Match Me by Liz Appel Read Free Book Online Page A

I said when she’d closed the door.
    “No problem.” He walked with me as I headed to my car. “This will blow over, you know. May not seem like it now, but it will.”
    I doubted it, but didn’t say it, I just kept walking toward my car.
    “And just so you know. Chase. He isn’t mad or anything.”
    I stopped. “No?”
    Paul shook his head. “Nah. I mean, if you think about it, it’s kind of flattering. Having an ex-girlfriend show up at your wedding and all.”
    I snorted. “Somehow, I don’t think anyone else sees it that way.”
    “Not Angela, that’s for sure.” He grinned. “But something else will piss her off. Soon. She’ll have something new to be worked up over. You’ll drop on her list.”
    I pulled my keys from by purse. “So I just need to lay low until that happens, I guess.”
    “No. You shouldn’t.”
    “Paul, I’m the laughingstock of the entire town.”
    “No. You aren’t.”
    “How can you even say that?” Even my best friend thought I was crazy.
    “Because I know.” He leaned against the side of my car. “Girls are all dreamy-eyed, talking about how they wish they had someone they loved like that. Guys are all wishing that some girl would love them enough to take a stand.”
    “But I ruined their wedding.”
    He rolled his eyes. “You stood in the doorway and cried a little. You didn’t ruin anything. They still got married.”
    “But the shoe…and me talking to Chase…” My voice trailed off.
    “No one knows about that,” he said. “No one knows it was yours. No one knows about the conversation. And no one will.”
    “I’m sure he told Angela…”
    Paul shook his head. “He didn’t.”
    “How do you know?”
    “Because I made him promise not to.”
     
     

FOURTEEN
     
     
    “I’m not following,” Jill said as she shoveled a handful of popcorn in her mouth.
    I’d texted her as soon as I’d gotten in my car and told her to meet me at my place. For once, she hadn’t argued.
    “Paul. He made Chase promise not to tell.”
    “Right, right. Totally get that.” She tucked her feet under her on the couch. “Just don’t see why that’s such a big deal.”
    I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? Think about it. Why would he make Chase promise something like that? Why would he care?”
    “Because he’s a nice human?”
    I glared at her.
    “You’re trying to see something that isn’t there,” she said. “Paul’s a smart guy. He knew you’d be screwed if word got out about the wedding crashing. He asked Chase to keep it quiet. Plain and simple.”
    “But why?” That was the question I couldn’t figure out. Why was he motivated to do it, to be a nice human, as Jill put it? Especially toward me?
    “You wouldn’t do the same thing?” Jill tucked her hair behind her ears. “Try to protect someone from a stupid decision they made? Nothing illegal, nothing that hurt anyone, just something really, really dumb?”
    “Gee, thanks.”
    “I’m serious. It was stupid. And no one knows that better than you.”
    She was right.
    “You would,” she said. “You’d keep it quiet. Just like Paul is. Because you’re a good human. Angela would not because she is a succubus.”
    I decided it was time to change the subject. “Pretty sure Roberto doesn’t think I’m a good human.” I filled her in on the disastrous second date.
    “Oh my God.” She wiped tears of laughter from her eyes as I finished. “How do these things happen to you?”
    “I don’t know,” I wailed.
    “It’s probably the ’Universe’ getting back at you,” she said, laughing.
    “You mean karma?”
    “Whatever. The Universe. Karma. Whatever mumbo jumbo you wanna blame it on.”
    “Maybe.” I picked at the popcorn. I’d already eaten half the bowl and was stuffed. “So do you think he’s right?”
    “Roberto?”
    “No, silly. Paul.”
    “Right about what?”
    “That people don’t think I’m an idiot. That people will forget. That I’ll be able to go out in public soon