

"Yeah, I didn't wanna come out in workout gear." Kendal shrugged. He looked nice in gray cargo pants and a fitted v-neck white t-shirt.

We all ordered food and chatted amongst ourselves.

"So what do you think about Sandra?" Derek asked me.

"I think she's ok-" I started when Q snickered. "Different, but no complaints." I finished.

"I heard you're her go-to girl now." Steven smiled at me. I gave Q a dirty look.

"I volunteered to work more to keep my mind off my breakup." I said, matter of factly. "I figured that would be more productive than busting the windows out of his car."

"No, not the Escalade. Don't do that." Q commented while they laughed.

"Sounds like a douche. Any guy that drives a car like that is compensating for something." Kendal added.

Whoa. He was a little too new to the circle to be making comments like that.

"We just broke up. I'm not at the talk shit about him stage yet." I said, coolly.

"Keep drinking. We'll get you there." Sammy encouraged me.

I forced a smile and took a huge gulp of my beer.

-----------

After dinner, Q talked me into taking them to my favorite bar. His girlfriend Yolanda, Sammy, Kendal, Corey, Derek, and Jordan all went too. I wasn't planning on drinking, but they had a happy hour on shots and Q was buying rounds, so I drank.

I had so much fun dancing to the cover band, taking shots, and hanging out with everyone. I didn't once worry about making a fool of myself or sending the wrong message to guys. I just had a good time. I hadn't felt that good in forever. I felt... free.

"How did you find this place?" Sammy laughed at me, as the band took a break and we made our way to the bar. We left the group to dance to the 2000s pop classics. We didn't stop till the band stopped.

"Jake and I came here. I spent the whole night dancing in my chair so Jake wouldn't get pissed off if a guy danced with me." I blurted out as we sat. We went to the bar and ordered more drinks.

"He sucks so fucking much." Sammy declared as the bartender poured us shots.

I laughed and took my shot.

Corey joined us as we waited for the bartender to make our drinks. Sammy asked Corey to watch her drink before she left us and went off into the crowd.

"So... how are things?" I smiled at Corey.

"They're good..." He said, nodding.

"So when are you and Sammy going to make it official?"

"Officially friends?" Corey answered.

"Friends with benefits?" I questioned.

"Not like that." He emphasized.

I was going to ask him about their overnight hangouts when Sammy rushed back.

"Where's your phone Corey?" She squealed, excitedly.

"In my pocket."

"Pull it out!!!" She commanded. "We need to get this."

"Get what?" I asked, confused. Sammy just grinned at me.

"We normally don't take requests..." One of the female singers from the band started when they came back. "But we got a ridiculously huge tip and a fairly easy song so we figured why the hell not. Miss Lily...come on down!!!" The crowd applauded while I turned and looked at Sammy. Corey was laughing and recording me while Sammy grinned.

"What the fuck did you do?" I yelled at her.

"Go!" Sammy declared. I shook my head, but then Corey started cheering my name, so I got the fuck up before it got worse. I made my way up to the stage. The bassist helped me up.

"So Lily, I heard you're recently single?" The singer said into the mic. I just nodded, blushing.

"So why did you two break up?" She continued, holding the mic to my mouth.

"Um... irreconcilable differences," I said, simply into the mic. A got a few laughs from the crowd. The majority were from my group. Assholes!

"Ok....that's code for cheating. Who cheated?" She interrogated me, with a smirk on her face.

"No...no one." I answered.

"He did! With his best friend!!!" Sammy called out from the audience. I looked over at her and busted out laughing. Omar did act like a scorned lover. I doubled over laughing at that thought.

"I think she's lost it..." the singer laughed.

I shook my head and calmed myself. "They didn't cheat, maybe cuddled at most." I joked, grinning.

"Girlfriend, why would you let him be best friends with a girl?" Another singer in the band asked me, while the crowd laughed.

"I didn't. It was a guy. They grew up together. Supposedly." I laughed with the crowd.

"Wow. Shit just got weird. Let's just play the fucking song!" The original singer cheered.

The crowd joined her as Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" came on. Sammy knew Beyonce was my go-to for feel-good/hype music. I danced alongside the lead singer as she belted out the song. After the song, she hugged me and I hopped off the stage. Sammy rushed to join me. I gave her a hug.

"You're fucking crazy, but I love you!" I laughed at her.

"Ditto bitch." Sammy smiled.

We stayed until closing time, dancing and laughing and having an amazing time. Which was great, until I had to be up the next morning for work.

"You look as good as I feel." Jordan moaned to me, as I dropped off coffee at the nurse's station for her.

"Be nice or I'll take it away." I told her, also leaving a breakfast taco.

"You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen!!!" Jordan said, before digging into her food.

"Much better." I smiled at her, heading to the training center.

Q had the day off, but Kendal looked perfectly fine like he got a full night of sleep instead of staying up drinking with us.

"How are you holding up rock star?" He asked me with a grin as I walked by. When I grimaced, at the nickname and the thought of my drunken performance in front of him, he laughed. Stupid boys.

At lunch, I tried to meet up with Jordan, but she was working through it to leave early. She did ask me if I wanted to go with her to the UT game at the fair. Derek was an alumnus and was going this year since he no longer worked weekends. I told her I would let her know later. Part of me wanted to go, but I felt like I needed to finally meet up with Jake. I would probably see what his weekend looked like.

I just grabbed a salad at the store and ate my lunch at work. I had notifications on my Instagram. I opened it and saw that Corey tagged me in pictures he uploaded from last night. I also saw Sammy upload the whole video of me dancing on the stage, including the comments I made about Jake. I called her as soon as I saw it.

"Hey Sammy. Take the video down. It's kinda mean, and childish. Hilarious, but childish." I told her.

"Have you checked your Insta?"

"I haven't. What's up?" I asked.

"Check Jake's page." She said.

I hung up and did so immediately. The most recent thing was a post that Omar tagged Jake in. It was Chris Brown's Loyal video and a caption that read:

"You ok?" I looked up from reading through the trash comments to see Kendal as he approached the table I was sitting at.

"Yeah. Great." I lied standing up. I threw away the rest of my salad, put my phone in my bag, and headed back to work.

Not going to lie, all throughout the rest of my day at work after seeing the post, I plotted what song I could post for Omar. I settled on "Fuck You" by Lily Allen. By the time I finished my last appointment, I was done with the whole situation. Omar and Sammy were both playing a game I wanted no part of. As soon as I got off work, I checked my Facebook to see if Sammy took down the video. I saw I had a message from Jake instead. I opened it right away.

Jake: Hey Lily. If you didn't see Omar's post, disregard this. If you did, I'm so sorry. I had no idea he was posting that and already took care of it.

I looked at Jake's news feed. Omar's post was no longer there. The video of me at the bar was still up. I texted Sammy.

Me: Still need to take the video down

In the meantime, I untagged myself in the video and wrote Jake back.

Me: I'm sorry too. I'm working on the video.

Jake wrote me back immediately.

<>Jake: You can keep the video up if you answer my calls.

I took a deep breath and put my phone away. I didn't know if I was ready for that. It would be too easy to get caught up in how much I missed him and not how many problems we had. We needed to talk it out first.

I went home and went straight to Sammy's room. She was in her mirror, holding up a dress to her body.

"Hey." I said after she invited me in. "Did you take down the video?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"Did you see what his friend posted?" Sammy said, not even looking up from the mirror. "I have a screenshot-"

"I saw it. Just like the video, it was childish. Jake already took care of him, so take down the video." I said.

She finally looked up at me. "You're getting back together with him, aren't you?"

"Sammy, that has nothing to do with this." I sighed, exasperated.

"Of course it does. Last night, you had fun. You relaxed. You weren't worried about him. Don't go back to being that pathetic girl that let him control you." She lectured me.

"Believe me, no one is going to control me. Any relationship decisions I make will be my choice. So take the fucking video down or my first relationship decision will be unfriending and blocking you." I told her, crossing my arms. She glared at me, but I stared right back. Our stare-down was broken when she put the dress down.

She grabbed her phone. After a moment of playing with it, she looked up at me. "Done." She snapped.

"Thank you." I said, forcing a cheerful tone, turning to leave.

"Just like you can make your own relationship decisions, so can I. And I don't like you very much when you're with him." She stated as I walked out.

"What does that mean?" I asked, turning to face her.

"It means you're not the only one that can unfriend someone." Sammy finished, dismissing me and picking up the dress.

I left her room in a huff.

She could be such a bitch sometimes...

I went to my room and got dressed to go to Darren's football game. My phone rang, I answered it when I saw it was Rocky.

"Hey. Whatcha up to tonight?" She asked me.

"Gonna to Lewisville to watch Darren's game. Other than that, nothing."

"Want some company?"

"Absolutely, I'll be over in like 30 minutes."

As promised, I was at her house in 30 minutes.

"Where's Brandon?" I asked her, as I declined a drink. We really needed to get on the road.

"He went out with Jake." She answered nonchalantly.

I couldn't help the surge of pain that hit me. I didn't wanna think about Jake going out. I know, I went out too, but knowing Jake and his history with women, it would be a matter of time before he moved on to the next one. I wished I could feel angry, but I only felt hurt.

"Apparently, it's one of the first times he's left his apartment, outside of work. Brandon was getting concerned. He literally had to drag him out." Rocky informed me.

You would think that would make me feel better knowing he was taking the breakup as badly as me, but it didn't. It made me feel worse. I took a deep breath.

"Are you ready? Let's go." I said quickly, wanting to focus on Darren, football, and anything else but Jake.

"Wait. Someone else is joining us." Rocky smiled at me.

I groaned. "Who is it? Peyton and Chris? I can't handle them right now. Really no couples."

"No. You're going to be happy to see him." Rocky said.

"Trevor?!?" I asked, surprised. I invited him to the game, but he was heading to Austin for the weekend. I was sure that was why Rocky called to check in on me.

"No. You know he's going to Austin."

Thankfully, the front door opened so I didn't have to guess anymore. I was pleasantly surprised to see Ethan and EJ.

"EJ!!!" I said, giving him a big smile. "How ya been?" I said, leaning over to give him a hug.

"Good." He said, hugging me back

"Good?!? I've been busy and sad at not being able to see you!" I said, dramatically.

EJ gave me a half-smile. "I've been sad and busy too."

"Aww, whatever!" I exclaimed, tickling his sides. He laughed and maneuvered away from me. He ran to Ethan's side. I looked up at him and smiled.

"Hey, Ethan. You look nice." I lied.

He looked better than nice. He was freshly shaven and his hair looked recently cut. He looked amazing in a smart, black suit. It accentuated his lean, toned frame and looked so good against his skin tone. He looked immaculate every day, but I could tell by the special attention to detail, he must have an event to get to.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, focusing on his face.

"Anthony's firm opens next week. The company is throwing a big event for our clients and potential new clients." Ethan explained.

"That's great." I nodded.

"Tell her the better news!" Rocky said, smiling at us.

"I sign my contract for partner next week." Ethan told me.

I beamed at him. "Wow Ethan! Congratulations. You so deserve it. I'm not even going to point out how I told you so."

Ethan laughed. "Thanks for not pointing it out Lily."

I laughed too. I almost forgot how attractive his laugh was to me. The fact that I hadn't seen it in so long added to its appeal. Kinda breathtakingly beautiful. An awkward moment passed, with us just smiling at each other.

"C'mon EJ. Let's put your bag in the guest room. We're going to go watch a football game with Lily." Rocky instructed EJ. He made a face but followed her.

"Your son is unpatriotic with his dislike of football." I joked to Ethan.

"I thought baseball was America's pastime." Ethan countered.

"Keyword: was." I said.

Ethan shook his head. "How are you holding up?"

I smiled, weakly. "You can point out how you said it was going to be nothing but drama."

"That was me being bitter. I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems. I wish you nothing but happiness." Ethan said.

My smile grew sincere. "I'm working on it. Thank you. I wish the same for you."

"I'm working on it too." He said, giving me the same half-smile EJ just gave me.

When Rocky and EJ came back, Ethan bent down to talk to EJ.

"Be good for Racqelle and Lily ok?" When EJ nodded, Ethan stood up straight. "I'll see you later."

"Tomorrow morning." Rocky corrected. "We'll be sleeping by the time you finish up."

"I'll call." Ethan said.

"Don't. You'll just wake me up." Rocky said.

"For the love of all things good, don't wake her. Everyone will feel her wrath." I said, making a horror face. EJ laughed.

"Fine. Have a good night. I'll see you first thing in the morning." He turned to me. "Bye Lily."

"Bye Ethan." I said. Rocky looked at me.

"Ready?" I asked before she could say anything.

She nodded.

We had fun at the game. EJ wasn't interested in learning the game of football, but he did like the band. He was intrigued by the drumline at halftime. After a snack of Sour Punch Straws and Sprite, he was drumming along with the band on his legs. I was impressed by his rhythm. He definitely needed a drum set. After the game, we said "Hi" and "Bye" to Forrest.