I Still Hate You by Marie Skye (top 100 novels .txt) 📕

We watched as Barb made a dramatic show of making sure everyone and anything could see her ring before finally looking our way. “Girls!” She held up her right hand and wiggled her fingers, using her other hand to point to her ring finger as if all of us were completely braindead and couldn’t figure that shit out for ourselves. “Can you believe it? I have been waiting for this day for so long.”

“Didn’t you have at least two other days with your other two marriages?” I didn’t miss the side-eye from Barb. It’s not that I hated her—hate is such a strong word. It’s more like if she was missing, I surely wouldn’t link arms with a bunch of random people and join the search party. The mosquitos are crazy this time of year.

“Well, they weren’t the ones, clearly.” We all stood to board. Twenty minutes later, my eyes were shut to enjoy this four-hour flight. My eyes popped open as my brain just now decided to catch up with our previous conversation. Oh my God, what if Felix falls in love with me? I somehow tormented myself with the idea, irritated that Claire had the audacity to put that in my head. I was still thinking about it, but tried to relax when I put my earphones in. It didn’t last long before Claire jabbed me in the ribs. “Hey, back there in row twenty-three.”

“Will you cut it out,” I whispered-yelled.

“Perrie.” My eyes shot back open as I glanced at Claire. She was scrolling through her phone. “There are a few on this flight. Join the mile-high club.” I ignored her and closed my eyes again.

“Is it cliché to have the bachelorette party in Vegas?”

Does having one’s eyes closed not mean shit to people anymore? I looked up at Barb who was not only slurring her words but was practically leaning over the seat to talk to us. We’ve been in the air for less than an hour and she’s already on her third mimosa. We weren’t even in Vegas yet, and it was just after ten in the morning. But, even more so, why the hell did I agree to this?

“Not cliché, per se,” I started to answer her but it didn’t matter, she was too busy flipping through her germ-filled magazine. Instead, I put my earphones back in and tried to get some rest before this ridiculous weekend started.

2

Perrie

I couldn’t be more thrilled at the fact that we all were walking around Vegas looking like a bunch of penises threw up on us.

“He’s the one. He’s just the one. You know when you know. He’s the one.” I rolled my eyes at Barb who has said that same sentence to anyone who bothered to even try to care to listen.

“Yeah, Barb. Totally the one. If not him, then definitely the one after him.” I didn’t even bother mumbling that last part, but since she was drunk, it didn’t matter what I said, she wouldn’t remember any of this anyway. I have never been happier that she had the attention span of a flea.

After dinner, I convinced everyone to dress in normal attire for once as we walked around the casino floor. After a while, I took my phone out and pulled up the Sextee app Claire had been talking about nonstop. It wouldn’t hurt to look, would it? Besides, don’t they say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? I turned on the tracker and the screen immediately lit up, showing who was nearby. I couldn’t believe it. It was like the movie WarGames when the screens lit up showing all the airstrikes.

I swiped through each one…

No…

No…

No…

Are you kidding me? He literally has a picture of him with his wife and kids. I think the fuck not.

No…

Maybe…

No…

No…

“That one looks good.” I jumped at the voice behind me before turning my phone over.

“Do you mind?”

Claire scowled as if my wanting privacy was purely unreasonable. “It’s sex, it’s not like you’re marrying the guy. Just pick one and get it over with.”

I looked around the room once more. There were at least five guys for my picking right now if I wanted to. I surveyed the room and stopped when my eyes locked with the man across the room. It wasn’t the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous. It was the fact that I knew him—as in his type. He’s that guy that’s here on a business trip, making sure to look for his one-night stand, when his homelife consisted of a wife, two-point-two kids, and a Labrador. No thank you, keep looking elsewhere, you cheating dickslut.

He slowly smirked and I slowly turned my gaze away. I knew that smirk. He was known for that smirk. That was also the smirk that had any sane woman wanting to throw their panties.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t sane.

For the next two hours, I smiled when I was supposed to, and laughed when I was supposed to. Hell, I even flirted since the free drinks kept coming. After a while, I wandered on my own and observed the gamblers and basically tried not to be bored out of my damn mind.

“You’re welcome.”

I jumped at the deep voice behind me, and there he was, standing way too close. I shook my head as I tried to snap out of it. “For what?”

He nodded to the drink in my hand. I looked at it. “Oh, well, I hate it.” That was purely a lie. He and I both knew a Ramos Gin Fuzz is my all-time favorite drink. I placed it on the serving tray of the waitress passing by.

“Just like you still hate me?” I ignored him as I tried to feign some kind of interest in the eighty-year-old woman with an oxygen machine tank by her side, and a cigarette in her mouth as she pulled the lever for the slot machine. “You’re still mad?” I didn’t answer him