I figured if something was going to happen between us at any point, it should happen naturally.
Desiree finally got the hint that I wasn’t going to talk about Carter anymore and dropped it.
I was in a good mood when I left to head home to my apartment, but that quickly disappeared as soon as I got there. Ashton was standing in the parking lot, leaning back against his car with his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for me. He was parked right beside the spot where I always parked, something he clearly already knew, and I felt a prickle of aggravation go up the back of my neck.
I didn’t want to see him, much less talk to him, but there was really no way to avoid him if I wanted to get inside my apartment. He stepped toward me as I climbed out of my car.
“Where were you?” he asked. “I know you weren’t at work today.”
“What are you doing here, Ashton?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“There isn’t anything for us to talk about,” I said.
“Yes, there is,” he countered, stepping in my way as I tried to walk toward my apartment. “Which one of those guys who were at the diner is your boyfriend?”
I couldn’t decide which of the several unpleasant emotions that question caused to settle on, so I just went with disgust.
“None of them are,” I said. “Not that that’s any of your business. They are friends who wanted to make sure I was okay.”
“Why wouldn’t you be okay?”
There wasn’t even a way to respond to that that didn’t make me feel like I was stooping to his level.
“Ashton, it’s time for you to go home,” I said.
“I don’t want to go home.”
“You know what? I don’t care where you go. As long as you aren’t standing around in my parking lot, blocking me from going into my house.”
“Then I’ll go in with you,” he said. “We can talk in there.”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You need to leave me alone.”
“But I want to talk to you. We need to talk about us.”
I rolled my eyes, scoffing at the pure absurdity of the statement.
“There is no ‘us.’ There hasn’t been for a good while now. You need to get your mind around that,” I said.
“Of course, there is,” he said. “That’s what we need to talk about.”
He was taking a step toward me when a truck pulled into the parking lot. It took me a second to recognize it as Carter’s. He pulled up close beside us and rolled his window down. Leaning out, he first stared at Ashton, then turned to me.
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
Relief washed over me seeing him there. I was shocked and happy he showed up. I didn’t know why he was there or how he could have possibly known Ashton would be there to harass me, but it didn’t matter. He was there, and that meant I wasn’t standing alone in the parking lot with my crazy ex.
My ex, who looked decidedly less happy to see Carter than I was. The expression on Ashton’s face had gone cold, and he glared at Carter.
“There’s no problem,” he said. “Why don’t you just keep driving to whatever hole you crawled out of?”
He obviously thought that would rile Carter up or offend him somehow. But Carter looked completely unaffected by the comment.
“I would, but Lauren and I have plans. Are you ready to go, Lauren?” he asked.
I was extremely proud of myself for not completely melting into a puddle in that second and ruining the whole cover. As it was, my heart skipped a beat, and there were butterflies in my stomach as I walked around the truck to the passenger side.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Opening the door, I hopped in. I could see Ashton fuming through the windshield. He was obviously pissed, not just at me refusing to talk to him about the imagined ongoing relationship with me he apparently had in his head, but also that I would go with Carter as soon as he showed up. My ex didn’t want anyone in the world to have my attention if he didn’t, but I had a feeling that was especially true for Carter.
Ashton slammed his fist down on the hood of his car as Carter backed up and turned around so he could drive us out of the parking lot. I made sure to keep a calm, casual look on my face until we were out of the parking lot, not knowing how much Ashton could see and wanting to make sure the ruse was convincing.
When we were far enough away that I knew there was no way Ashton would be able to see us even in the mirrors, I relaxed back against the seat.
“Thank you for saving me. I can’t believe he showed up like that.”