Best Served Cold
Authors: Tawdra Kandle
**Kindle edition**
Best Served Cold
Copyright © 2013 Tawdra Kandle
Published by Hayson Publishing
St. Augustine, Florida
Cover Design by Once Upon a Time Covers
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
To the ladies of Romantic Edge Books-
Mandie, Amanda, Liz, Olivia, Melissa, Lola, Christine, Stephanie-
All of whom constantly challenge me to be better than I am,
and whose humor, encouragement and love
keep me moving forward.
I love you all.
The dorm room was dark. Someone jostled me, and I caught the shadowy image of my best friend Ava, grinning at me in encouragement. I rolled my eyes. Nothing was going according to my plan.
Throwing a surprise party for my boyfriend’s birthday had seemed like a good idea a month ago. But standing there, twenty minutes after he was supposed to show up, with way too many people crowded into his room with me, I was beginning to think I’d made a mistake.
The door flew open and banged against the wall. From the corner of my eye, I saw a few people jump out of the way, and then everything seemed to happen at once, in both slow motion and at top speed.
Liam was silhouetted in the doorway, the fluorescent lights from the hallway bleeding into the darkness of his room. He stumbled and fell against the door jam, bracing his back there to catch his balance. He couldn’t use his hands, because one arm was wrapped around the waist of the small blonde whose mouth was on his, and the other hand was down her shirt.
Someone in the room gasped. And then the guy I’d stationed by the light switch flipped it on, and a few people who didn’t have a good view of the door shouted, “Surprise!”
Next to me, I heard Giff, Liam’s roommate, groan. “Shit, Liam.”
I thought I was rooted where I stood, but somehow my feet propelled me across the room. I pushed through the wall-to-wall bodies until I was standing near the door.
Liam raised his eyes and finally seemed to notice everyone else staring at him. The girl he was holding—and groping—giggled and hid her eyes against his chest.
“What is this?” The slur in his voice was pronounced, and I gritted my teeth.
“It’s your birthday party, dumbass.” Giff was at my elbow again. “Your
surprise
birthday party. Julia put the whole thing together. Remember Julia? Your girlfriend?”
“Julia.” Liam drew out my name as he always did when he was teasing me. “Julia. God, what a girl. Going to all this trouble for your ex.”
His eyes met mine, and there wasn’t any confusion or guilt in them. No hint of the drunkenness I heard in his voice. There was only cunning and a knowing cruelty.
I couldn’t breathe. My lungs had stopped working, and now my head began to spin. Giff grabbed me by the arm, and on my other side, suddenly my best friend Ava was there, her hand on my waist.
“Ex?” I managed to get the word out, despite the lack of oxygen. “Since when am I your
ex
?”
Liam grinned, but again, there was no humor there. “Did I forget to tell you I was breaking up with you? Well, hell. I knew I was missing something. Guess I thought you’d get the picture when I stopped answering your calls.”
My mind scanned the last week. I’d been so preoccupied with putting this party together—a party that encompassed every room on this side of the hall. Giff and I had begged everyone to pitch in, let us use the space. I could see the corridor behind Liam was now filled with people who had ventured out to see what was going on.
But had he really stopped calling me? Wouldn’t I have noticed? We were both busy with finals. Sometimes we went a few days without seeing each other. I remembered being relieved that I didn’t have to keep the party a secret in person, so maybe it had been longer than usual...
“No, you didn’t tell me.” I whispered the words, hating the weakness they betrayed. “I think I would have remembered that. You know, the guy I’ve been dating for over ten months—breaking up with me.”
Liam still had his hand tucked within the girl’s shirt. I could see that she was beginning to realize what was going on. She bit her lip and kept her eyes on the floor.
“Ten months? Really? Well, that’s gotta be some kind of record for me.” He turned to look at his roommate. “Right, Giff? Have I ever kept a girl around that long?”
“You’re an asshole, Liam.” Giff swung me around so I didn’t have to look at my boyfriend—correction,
ex-
boyfriend—and the mortified girl in his arms. “Ava, get her out of here.”
She took me by the hand and pulled, stopping in front of Liam so abruptly that I ran into her back. I saw dark fury in her eyes just before she slapped his face.
“You fucking idiot. How dare you do this to my best friend?”
For the first time since he’d thrown open the door, something like regret flashed in Liam’s expression. Or maybe it was simply shock that anyone had stood up to him.
Ava turned back to me. “Come on, Jules. Let’s go home.”
She put herself between the couple of the hour and me as we squeezed through the doorway. I heard Giff behind us, shouting.
“Go home, everyone. Take whatever food and drink you want, but get the hell out of here. Party’s over.”
