Falling out of Hate with You: Hate - Love Duet Book One by Rowe, Lauren (novel books to read txt) 📕

that’s a good idea. I was actually surprised, now that she’s probably single, she didn’t stop by the party. But—"

“Laila’s single?” I blurt, my heart lurching into my mouth.

“Well, I’m assuming. I can’t imagine she’d stay with Malik after that video of him leaked tonight.”

I feel like I’m having a stroke. “What video?”

“You didn’t see the video of Malik getting blown in a strip club? It’s all over the internet! Everyone was passing it around at the party tonight.”

Every molecule in my body feels like it’s exploding, all at once. “Nobody showed it to me!”

“Hang on.” Shaking his head, Kendrick reaches into his pocket. “I saw you looking at something with Kai on his phone, laughing your asses off. I assumed—”

“He was showing me Alessandra’s funny music video that just released!”

“Okay, calm down.” He quickly cues something up on his phone and hands it to me. And a second later I’m watching dark, grainy footage of what looks like Malik Wallace getting head from a woman kneeling between his legs who’s wearing nothing but a thong.

My heart is crashing. “Has it been confirmed this is him?”

Kendrick nods. “There’s other footage of him walking into the place, in those same clothes. And in that footage, you can clearly see his face.” Kendrick takes his phone from me while I walk in tight circles, flailing my arms and breathing hard. After a moment of watching me act like a lunatic, Kendrick lets out a long exhale. “Stop, Savage. It’s okay. You’ve got my blessing.”

I stop moving and stare at him. But I don’t speak.

“Go get her, man. She’s all yours. I know how much you’ve been wanting her. I’ve known for a long time. So, go for it.”

I can barely breathe. “I’m sorry,” I say, a mixture of relief and guilt and excitement flooding me. “I’ve tried my best not to want her, KC. I’ve tried to keep my distance and push her away, as best I could, so you could take your shot with her. I swear, I’ve tried.”

“I know you have, brother. Thank you.”

I run my palm down my face. “I don’t understand my obsession with her. She makes me crazy. I haven’t even fucked anyone else since I laid eyes on her at Reed’s party.”

Kendrick’s jaw practically drops onto the ground. “But I thought—”

“No.”

“The waitress in New York?”

I shake my head. “No. Nobody.”

Kendrick processes that for a long moment. “So, you thought making Laila hate your guts would make you want her less?”

“I guess so.”

He narrows his eyes. “Or maybe you figured her out, even if it was subconsciously. Maybe, you realized making Laila hate your guts would only make her want you more.”

“No.”

“Yes. Don’t you see? I’ve been nothing but nice to that woman since the second I met her. I’ve been her best friend. And where am I now? Irreversibly in her friend zone. While you’ve been nothing but an asshole to her from day one. And where are you? Firmly in her ‘I want to fuck you to death!’ zone.”

My earlier mixed emotions streamline and converge into nothing but excitement. If that’s what Kendrick sees, then it must be true. Because Kendrick Cook is fantastic at reading people, unlike me. I say, “I swear I wasn’t trying to cockblock you.”

“Not consciously.” He exhales. “It doesn’t matter. There was no other ending to the story for me. Even if you weren’t here, she still wouldn’t want me. I realize that now. Clearly, she likes flaming assholes who treat her like shit. Look how long she’s hung in there with Malik! I can’t compete with that, because I can never be that. But you can.”

I think maybe he’s insulting me. But I feel nothing but complimented. “You think?”

He laughs. “Yeah, I do.”

In a flash flood, every drop of desire I’ve been holding back, denying, and ignoring for so long slams into me. “I’ll go to her room now. Would you go inside and ask Tracy to text me Laila’s room number?”

“No, Savage. Not now. It’s after three and you’re shitfaced drunk. Go to your room now, get some sleep, wake up and take a shower in the morning and get to the buses on time, and then take your shot with Laila in Vegas.”

“But—"

“Savage, listen to me. I’m not sabotaging you. I’m helping you. You’ve been smoking like a chimney all night. You know how much Laila hates that. Get cleaned up and talk to her in Vegas, or you’ll go there now and wake her up and get into another screaming match with her.”

My shoulders slump. He’s right, of course. Even if Laila liked me, which she doesn’t, she’d shoo me away from her room for smelling like an ashtray. “Okay. I’ll get some sleep and talk to her in Vegas. Thanks again for the birthday party.” I twist my mouth. “For everything.”

Kendrick winks. “Someone’s gotta take care of your dumb ass.”

“Glad it’s you.”

“Me, too.” He smiles. “See you at the buses at nine.”

I crinkle my forehead. “I thought you said eight.”

“That was a test.”

With a wink, Kendrick heads back into his suite, while I begin walking down a winding path toward my room on the far side of the hotel grounds. But when I reach a slatted fence enclosing the hotel’s VIP pool area—an area that’s been closed off to the general public for my band’s private use during our stay—I suddenly decide a naked, moonlit swim would be the perfect way to cap off my twenty-sixth birthday.

After swiping my keycard and walking through the gate, I look around for an especially dark corner to undress in . . . and that’s when I see the universe’s birthday gift to me. Laila Fitzgerald. She’s sitting in a hot tub in a far corner of the space with a large bottle of booze on the ledge, next to her head. Surely, she’s drowning her sorrows about that humiliating video of Malik. Which thrills me to no end.

Laila’s sandy hair is piled atop her head in a messy