Emily gave a protected groan, groping around on her bedside table for her shrieking phone. Her head was pounding, her stomach churning, her vision blurry.
"What?" she barked into her phone, far too hung over to deal with anything requiring more than three brain cells.
"Get dressed and meet me at Starbucks in twenty," Derek demanded.
"Go fuck yourself," she promptly replied.
He just laughed.
"I'm hanging up now."
"No! You have to meet me – I've got a surprise for you," he pressed. "Twenty minutes. Be there."
"I don't want..." she protested, but he'd already hung up. "Fuck..." she muttered to herself as she rolled out of bed and pulled on the cleanest pair of jeans within reach.
"I'm here, what's the big surprise?" Emily grumbled, clutching her cup of coffee like it was a lifeline.
Derek grinned like a fool, but said nothing.
She hugged. "I'm not in the mood to play games, Derek – now what's this damn surprise so I can go home and sleep off this fucking hangover..."
Still grinning, he gestured proudly at a girl sitting at a nearby table, waiting expectantly. "Emily, meet Beth..."
She smiled, waved half-heartedly at the girl. Then, to Derek, "A word?" Once the two of them were out of earshot, she hissed, "What the fuck, Derek?"
"You're single now... Time to get out there and meet someone new. Like Beth."
She arched a brow. "Is she even gay?"
He shrugged. "That's for you to find out."
She rolled her eyes. "I told you, I don't want to meet anyone new. I just want Alex."
Derek frowned, though. "Is it Beth? I thought she was totally your type – she's really cute... Would you prefer a blonde? 'Cause there's this adorable blonde soccer player I always see at the track and..."
"No, Derek! I don't care what she looks like or how cute she is – she's not Alex!"
He sighed, clapped a hand on her shoulder. "I get it, Em. I get it, okay? You loved her. But she's gone and you have to move on," he said gently.
"You don't get it, Derek – you don't! Because you've never loved anyone; you like hooking up, you've never committed to anyone, so you can't even begin to understand what I felt – what I feel – for Alex!"
"Emily, listen to me: I'm your friend and I want you to be happy. If I could get you Alex, I would. But you can't always win people back...sometimes, things just fall apart." He shrugged helplessly.
She let out a shaky breath, struggling to hold back tears. "How do I do this without her?" she begged.
He just shook his head, gently wrapping her in a consoling embrace.
Catching her breath and sniffling back her tears, Emily sat down opposite Beth and offered her an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry if Derek got your hopes up – I'm really not in a good place right now: I just got out of a long relationship."
Beth's smile mirrored hers. "I understand, believe me... I just broke up with my boyfriend too. Men are shit..."
Emily gave a snort of almost-laughter. "Tell me about it." She shot Derek a glare where he was seated at a nearby table trying to pretend like he wasn't watching them. He shot her a thumbs up when he saw her watching.
Beth continued on, "He said he wasn't ready to commit to anything more serious. The next thing I heard, he'd gotten his ex-girlfriend pregnant." She scoffed, rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure she cheated on him the whole time they were together, but that's none of my business..."
Emily nodded her understanding, still sipping her coffee greedily lest her hangover headache return.
"What is it about guys that they think they can just do whatever they want and fuck the consequences?" Beth posited, though it was obviously rhetorical. "Especially college guys... They read a few books and suddenly think they're God's gift to women."
Emily actually bit out a laugh at that one. "I went to a college bar once and this guy who kept calling himself Viper kept hitting on me with the most ridiculous pick-up lines you've ever heard. It was like a car crash – I wanted to look away, but I just couldn't."
Beth barked out a laugh, eyes twinkling with mirth. "I think I've been on that exact date. Never with anyone who gave themselves a nickname, but...same shit, different pile." She shrugged, played with the condensation from her iced coffee that had pooled on the table. "I don't mean to sound bitter – obviously I'm better off without someone who probably cheated on me with his ex – it's just hard after you've given so much of yourself to someone to have them just walk away like you were nothing to them."
Emily nodded solemnly, afraid to say anything lest the dam holding back her tears break again.
Seeming to realize she'd been monopolizing the conversation a little, Beth asked, "What about you? What'd he do to stomp on your heart?"
Clearing her throat, tongue flicking out over her top lip, Emily managed to choke out, "She, actually..." She paused, cleared her throat again. "I don't really know what happened. She said I was too jealous, but I just didn't get why she refused to tell this guy who obviously was into her that she wasn't interested..."
"Ah..." Beth said, nodding knowingly.
In a small voice, she added, "But she made it clear we're not together anymore, so I guess that's all I need to know about that."
"I know you're probably not looking for anything, you know, real..." Beth started, stumbling over her words a little, "But maybe you could use a friend? I know I sure could."
In spite of what she'd anticipated from that morning, Emily felt a genuine smile breaking through. She nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, actually, that might be really nice."
Grinning brightly, Beth held up her coffee cup, bumping it against Emily in a lame facsimile of a toast.
Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw Derek shoot her another thumbs up, apparently considering his set up a success.