Best Served Cold Read Online Free Page A

portion in the plastic cup. Giff eyed them with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism.
    He finally snagged one between his thumb and forefinger, examined it and popped it into his mouth.
    Chewing with his eyes closed, he nodded.
    “I get it. Okay, I am now all about the bears in rum.” He tossed a few more back and then licked his fingers. “Sticky little buggers, though.”
    Ava handed him a napkin, and Giff smiled at me as he wiped his hands. “What Ava said when I so rudely interrupted is exactly on target. Stay away from Liam. Don’t try to see him.”
    “Oh, believe me, I’m not.” I slid a glance at my roommate. “That kind of pain I don’t need.”
    “Good girl. If Liam gets even a hint that you’re still hung up on him, he’ll run in the other direction. Screwed up, I know, but that’s our boy.”
    I bit my tongue. I wasn’t still hung up on Liam, but if this was what Giff needed to believe so he would help us, I was willing to go along with it. Behind his back, Ava raised her eyebrows at me. I lifted my shoulder in the slightest of shrugs.
    “Giff, it’s really nice that you want to help, but are you sure? I mean, Liam’s your best friend. You don’t feel like you’re...I don’t know, betraying him a little?”
    He craned his head back to knock the last few bears out of the cup. “Jules, sometimes people don’t know what’s good for them. You were good for Liam. He was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I don’t know what spooked him. He didn’t tell me. After the party, he wouldn’t talk about the whole situation. Just said he was ready to be free again.”
    I sighed and stretched out on the floor along the edge of the tablecloth. “I think I know what it was. I didn’t at first, but then the more I thought about it--”
    Ava faked a look of surprise. “You thought about this, Jules? Really? I never would have known.”
    “Shut up.” I kicked at her foot. “So I spent a little time wondering what caused my boyfriend of nearly a year to suddenly break up with me. Sue me.” I turned back to Giff. “About two weeks before the birthday party, the Senator and Mrs. Bailey came down to take us to dinner. You remember that? You went out with us, too.”
    “Sure.” Giff rolled his eyes back, thinking about it. “We went to the fancy-ass Italian restaurant, and Liam’s mom didn’t like her meal.”
    “Right. So the Senator made a big deal that night about some event this spring. He’s getting an award—the Senator, I mean—and Liam is supposed to be a presenter or whatever. And his dad talked to me about it, told me it was really important and he hoped I’d be there with Liam.”
    Giff frowned. “Okay?”
    I hugged my knees to my chest as I swung up to lean against the bed again. “Don’t you see? His father assumed I’d still be with Liam at that point. I saw a look on Liam’s face—he was not happy.”
    Ava nodded. “The thrill of the chase was officially long over. Once his parents were thinking of you as a long-term girlfriend, he was scared shitless.”
    “I don’t know about scared, but definitely freaked.”
    “Yeah, that would be classic Liam.” Giff sighed.
    I rolled my eyes. “Maybe, but it’s also the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Seriously? So you’re a guy, you have a girl who’s hooking up with you on a regular basis, someone who as far as I can tell, you don’t hate, and just because your parents approve, suddenly you turn asshole? And not only that, you feel the pressing need not only to break up with said girl, but do it in the most hurtful, dick way possible?” I shook my head. “I call bullshit.”
    “You’re not wrong. But trust me, sweetheart, it’s the truth.” Giff lay down and reached an arm to the fridge, snagged the bottle of white and sat up again. He unscrewed the top and poured a healthy slug into the cup that had held the rummy bears.
    “I’ve known Liam since the first day of high school. I was cocky, with a huge chip