The Best Woman

The Best Woman - Chapter Three

It's no secret that I'm attracted to Bentley. I have eyes, and he's gorgeous. But even the thought of us being an usmakes my head spin. We're most definitely better as friends. The sexual tension will die off eventually. Hopefully, around the time my Mr Perfect walks into my life. He is long overdue.

"I knew Lucy was the one after a month," Dayton chimes in.

I take a deep breath. He is not helping.

"Thanks for that, Dayton," Bentley snaps. "It's too much hassle; I'm not in love with her, and she'll never trust me. Believe me, I know what I have to do."

Well, today is cheerful.

"Who wants a beer?" I ask, knowing that'll lift the mood considerably. I receive two yeses and go in the kitchen. So what if it's only three in the afternoon, the living room is quickly turning into a miserable, pity party for three, and I'm not willing to sit around being depressed all Saturday afternoon.

I grab the beers from the fridge and carry them through. The room quickly falls silent when I enter. No doubt Dayton was chewing his brother's ear off about me. Dayton has always suspected something is going on with me and Bentley, or that it will. He was the least surprised when I told him that we'd kissed. I think he was more surprised that it never went anywhere.

I pretend I haven't noticed as I hand them a bottle each.

"So, where're we going tonight?" I ask.

"Wherever that tosser wants," Bentley replies, only cementing my they're-talking-about-me-and-him theory.

"I'm good just to hang at Charlie's and shoot some pool," Dayton says.

"Boring," Bentley mutters under his breath.

I keep smiling at Dayton so I won't slap the idiot, older brother. "Sounds like a plan," I say. "We're getting you wasted tonight."

Bentley soon came around then, talking animatedly about how Dayton is going to be 'puking his guts up' and 'crying for his mummy' by the end of the night.

***

Bentley is already drunk when I meet him and Dayton at the bar. He must've started earlier or downed a few when they first arrived. But they can't have been here longer than ten minutes before me.

"Hey," I say, sitting on a stool between them. "What're you drinking?"

"I'm having beer and Bentley's having everything."

He's spiralling, and I think it's because of Samantha. He doesn't seem to be that cut up over the impending end of their relationship, he'd tell me if he didn't want it to happen, but his actions say otherwise.

"So what're you drinking away?" I ask while Dayton orders me a margarita. "Have you spoken to Sam?"

He grunts and downs a shot. "Sam who?"

Okay, that explains everything.

I smack my lips together. "You broke up?"

We suddenly have Dayton's attention, too.

"Not quite," he replies. "Went home to shower and change, she shows up and... Well, whatever, we ended up arguing and then she leaves."

All he does is complain about how rubbish their relationship is and how the continuously argue. Why does he stay?

"Are you going to mope all evening?" I ask. "Because if you are, I'll go sit somewhere else."

Dayton laughs. "I'm with her."

"Fuck off, I'm fine," Bentley says, frowning at us both.

He is so not fine, and I literally have no idea how to help him. But then I have no idea how to help myself either. I'm floating through life, and I don't know how to stop it. I feel like I'm in a dream having no control over what I'm doing but screaming at myself to go another way.

"Okay, I'll order some shots. We're all getting trashed."

That's my answer to a lot of my problems these days. It stops me from really thinking about what I'm doing.

One hour later and we all are indeed trashed. Five shots is my limit. Actually three shots is but the boys suck and made me do more. "I don't feel good," I say to Dayton, who is laying his head on the bar. How tragic are we.

"You're not alone," he mumbled into the polished wooden bar. Bentley walks back from the bathroom in a perfect straight line, smirking at a group of women who are blatantly giving him the eye.

"Bentley's coming back, so I'm now going to pee." I'd opened the pee floodgate so now I need to go every five minutes. I don't want to leave Dayton alone because he's wasted, and we look after each other.

He mumbles something in reply and lifts one finger off the bar. I've not seen him so ridiculous for a long time. I'm really enjoying it.

I go to pass Bentley and put my hand on his chest. "Watch Dayton until I'm back."

"He's not a toddler, Callie."

Oh, the muscles here are hard. I want to rake my nails all over him.

"He can't even sit up. Why can you not do as you're told just once?"

"Where's the fun in that?" He steps closer, and it's far too close. I remind myself a thousand times that he still has a girlfriend, and I really shouldn't go there.

"What are you doing?" I ask, panicking slightly as his eyes turn wild. I should move my hand but it's bloody stuck to his top.

My body heats at the close proximity and the fact that he looks about ready to drag me into his cave.

Bentley is the type of person who just doesn't give a damn so it wouldn't at all surprise me if he grabbed my arm and hauled me off to the closest bathroom stall. I want him to just as much as I don't.

I'm breathing heavily and his eyes drop to my lips.

Don't!

He has a girlfriend!

I take a step back and finally drop my arm. But it's useless because he takes a bigger one closer. "Bentley, can you go and watch your brother, please?"

His body is almost touching mine. I feel his breath and can practically hear his heart thumping. He says nothing but stares at me, making me feel both strong and weak. Guilt is something I feel a lot when I'm around him.

I feel stupid for wanting something I know would be messy. We would be the best kind of nightmare... but still a nightmare.

"Bentley, just go," I whisper, pleading with him to do the right thing. I could leave, but I feel like I can't. Why am I not strong enough to walk away from this man? I'm on fire, heat pools between my legs.

Why. Him.

I want a nice, normal guy that doesn't come with a hundred and one complications and can talk about how he feels.

"One day, Cal," he says winking as he walks past me towards Dayton.

I let out a breath somewhere between relief and frustration.

What the hell? I so don't need this. Why does it have to be him who affects me like that? How many billion men are in the world, and I want my best friend's brother.

Shaking my own thoughts away, I run to the bathroom, shoving the door open and leaning back against the wall.

Get. A. Grip.