Lucky Me

*XXIII

Chapter Twenty-three

I told Deb what happened last night and she didn't respond, pursing her lips and looking away. She was keeping something from me.

I folded my arms over my chest, "if you have something to tell me Deb, spill.''

Deb sighed and pushed her hair back, "maybe he slept with Tessa just so he could spite you.''

I knitted my eyebrows together, "that's ridiculous.''

"Ridiculous? Come on Morgan, you hook up with him-"

"Kissed. I kissed him. Don't make it sound like I actually slept with him.''

Deb shakes her head but she's smiling. "Girl I don't know what is wrong with you.'' I cocked an eyebrow at her but then slump back in my chair.

Yeah, she's right. What is wrong with me? But I have a reason for not accepting Ezra's offer. That reason is Emilio.

I'm over him, or at least I've made peace with the fact that he's truly gone but that's not why I said no. Emilio has something to do with it but not really.

The reason is that after seeing Emilio die and Dante betray me, I've gotten used to the fact that boys are just going to leave me and I'm going to get hurt. Emilio didn't have a choice but Dante did. He cheated on me, and lied, and then made me feel like it was my fault. Maybe it was, maybe if I had . . . if I hadn't been scared too sleep with him.

Ugh, I shake my head. It's not like I haven't slept with other guys before. Once, and that was with Emilio. And then he died and I couldn't bring myself to do it with anybody else.

When I was dating Emilio, everyone thought we were endgame. And when I was dating Dante everyone said we were the Power Couple and they were glad to see me really move on.

It's not even the fact that Dante had just cheated on me but with one of my friends. Who saw how broken I was when Emilio died. How I had shed 20 pounds in two weeks and it was so hard to keep myself hydrated. How I cried myself to sleep every night and I was the epitome of hurt.

I shake my head, I need to move on from that. But the point is, I'm tired of being hurt. I'm so tired and sick of it. My own father . . . ugh, the one man in my life I thought I could rely on barely speaks to me. For my birthday he buys me a diamond necklace and doesn't even personally give it to me!

I don't want a 9-carat diamond necklace from him, a freaking hug would be nice! Advice for college would even be more wonderful! The butler can provide that but you can't?

I'm just used to being hurt by the men in my life that I decided to take a hiatus. Just stop dating men and looking up to my father for advice. The butler ended up dying and well, after that, I didn't really speak too many guys. At least not in a flirtatious way.

And then Ezra enters my life and he's everything I want and everything I don't want. He makes my life complicated, but then he makes me feel safe. He's beyond gorgeous, but such a bad boy. I'm into good guys like Amir . . .

I'm not saying that I suddenly going to snatch Deb's boyfriend from her. No, no, no, no, I'm not a backstabbing bitch and a homewrecker.

"Hey,'' Deb takes my hand. "How about we avoid the topic of You-Know-Who and talk about this party Amir is throwing.''

I nodded and then faked a smile, "so, where's the party? I heard he was rich? Your birthday is around the corner maybe . . .''

Deb laughs, "no. I'm not asking my boyfriend to buy me a diamond ring . . . yet.''

I laugh, "I'll come to the party, I'll be your plus-one.''

Deb cocks an eyebrow at me, "are you sure that Amir won't get jealous?''

"He should know that they are a lot of single ladies and gals out there that are very desperate. And a pretty lady like you aren't safe from them,'' Deb rolls her eyes but laughs at my jokes. At least that gets my mind of what happened last night. For a while . . .

I probably won't be posting for like three days, so this is the last chapter I'll be posting for the week. Hope you enjoy.