Single And In Love With My Fake Boyfriend (Single Girls Club #1)

Chapter Three

Callie

My apartment is eerily quiet when I walk inside. And the lights are shut. That’s odd because I share the apartment with my three best friends, and there’s always some sort of crisis going on. Have they all gone to bed already? It’s only nine PM.

When I step foot into the living room, I find the three of them huddled on the couch with an empty bowl of popcorn between them. They’re all staring at the TV screen with eyes as large as bowling balls, and they’re clinging onto each other like they’re facing the Grim Reaper.

“Guys?” I call out.

They scream and nearly fly to the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” I ask as I flick on the light.

Elizabeth Clark—Lizzie—grabs the remote and pauses the TV. “Callie!” She clutches her heart and releases a breath, green eyes huge. “You scared the crap out of us. Don’t creep up on people like that.”

“Creep up? I walked into a dark apartment and had no idea what was going on.”

“We’re just watching a horror movie,” Alex explains, gesturing to the paused TV screen. A guy stands there with a bloody axe.

“Sheesh.” I shiver.

“How was tonight?” Emily Wright asks with bright brown eyes. Her brown hair is disheveled. Maybe because she kept running her hands through it during the horror movie. All of us get pretty spooked by those kinds of movies. I’m the worst and usually veto horror movies. Which is probably why they decided to squeeze one in tonight.

They stare at me with eager, excited eyes. I catch Lizzie’s gaze drop to my left hand, clearly looking for a sparkly diamond. I’ve been holding in my pain and tears since the moment the jerk slapped me across the face, but being in the presence of people I love to death forces my guard to crumble. I fall onto an empty spot on the couch and just weep.

“Callie!”

At once, all three of them start to comfort me. They have no idea what’s wrong, but they’re doing everything they can to try to make me feel better. It just makes me cry more. I’m one big mess and I have no idea if I’ll ever recover.

“What happened?” Emily asks softly as she rubs my back.

I can’t get a word out. The tears are so darn overwhelming.

It feels like hours until I finally calm down somewhat. I sit up and wipe my eyes. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry!” Lizzie grabs a tissue box and hands it to me. “You know we’ll never judge you.”

“And you don’t have to feel obligated to tell us what’s going on if you don’t want to,” Alex adds. “We’re here for you either way. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay,” I say as I wipe my eyes.

Emily wraps an arm around me.

Even though I’m still one big mess, I want to tell them about tonight. We’ve been so close for years and we share everything with each other—the good parts of our lives and also the bad. I know talking to them will make me feel better, even if it’s only a minuscule amount.

After taking a deep breath, I say, “Spencer didn’t propose. He broke up with me.”

“What?” Lizzie gasps.

Emily and Alex blink at me with shocked expressions.

“But…” Emily frowns. “How?”

With fresh tears, I tell them exactly what happened. When I’m done, they close their arms around me, thereby making a best friend sandwich. I can’t breathe very well, but I love how much comfort they’re bringing me. I have no idea what I would do without these girls.

I do feel a teensy-weensy better.

Eventually, we break out of the hug, though we remain sitting close to each other. As though they want to suck out some of my pain.

“He’s a jerk for leading you on all these months,” Lizzie says, her face matching her dark red hair. “And then he asks you out on a date to Spring Falls Gardens and fills you up with all these hopes and dreams? What the heck is wrong with him?”

“Are there any good guys out there?” Emily whispers with despondent brown eyes. Out of all of us, she’s the most obsessed with romance and yearns to fall in love like the women in her romance books. “I was so hopeful when you got together with Spe—I mean, him . Maybe there was hope for us after all.”

“Me, too,” I mumble, new tears sliding down my face.

“Sorry. I just made you feel worse.” Emily puts her arms around me and gives me a loving squeeze.

“No, you didn’t,” I assure her. “I’m glad I have you guys to vent to. You get it, even if you didn’t experience it. You get me .”

Alex sits up sharply, causing her raven-colored hair to bounce. “I can bake you something to make you feel better. What do you want? Peanut butter cookies? Maybe a cheesecake? Ooh, how about a chocolate cake? You love chocolate.”

“That’s so sweet of you, Alex, but I don’t think I can stomach anything, not even your out-of-this-world pastries.”

She nods in understanding and squeezes my hand. “Just tell us what you need.”

“Honestly?” I puff out my cheeks, causing some of my blonde strands to blow. “I just want to curl up in bed with a good book.”

“Is there anything else more wonderful in the world?” Lizzie asks.

“Heck no,” we all say, which causes me to smile a little. It’s become a motto in our apartment, since we all love to read. Not feeling well? Read a book. Got into an argument with a coworker? Read a book. Felt disappointment from your parents? Read a book. Your boss treating you like garbage? Read a book. Seriously, nothing heals the soul like an amazing book.

“We hope you feel better soon,” Emily says as she hugs me again.

“And screw the jerk,” Alex says. “He doesn’t deserve someone as amazing as you. Watch him end up with a witch and live the rest of his life in misery while you will meet a wonderfully stupendous sweet and kind man and live happily ever after.”

I laugh lightly. “Thanks, but I don’t think life works that way.”

“Good always defeats evil!” Lizzie insists.

“We’re in real life, Liz.” I get up with a sigh. “And in real life, evil does win sometimes.”

Lizzie shakes her head resolutely. “No.”

“I want to be positive, too,” Emily tells me with a sweet smile. “You’ll meet an amazing man one day and live happily ever after. You’ll be so in love and your life will be so perfect that every day will feel like a dream.”

I give her a thankful smile and close my arms around all three of them. “Thanks for the love and encouragement. Good night, my favorite people.”

“Good night,” they wish back.

As I make my way to my room, my heart feels like it’s bleeding. I don’t want to cry over the jerk because he certainly doesn’t deserve it, but I can’t help but wonder why he didn’t love me. Is something wrong with me? Am I too boring? Not pretty enough? Which makes me wonder—could there be anyone out there who will love me?

In my room, I tear the stupid dress off my body, change into my comfy pajamas, and dive into bed. My fantasy romance paperback is waiting for me on my nightstand. I’m about to reach for it, but my hand curls into a fist. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m so freakin’ curious. Before I can stop myself, I grab my phone and check Spencer’s—I mean his —social media.

My jaw nearly kisses the floor as the images and videos appear before my eyes. He’s not alone. He’s not sad or upset or drowning his sorrows in alcohol. No, there’s a woman by his side. A woman that, in some of the photos, is freakin’ kissing him.

What the heck?

I scroll down, noticing all these posts suddenly popping up. Photos and videos from weeks and months ago, which I’ve never seen before. The woman—blonde with blue eyes and gorgeous—is all over him. And he’s all over her. They look like they’re a couple, like they’ve been together for months. Like they’ve been in love for months.

He was…cheating on me? All this time? That’s why he broke up with me?

Oh my gosh, he must have had them on private. And now that he’s free of the boring Callie Richards, he wants to show the world who he truly loves.

Hot tears burn my cheeks. But these tears aren’t full of pain—they’re full of fury. Obviously I’m hurt and betrayed, but I’m mad. Oh, I’m so darn mad.

I send my friends a text, directing them to his social media. Of course they’re just as livid as me. They ask me if I need them to come into my room to comfort me, but I assure them I’m okay. I’ll just dive into my romantasy and root for the heroine and hero to fall in love and live happily ever after. Because unlike real life, books do have happy endings.

But right before I grab my paperback, I notice I haven’t checked my texts today. Alex sent me a link to an article a few hours ago. I click on the link and am directed to an article that lists the most eligible bachelors of the year. My eyes nearly fall off my face when a familiar face appears before my eyes.

Lincoln Walker.

The hottie quarterback for the Atlanta Armadillos is the number one eligible bachelor of the year. The guy I smacked into tonight.

Dang, that’s a good picture of him. I mean, he’s super good-looking and the camera loves him, but his hotness has just shot through the roof. I scroll to the bottom of the article and read some of the comments. No surprise that women all over the world are gushing over him.

I haven’t been following Lincoln much over the past few years—well, at least not as obsessively as I did in high school—but I have always wondered why he never seems to have a girlfriend. An extremely sexy quarterback not being snatched up like the last slice of double chocolate cake? Impossible. Yet, Lincoln has been single for years and seems totally content with that. He’s on the quieter side and doesn’t like showing off his life like some of his teammates, though. I think that makes him so special. He knows how to keep the best parts of his life private. I admire that about him. Maybe it’s the same with a girlfriend. For all we know, he could secretly be engaged or something.

Shaking my head, I close out of the article and open my paperback. Why do I care so much? After all these years, do I still have a crush on Lincoln?