***
The whole time I was on the elliptical, I kept thinking about my morning with Jeff. I closed my eyes and could almost feel his lips on mine.
December. I was going to marry him in three months. My eyes flew open, and I looked over at Ellie.
Oh. My. God. I’m going to get married in three months, and I haven’t started to plan a damn thing. Nothing! I needed to call my mom. Where should we get married? Austin? At the ranch?
On a beach. . . far, far away from everyone and everything. That would be the perfect wedding. It was too bad my mother would say hell no and then throw a damn Katharine Hepburn quote at my ass.
I hit Ellie on the arm.
She looked over and pulled her head phones out. Britney Spear’s “Toxic” was playing from her earbuds.
“What? We’ve only been going for thirty minutes. ”
“I’m freaking out!”
“I would think so. Do you know how much shit you ate in the last few hours?”
I rolled my eyes. “Not about what I ate. It’s about the wedding. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I’m getting married in three months, Ells. One. Two. Three. Three months and I’ve done nothing. ”
Ellie threw her head back and laughed. “Don’t worry. We have a secret weapon called Jenny. Ari, it will be fine. We got this thing. I mean we can. ”
Ellie stopped mid-sentence and stared past me. The look on her face was not good.
I was almost afraid to turn around to see who or what she was looking at.
“Um, how about we call it a day and go get those tattoos?” Ellie stopped the elliptical and jumped off.
Now, I knew it was bad. I hit stop, got off, and turned just in time to see Rebecca standing there, talking to. . . Jason?
“Ari, let’s just go. ”
Oh fuck no. I’d been dreaming about what I was going to say to her when I saw her again. She had been the reason why I’d lost the baby. It’d been her and her alone. I wanted to pound my fist in her face.
“It’s okay, Ells. I got this under control. Honest. ”
“The hell you do! I can practically see the steam coming from your ears, Ari. ”
What is Rebecca talking to Jason about? They sure seemed deep in conversation.
When I started to walk toward her, Ellie grabbed my arm.
“Ari, I really think this is a bad idea. There’s something Jeff didn’t tell you, and I really think you need to just walk away. ”
I turned and looked at her. “What? What didn’t he tell me?”
“Aw shit, Ari! You don’t really need to know. It doesn’t matter anymore, so please, let’s just go, please. ”
“You can’t say that to me and then just expect me to walk away. Tell me now or I will vagina punch your ass right here in the middle of the gym. ”
Ellie looked over my shoulder toward the bitch.
“Fuck me. Jason’s the father of Rebecca’s baby. ”
“Wait…what? He can’t be. He was with me when. . . ” Then, it hit me.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I pushed Ellie’s hand off my arm and turned around to head over to the devil’s spawn herself.