Operation Date Escape

Nanci was like the cat that wanted to play with the mouse. Only in Kyle’s case he was a rat.
    “ Maybe you’re right. Let’s get out of here before you have to deal with him.”
    “Too late ,” she replied with a frown.
    Nanci turned to see Kyle heading their direction. “Shit.”
    He strode up to their table as if he was God’s gift to women. Something he wasn’t. “Well, well, if it isn’t my ex. You remember Allison, don’t you?”
    As if she could forget the woman who ’d ruined her anniversary and wrecked her marriage all in one night. She refused to give him the benefit of a response.
    His gaze shifted to Nanci. “And if it isn’t her ever faithful friend,” he said in a loud, drunken slur.
    “ Who would have thought you even knew what the word faithful meant?” Nanci replied with a sneer.
    Kyle didn’t have a comeback for that one.
    Her gaze moved over her ex in a scrutinizing manner. He wasn’t the man she remembered. His hair was shaggy and in desperate need of a cut, unlike Cole’s. His eyes were bloodshot, either from too much alcohol, or too many late nights with Allison. And it looked as though he had a kid’s swim ring inflated beneath his shirt at the waistband of his pants.
    “Show her your r ock, Allie.”
    She held up her hand with a smile, displaying a large diamond solitaire engagement ring. “Kyle and I are getting married next month in the Virgin Islands,” she said as if she’d won herself a great prize.
    No prize there.
    Nanci snorted. “Maybe you should try the Not-So-Virgin Islands for your wedding instead.”
    “Your island of choice, no doubt,” Kyle re torted with a scowl.
    “ Any island you’re not on would be my island of choice,” she shot back.
    “I have to agree with Nanci on that one,” Kelsie said with a nod, wishing he would leave and take his slutty fiancée with him.
    “Don’t be a hater,” Allison cooed, fluttering her fingers so her diamond reflected in the light.
    “ I’m definitely hating,” Nanci said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted a cubic zirconia engagement ring and a pair of fake boobs to go along with it.”
    “The ring’s not fake,” Allison argued, looking to Kyle for back up.
    Guilt was written all over his face.
    “Kyle!” his fiancé gasped.
    “The boobs weren’t cheap. I had to cut cost somewhere.”
    “You gave me a fake engagement ring? How could you?” she demanded. She stormed away, carefully avoiding Nanci as she moved past.
    He turned to Nanci. “Bitch.”
    “I try my best,” she said with a smug smile.
    Kelsie couldn’t keep the grin from her face. For so long after her divorce, any mention of her ex and what he’d done to her would bring her to tears. She’d dreaded the possibility of ever crossing paths with him again, unsure of how she’d react. Now here they were, together in the same room. And, much to her relief, she felt nothing. No hurt. No longing for what they might have had if Kyle hadn’t of been such an ass. She was void of any emotion at all where he was concerned.
    “I’m finally over you,” she said in surprise.
    Both Kyle and Nanci stopped the name slinging and looked her way. “What?” they replied in unison.
    She looked up at her ex. “You know, I’ve wondered at times how I would feel if we ever ran into each other again. Now I know. We were really never meant to be, you and me. I don’t love you. In fact, I realize now that what I felt for you when we were together was more youthful infatuation than real love.” Cole had shown her the difference.
    That last thought took her by surprise. H ow had that happened? Feeling the way she did about Cole presented her with a whole new set of problems, but it had also helped free her of her past.
    Kyle chuckled drunkenly. “Yeah right.” Then he leaned across the table to hover just inches from her face. “You and I both know if I wanted you back in my bed I could have you there with a snap of my fingers.”
    A second later he was lying on the floor, curled up in a ball and moaning.
    “Snap that,” Nanci hissed. Grabbing for her purse, she looked to Kelsie. “Time to go.”
    “What did you do to him?” she asked as they weaved their way out of the club.
    “Who me?” her friend asked with feigned innocence.
    “The ass was lying in the fetal position when we left him and you were smiling.”
    “Okay, so my foot slipped off the top rung of the chair.”
    “Slipped?”
    Nanci nodded. “Into his crotch.”
    She