I turned back to my whiskey sour, feeling very awkward.

“You girls want to play some pool?” Jim asked, his eyes never leaving Nadine, who obviously returned his blatant lusting.

“Sure,” she said, letting him help her to her feet like she was some sort of seventeenth century damsel.

“You down for some pool?” Quinn asked, his words laced with insinuation. It wasn’t just pool he was asking whether I was down for.

I gave him a less than sweet smile. “Sure,” I said, knowing that he thought he had a chance of getting in my pants. He didn’t realize he was about to get hustled.

Nadine and Jim headed towards the pool tables at the back of the bar. I followed with Quinn’s eyes zeroed in on my tits.

“So you’re not from New York?” Quinn asked.

“Nope,” I answered, grabbing a cue stick from the wall and chalking the tip.

“Where are you from?” he asked, sliding in close to me. This guy was relentless.

I looked over at Nadine engaged in a frantic sort of mating ritual with good ol’ Jim. They were flirting and making banal chitchat that only served to get them laid at the end of the night.

Quinn was trying to be smooth; making it known he was attracted to me. His visible appreciation of my body more than noticeable.

This is what people do. They flirt. They talk about meaningless shit. They fuck. Then nine times out of ten they don’t bother to see each other ever again.

I had had my fair share of random hook ups. This song and dance was familiar.

And I hated it.

Why in the hell had I settled for this for so damn long?

I had a man over three hundred miles away that never flirted. He never attempted ridiculous small talk to fill the silence. He didn’t pepper me with compliments hoping to score.

“I live in West Virginia,” I said.

“Oh yeah—“

“With my boyfriend,” I added and watched with satisfaction as Quinn-with-no-sense-of-personal-space deflated right before my eyes.

“Oh, boyfriend, huh?”

I finished chalking the tip of my cue stick and handed it to him with a smile. “Yeah, for over three years now.”

“That’s cool,” Quinn said, clearly souring and wishing he could leave. Nadine and Jim stopped mentally undressing each other and we started playing pool.

Quinn, whose mood had already taken a turn once he realized he wasn’t getting into my pants, became even pissier when I won fifty bucks off him.

“You’re a hustler,” he accused, handing over his money.

“I never told you I couldn’t play pool. It’s not my fault you made assumptions based on my boob size,” I said, tucking the bills into my pocket.

Quinn turned red and stomped off.

“He doesn’t lose well, huh?” I asked his friend.

Jim shrugged. “I should go. He’ll probably leave me here if I don’t. I’ll call you, Nadine,” he said and I heard the false promise in his voice. He wasn’t going to call her. Why pretend otherwise?

The insincere song and dance of meeting that special someone. really sucked. And I was thankful that I no longer had to be a part of it.

I had found my someone.

Nadine preened until he left and then she pouted. “Thanks Ellie. I almost had him hooked,” she complained.

“You’ll thank me for it one day. Why don’t we get out of here? I’m pretty tired,” I said.

The walk back to the apartment took twice as long with Nadine stopping every few minutes to rest her feet. I had told her four-inch heels weren’t the smartest footwear. But she chose to listen to fashion over practicality.

When we were back at the apartment, Nadine got us both a glass of water. “To combat my inevitable hangover,” she explained.

I got my own glass of water and sat down beside her.

“Today was fun,” she said.

“It was,” I agreed.

“So, what do I have to do to get you to move here?” she asked, grinning.

“You know, twelve hours ago, I would have said not much.”

Nadine’s eyes widened. “Really?”

I drank the rest of my water and put my glass on the floor by my feet. “It’s been rough since going back to West Virginia. I can’t find a decent job. I keep running into people I’d rather not see. I’ve always hated it there,” I found myself admitting.

“Then why in the hell are you living there? And if you tell me because that’s where Flynn is I will strangle you. Don’t be that girl, Ellie,” she threatened.

“Yes, it’s because of Flynn,” I began and stopped Nadine before she could interrupt.

“And I’m not that girl. You don’t get how things are with us. He gets me. Better than anyone. He loves me completely and without judgment.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your dreams, Ellie.”

“I thought I was,” I admitted, drinking the rest of my water and putting it on the floor. “I thought that I was putting what I wanted aside in order to be with him.”

“Then what the hell are you still doing there, damn it?” Nadine demanded, frowning.

“I’m there because there’s nowhere else I want to be.” As I said the words, I knew, without a doubt that they were true.

“I don’t get it. You just said you thought you were putting your dreams aside for Flynn. That you were in that shitty town because that’s where he was. So how can that be the place you want to be?” she asked and I didn’t really know how to answer her.