Far From Perfect

Chapter 33

If someone had told me a few weeks ago that I would be stuck in a car with Nate for four long hours, I would have laughed and called them crazy. Turns out it's not so crazy, because here I am, sitting in the passenger seat of Nate's car on my way to Vegas with him. And if anyone is to blame for all of this, it's Gracie. Insert a long internal heavy sigh here.

She all but forced me to come with Nate when I talked to her over the phone a few days ago. I tried to fight her on it and offered to fly out to Vegas by myself when she told me there wasn't any room in Jared's SUV or any of the other rental cars the bridal party was taking to Vegas, but she wouldn't hear of it and insisted I go with Nate. She even went as far as saying that he would be more than happy to do it.

Lies.

I don't know who she was trying to convince that night we talked over the phone, but she was so wrong. Nate looked anything but happy when he picked me up from my place earlier and I don't blame him. I mean, who wants to drive their ex to Vegas? I sure as hell wouldn't and would be pissed if I was him too. Unfortunately, I'm not him and am in a very awkward position, because while he has every right to be pissed, I just have to sit here quietly and just be thankful that he's even taking me to begin with. I'm guessing Gracie blackmailed him or something to get him to agree because no one in their right mind would ever willingly agree to this.

If it were up to me, I would have backed out the day I found out I would be riding with Nate to Vegas, but I couldn't because my room was already booked and had been for weeks. That's not what was really holding me back though. I could easily cancel my room if I wanted. It was my promise to Gracie and Nate that held me back from bailing.

I had promised them both that I would come to Vegas to celebrate Gracie and Jared's joint bachelor and bachelorette party, and a promise is a promise, so I just had to suck it up and go with Nate. Even if it killed us both.

I look at the clock on the dashboard and see that we are one hour into the drive and Nate still hasn't said a word to me. Not one. Unless you count the text he sent me earlier to let me know he was outside my apartment waiting for me, which literally just said, outside. That was it.

He was clearly upset and I'm not the least bit surprised. Not after the way we ended things the last time we saw each other at Gracie and Jared's party. Scratch that. The word saw doesn't even begin to cover what went down between us. We had a really hot and heavy makeout session in Gracie's bathroom that led to a really bad fallout between us, but I don't regret one word of what I said that day.

Nate needs to understand that if he wants to be with me, he has to value me and our relationship. I'm not going to be with someone who questions whether what he have is worth it, and I refuse to stand around and wait while he figures it out. That's just a waste of my time and his.

I need someone who will not only value me as a person but who will also accept me as I am, and right now I'm not sure Nate is that person.

I pull out my headphones from my small backpack I'm using in place of a purse and plug them into my phone before placing them over my ears. I see Nate turn in my direction from the corner of my eye, but I don't bother paying him any attention and scroll through my phone until I find the audiobook Mia bought me for the long ride.

I have no idea what to expect when I download the audiobook to my phone besides what Mia told me in between fangirling over the book. She told me it's some romance novel that has a really hot alpha male and some very steamy scenes that according to her will leave me blushing. I honestly have a hard time believing it after all the romance novels I've read but who knows, maybe she's right. I'm excited to give it a listen.