by Lexy Timms
She was leaving, whether they came with her or not.
“I’m leaving,” Kallie said.
“Where are you headed?” Eris asked.
“Back to the city. I have stuff I need to do.”
“I thought you took Monday off?”
“Doesn’t matter. I want to spend it in my apartment.”
“Look, if this is about Ash—”
“Save it, Eris,” Kallie said curtly. “I’m over this weekend. The entire point of this was to get away from all of the crap from the city, and guess what? That crap has been around every corner we’ve turned the entire weekend.”
“She’s right,” Jeremy said. “She can’t relax with Ash here.”
“But we put him in his place last night,” Eris said. “He won’t bother her anymore. He’s not that stupid.”
“You did what?” Kallie asked.
Kallie watched the two of them exchange looks, and it made her nervous.
“What happened after I left?” she asked.
“Ash made an ass out of himself, that’s what happened,” Eris said.
“What did he do?” Kallie asked.
“He came up to me and rattled on about leaving Eris and you behind because of the two of you supposedly working together to be gold diggers or something,” Jeremy said.
“So, the same shit he and James have been spouting for days. Got it,” Kallie said.
“And I gave it to him. I really did,” Eris said. “I told him that you would never do any of the things James accused you of.”
“I’m really sorry he did that to you, Jeremy,” Kallie said.
“It’s not your fault. He’s the one losing his mind,” he said.
“I even played him the voice message. But it didn’t look like it did anything.”
“Wait, what voice message?” Kallie asked.
“The one when you first got back into town? You know, where you said that Ash wasn’t what he seemed to be?”
“You played that for him? You still have it?” she asked.
“I do. I didn’t delete it because I heard it and then went straight over to you.”
“A day and a half later,” Kallie said with a snicker.
“I was busy, but I got there,” Eris said. “And it didn’t do a thing anyway, but he did look like he felt like shit. He needed to be reminded of his place in all this. That man wasn’t forthcoming with you in the beginning with who he was. He seems to have forgotten his entire fucking lying streak.”
“She really handed Ash his ass. I was impressed,” Jeremy said with a grin. “She told him to not forget about the fact that you left because of his money. It was great. The entire room was silent while it happened.”
Kallie felt worse than ever. Not only had she ruined Jeremy and Eris’s night, Ash had gotten his ass handed to him in front of a bunch of people that probably respected him. And she wasn’t sure why that made her feel so bad. Maybe she was so over all of this crap that she didn’t care what Ash thought as long as the two of them moved on. Or maybe she didn’t enjoy having people become embarrassed on her account.
Or maybe she still cared about him.
Kallie refused to entertain that last part.
“Did Ash say anything after you played him the message?” Kallie asked.
“No. He was silent. Didn’t say a damn word. Not even as Jeremy and I left,” Eris said.
And any glimmer of hope that existed within Kallie was extinguished in that very moment. She remembered the voice mail she left for her friend. It would always be emblazoned within her memory. Kallie had been so shaken up and so blindsided with who Ash had been that it had frightened her. Scared her away from an island and cooped her up in her apartment. But if that voice message didn’t convince Ash of her innocence, then nothing would. She had nothing else. James had forbidden people from taking pictures at the wedding because he wanted them all to look a specific way, and she couldn't track down the wedding photographer. As far as she knew, there was no one taking videos of anything. It was her word against his, and because he had the money he was the one with the platform.
There was nothing else.
Nothing except to move on and forget about it.
“I’m going home,” Kallie said with tears in her eyes. “And I don’t care if you two come or not. But I’m going back to Manhattan and I’m spending the rest of my weekend the way I want to.”
Then, Kallie headed up to her room.
It didn’t take her long before she had herself packed. She hadn’t brough much with her and she hadn’t done much since she arrived. She slung her bag over her shoulder and slipped into her shoes, then made her way for the front door. She didn’t see anyone downstairs. She couldn't hear anyone in the house. She figured Eris and Jeremy had left to go do something fun on the island now that they no longer had her dragging them down. But it didn’t matter. Kallie would call a cab and pay the exorbitant fee to get her back. That was how badly she wanted to be home. In her own bed. Underneath her own sheets.
Away from Ash and that girl hanging all over him.
Kallie opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch. The sun was hot against her face and the ocean breeze was almost stifling. She could taste the salted air on the tip of her lips. She closed the door behind her and made her way down the stairs, not looking up until she got to the sidewalk.
And she was met with Jeremy’s car.
“What?” Eris asked. “You didn’t think we’d let you ride home alone, did you?”
A shadow of a smile ticked Kallie’s lips before she slid into the back seat of the car. She didn’t have Ash, but she did have Eris. And that was all she could ask for. Her best friend made her irate sometimes, but in the end, she could always count on her to be there. The three of them started their two-hour drive back into the city, and the entire time Kallie stared out the window. Watching the mansions roll by. Watching the roads give way to trees. Watching the trees give way to the city smog.
All in an attempt to get her home.
She wondered what happened now. What came next? But all she could come up with was work. She had a business to run. Money to make. People that still needed her help. She figured she would go back to her office. To her business. Proceed on with business as usual, like nothing had ever happened. But all of it felt empty now. Something that used to bring her so much passion had been touched by Ash and James both. It seemed tainted somehow. And the idea of walking back into her office Tuesday morning made her cringe.
She was paid to organize people’s lives, and she felt like a hypocrite. Hairdressers kept their hair impeccable as a testament to their talents. Nail professionals kept their nails perfect as a testament to their abilities. But Kallie’s life was in shambles. How was she supposed to advertise her organizational services when her life was falling apart in the most public arena possible?
Kallie felt like a fraud.
That was why she cringed about having to go back to work.
“You know he’s a piece of shit, right?” Eris asked.
“Ash is a good man, but he’s got his faults,” Jeremy said.
“Do you want to get laid tonight?” she asked.
“I could ask you that same question. I know you’re just trying to support your friend, but Ash is my friend too. Remember how we met?”
“And we can un-meet very easily.”
“Enough,” Kallie said.
She sighed as her two friends fell silent.
“I get that you’re trying to make me feel better, Eris. But I was enjoying the silence. Can we get back to that?” she asked.
“Sure. If that’s what you want,” Eris said.
“Yes. It really is.”
“Just entertain this for a second.”
Kallie groaned as her forehead fell against the window.
“Eris, she doesn’t want—”
“No sex for you,” Eris said to Jeremy.
“Cut it out,” Kallie said with a groan.
�
�All I’m saying is there are so many things that could happen to Ash on the rest of his vacation or whatever his trip to the Hamptons was,” she said. “He could sprain his ankle running on the beach. He could be attacked by seagulls. He could fall asleep in the sun with the word ‘shithead’ outlined in sunscreen on his stomach.”
Kallie closed her eyes and tried to block out her best friend’s voice. Eris and Jeremy began to argue back and forth, and it made Kallie wish she’d taken the cab without even consulting them on her leave. She knew her friend was trying to make her laugh, but she didn’t feel like laughing. All she wanted to do was get home, crawl in bed, and watch some television. Zone out while staring at the ceiling. Lie there in silence until sleep finally took her under again.
But Eris and Jeremy’s bickering wouldn’t give her the silence she had asked for.
“And even if Ash is still some half-decent man underneath the drunken facade he’s plastered on, why did he keep approaching Kallie?” Eris asked. “She wasn’t doing a fucking thing to him, and he pops out of nowhere and berates her every chance he got.”
“I’m not defending his actions,” Jeremy said. “All I’m saying is he’s probably bashing Kallie to people like you’re bashing him now. So if you want to be better than him—”
“Kallie didn’t fucking do anything, Jeremy!”
“What makes a man behave like that?” Kallie’s question stopped the bickering in the car.
“What?” Eris asked.
“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.
Until that damn voice message.
He knew he’d lied to her. At the very least, he had misled her without correcting her interpretation of him. But he wasn’t trying to steal her money. He wasn’t intentionally conning some sort of plan with a friend of his to drain her for all she was worth. But the more he found himself around Kallie, the more his heart and his mind fought. The more they clashed. And little by little, his soul was stepping in to resolve the argument.
He needed to get back to the city.
He needed to get away from Kallie.
And he would do that once his hangover went away.
He washed himself down, scrubbing the stench of Sasha off his skin. The nerve of that woman. But then again, he did use her. He didn’t push away her advances when she first initiated them. And he had shown up for the weekend just to attend her party. Fuck. Ash needed to get a hold on himself again. If his antics continued to appear in the papers, he knew his father would pay him a visit. Which was something he didn’t want. The last thing he needed was to stare that man in the face and see any part of himself in that man’s eyes.
It was enough that they looked exactly alike.
Ash gathered himself together enough to call Clyde to come get him. He packed up his things and contacted the maid, letting her know that he was leaving and she was free to clean the house. He slid into the back seat of the car and told Clyde to take him home, then he immediately rolled up the partition between the two of them.
But his mind wouldn't shut off.
He kept replaying that voice message in his head. The one from Eris’s phone. Did she really leave the island because of his lie? Because if she did, then that contradicted those text messages. Was there a way for them to have faked that kind of thing? He was sure there was. Then again, Eris was right about another thing. It was very easy to fake text messages as well. Ash knew it would plague him if he didn’t get to the bottom of things. Even if he dug and al
l he found was more proof that Kallie’s ex was right, he had to do something.
Anything to keep his mind off drinking away her memory.
“Investigative Probabilities, this is—”
“Chanel. It’s Ash,” he said.
“Oh. Well hello, Mr. Worthington. To what do I owe the weekend phone call?” she asked.
“Are you still on the family’s payroll?” he asked.
“The last time I checked my bank account, yes.”
“Good. I need you to do something for me. Are you familiar with James Rathbone’s interview?”
“Everyone is,” she said plainly.
“I need you to figure out the truth behind those text messages,” he said. “Because I’m not sure if they’re real or not.”
“You want to know if James is telling the truth.”
“For now, I’ll settle for whether or not those messages are real or faked,” he said.
“It’s pretty dicey to get phone records without a warrant, Mr. Worthington. But I do have a tech guy I know that works miracles in exchange for some favors. Maybe I can persuade him—”
“I honestly don’t care,” he said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Can you do it or not?”
“Of course I can, Mr. Worthington. You’d be surprised how many times fake text messages come up in divorce proceedings. Faking text messages is easy. Proving they’re fake takes some time. But I can figure it out. It’s why your father keeps me on retainer. Is there anything else you want on Mr. Rathbone?”
“Anything you’ve got on his public and private reputation,” he said.
“I’ll call you the minute I have something,” she said.
“Thanks. Oh, and the sooner you can have all of this to me, the bigger the tip I’ll be encouraged to leave you.”
“I read you loud and clear, Mr. Worthington.”
Ash hung up to the phone and closed his eyes for the rest of the trip. Chanel Clodfelter was the best private investigator in the state of New York. The police departments regularly contracted work out to her until his father experienced someone embezzling from his company. He reached out to her to fish out who it was, and within a week she had not only a name, but also a file folder’s worth of proof to take straight to the courts. My father tripled her yearly salary from what the police departments paid her on a regular basis, then she sat and waited until we called.
