“What makes a man come up to a woman and say such awful things?” Kallie asked. “Why can’t he just walk away and leave me alone?”
“He’s hurt,” Jeremy said. “So he’s striking out. It’s not right, but it’s the truth.”
“Yeah, just like James did with that bullshit interview. Which is why you’re better off without Ash. He’s much more like James than anyone I’ve ever encountered,” Eris said.
“What? That’s insane,” Jeremy said.
“No, it’s not,” Eris said. “He lied to you in the very beginning, Kallie. And I told you that wasn’t a good thing. And James? He lied to you multiple times throughout the course of your relationship.”
“He didn’t lie to me, Eris. I just didn’t know about all the other women he’d been with,” Kallie said.
“Wait, there were other women?” Jeremy asked.
“Yeah, dipship,” Eris said.
“According to James, there were four other women—not including the one at our wedding,” Kallie said.
“That’s fucked up,” Jeremy said.
“Yes, it is. Ash has money, just like James. He throws it around, just like James. He thinks his money should buy him special privileges, just like James. And now he’s lashing out against you in anger, just like James,” Eris said.
Kallie heard what her friend was saying, but it was hard for her to believe it. She didn’t understand why Ash didn’t simply go back to his typical hookups and leave her alone. There were plenty of women at that party he could’ve been with. So why approach her? Why try to decimate her in front of some college kid with a comic book collection if he was returning back to his old lifestyle?
“Why doesn’t he just go back to his hookups?” Kallie asked. “He could leave me alone and resume his life the way he was living it before St. Barts. Why doesn’t he just do that? Why keep hurting me?”
“Honestly? I think he might be,” Jeremy said.
“What do you mean?” Eris asked.
“I was finalizing some promotions this morning from some people I talked to at the party and there might have been a few people that saw Ash kissing Sasha last night,” Jeremy said.
“I saw them kissing last night,” Kallie said.
“Well, one of the girls said they saw Sasha tug Ash into a room shortly after Eris and I left,” Jeremy said. “So if Ash is going back to that life, you probably won’t have him harassing you anymore.”
“Good,” Eris said. “It’s about damn time he left Kallie alone.”
But Kallie only felt sick to her stomach.
Sasha? Really? For some reason that burned Kallie to her core. The woman who interrupted their day. Who intentionally tried to interject herself into their lunch date. Who openly portrayed herself as better than Kallie, and that was who Ash decided to fuck at the party? The car fell silent and Kallie’s eyes migrated back out the window. She had no reason to feel upset. That was what she wanted. For Ash to go back to his old life and leave her the hell alone.
That was what she wanted.
Possibly.
Chapter 8
Ash
Ash woke up the next morning with a dull roar in his head he’d become all too comfortable with. He’d had enough of the Hamptons. He was going straight back to the city. He reeked of booze, he could still smell Sasha’s overpowering perfume on his body, and it made him want to vomit. His stomach rolled as he sat up, and suddenly the room began to tilt. His head grew heavy. His stomach rolled and ebbed with the ocean waves penetrating the open windows of his bedroom. He stumbled to the bathroom and fell over the sink, vomiting the contents of his stomach into the onyx bowl.
A seven-thousand-dollar puke catcher.
He turned on the faucet and washed it away, trying to focus on anything else but the splitting headache that passed behind his eyes. He gargled some water and spit it out, the taste of it turning his stomach again. He unleashed time after time, until there was nothing left in his body but bile, blood, and a sorry excuse for his existence. He splashed water in his face. He cleaned out the sink with his hands. He reached for the shower and turned it on as hot as he could get it, just to fill the room with steam.
Then, he got in and resolved himself to washing the weekend off his body.
He’d had enough of this place. His want to get away from Kallie had turned into a desperate attempt at chasing her. At humiliating her in front of people. And the only thing he got in return was proof that she was who her ex said she was. Until the party. Until Stanley’s judgment of her and Eris’s words and Jeremy’s defense.