Can I see a picture of your ex?
Yes, that would be weird. I was becoming weird. And jaded. And sad. I wished I could turn back the clock. Go back to when we both loved each other.
“We’ve been invited to a wedding,” Chaz said.
“Amy’s?”
“Yes. In two weeks. Do you want to come?”
I should have said no, but I wasn’t ready to part ways with Chaz. I told myself it was to relieve my itch. I hadn’t had enough of her body. That was all I wanted from her. I would always love her and I was slowly going to have to come to terms with that.
But I would never commit myself to Chaz again. “Sure, why not?” I said, keeping my tone as casual as I could.
“Good. Amy said it’ll be from Friday to Sunday at a lodge in the mountains. She’ll send me a virtual invitation.”
She sounded so happy to have reconnected with Amy. When they came home together, I was surprised that Amy was sleeping over and even more so that they had ironed out their differences.
I’m ashamed to say that I’d been envious of Amy. They had been at ease with each other, just as though that two-year separation had not happened. She had probably told Amy the truth about what happened between her and the guy she had been with.
As desperate as I was to know, I was not going to ask Amy and put her in an impossible position of needing to be loyal to an old friend and a newer one.
“You seem so deep in thought,” Charlotte said. “What are you thinking?”
“Tell me about Kayden’s dad?”
We had so many lies and secrets between us. Even though I had broken up with Abigail, I hadn’t mentioned her to Charlotte. As for Charlotte, she had so many secrets, I doubted she would have known the truth if it would have bit her on the ass.
The air visibly tensed between us.
“What do you want to know?”
“Are you completely done with him?”
She raised her head to look at me. “What do you take me for?” Her eyes flashed.
I met her gaze with a raise of the eyebrow. She had the grace to blush.
“What else do you want to know?” she asked.
“What does he look like?”
She inhaled sharply. “He has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.”
I stopped breathing. She had fallen in love with a man who resembled me. “What kind of sick shit is that Charlotte? Why did you want someone who looked like me when you had me?”
A lid went off. The anger and pain of the last two years exploded inside of me. I sat up on the bed. What was I doing in Charlotte’s bed? I was fooling myself that she was a good person.
She was a cold bitch. The only reason she was interested in me was because I had come at a convenient time. She needed me and she had no man at the present to warm her bed.
I cursed under my breath. I couldn’t think. I needed some fresh air and space. I grabbed my boxer briefs and pulled them on.
“Are you leaving?” she asked.
“Yes, but just to the B&B. Unlike you, I fulfil my commitments. I promised to take care of Kayden until Mrs. Horace comes back and that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
“You don’t have to, Alex. Kayden is my responsibility,” she said in a small voice.
I refused to let it get to me. I ignored the swell of a weird emotion in my chest.
“What would you like me to do? Write a letter and run away? Sorry, I don’t roll like that.” I finished dressing and stood over her. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
She sat up. “We need to talk, Alex.”
I shook my head. I had reached the end of my rope with Charlotte. There was nothing she could tell me that would make me contemplate opening my heart to her again.
“I don’t want to hear it.” I stalked out of her bedroom and her house.
I was a fool. Outside, I punched into the air. She thought I was an idiot but even idiots wised up after some time. Nausea rose up my throat as I visualized Charlotte with a guy who looked like my twin. She was sicker than I thought.
Charlotte
It was my favorite kind of summer evening, with a soft warm breeze blowing and the trees swaying gently in the wind. I should have been happy that it was Friday and I had the whole weekend free.
Instead, I dragged one foot in front of the other, dreading the moment when I would get home to Alex’s painfully polite welcome. Since he had walked out that evening after making love.
I’d known that walking out of our marriage would hurt him, badly, but I’d honestly believed that after he went back to New York and his family he would eventually get over me. My chest squeezed painfully when I remembered the bitterness in his voice. It hurt terribly to know that I had turned Alex into the angry man who had walked out of my house that evening.