One Night with His Ex

by Katherine Garbera

  Saw you on the live feed. Your speech was great. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow night.

  She had seen the speech? Even though she was mistaking Alec for him, the fact that she had watched meant more to him than he knew it should. She hadn’t been out with her friend; she’d been tuned in to the awards ceremony. He glanced at the ring on the nightstand and knew that tomorrow he was going to ask her to marry him.

  Night, baby. Can’t wait to see you too.

  He felt better now, so he got up, got dressed and headed down to the bar. Because he always did his best thinking when he was surrounded by people.

  * * *

  Hadley woke up early and showered, knowing she was going home today. For once that wasn’t the only thing that added a spring to her step. She’d spent the night thinking of Mo after their last text exchange and she had that feeling of rightness in her gut.

  As she braided her hair for ease since she was traveling and put on a bit of light makeup, she glanced out the window of Merri’s third floor walk-up. It faced a brick wall of the building next door. She had once thought that she was meant for life in the big city, but she now realized how much she loved the wide-open space of Texas.

  And that made her feel better about her decision to stop her freelance work in New York and just concentrate on jobs in Texas. At first she’d thought it was because of everything going on with Mauricio but honestly, she’d just changed. The idea of waking up to this view every morning wasn’t one she relished. And as much as she loved the big city amenities, Cole’s Hill offered a lot of entertainment.

  She packed her carry-on bag and then glanced at the clock. Merri was moving around the apartment and she grabbed her phone to text Mo before she went to talk with her friend and say goodbye.

  There were a bunch of news notifications from her app. To be fair, most alerts she received were from TMZ, so when she clicked on this one, she was expecting to see something about one of her favorite celebs. Not a headline about Scarlet O’Malley and her Texas billionaire hookup. She almost dropped the phone when the image finished downloading and she saw that the Texas billionaire was actually her boyfriend, Mauricio Velasquez.

  He was kissing Scarlet O’Malley.

  Honestly, she couldn’t see his face or much of his body but she saw the tux and his arms, his hair.

  She tossed her phone onto the bed.

  That jackass.

  That big, dumb, lying sack of crap.

  That... Oh, God. Was it true?

  She didn’t want to believe it could be, but she’d seen him in that very tux in a text he’d sent her earlier and it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that he’d...hook up? Really? Just yesterday he’d been talking about getting a place together in New York and then...

  Her stomach seized up and she realized that anger was giving way to hurt. She blinked several times to try to keep from crying, but it didn’t work. She sank to the floor with the bed against her back, pulled her knees up and put her head against them. She started to really cry as her thoughts spun out of control in her head.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  What was he thinking?

  Why had she let him back into her heart? She’d known he wasn’t the settling-down type. She’d known that Mo was too much of a flirt and a partier to ever be alone. But she’d thought he’d changed. She’d believed him when he had shown her how different he was. But maybe she’d been seeing what she wanted to see.

  Wasn’t that what Helena had said about Malcolm, that she’d missed the signs of him freaking out because she just was so happy that she saw him as settled and contented with the engagement?

  Hadley was a fool.

  It was bad enough that she’d rushed back to him from New York the last time and found a woman in his bed. This time...everyone was going to see that picture; everyone would know what he had done.

  She knew how hard it was to stop loving him, but pride was going to make it impossible to forgive this. Plus, how many times did she have to see him with another woman before she realized that that was the man he truly was?

  There was a knock on the door.

  “Hadley, you awake?” Merri called.

  “Yes,” she said, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her shirt and going to open the door.

  “Oh, girl, what’s the matter?” Merri asked.

  She started talking but even trying to get the words out made her voice shaky.

  “Mo is all over the gossip sites this morning. It looks like he hooked up with Scarlet O’Malley last night.”

  “What? How is that even possible?” Merri asked.

  Her friend pulled her own phone from her pocket, but Hadley wasn’t paying attention anymore. She needed to stop being so emotional. She needed to have some backbone, because when she got back to Texas, she and Mr. Velasquez were going to have a chat. And then she was going to put that man in her rearview mirror for good.

  No more second chances... Hell, this had been his second chance. Hers too, but she’d been wrong. She should have known when they’d had the pregnancy scare that it wasn’t a good way to start over.

  “I’m sorry, Hadley. Is there anything I can do?” Merri asked.

  “No, I’m fine. Besides, you have to get to work. I’m going to catch an Uber to the airport. Maybe I can get on an earlier flight. I want to be back home, so I can end it with him and then—”

  She had to stop talking because she was crying again. Merri hugged her close and held her.

  “Maybe there’s an explanation that we just don’t know,” Merri said.

  Was there?

  She picked up the phone, unlocked it and glanced down at the photo once more. How was he going to explain another woman wrapped around him like a cheap suit?

  “I don’t think so, Merri. But I will give him a chance to explain,” she said. She couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say. At least this time he couldn’t say they were on a break.

  * * *

  The pounding on the door woke him. He sat up and glanced at the door as Alec walked into his bedroom, his hair standing on end, his shirt unfastened.

  “I screwed up,” Alec said.

  “What did you do?” Mo asked as he got out of bed and walked over to his brother.

  “I slept with Scarlet,” Alec said. “I think the paparazzi that follow her might have gotten a picture or two of us.”

  “Okay, it’s fine. I don’t think it will affect your business,” Mo said. “That’s really more your area than mine but we can handle this.”

  “No, Mo, you’re not understanding me. They don’t think I slept with Scarlet, they think you did,” Alec said.

  Mauricio shook his head. “What? Why would they think that?”

  “I was you last night,” Alec said.

  “Why weren’t you just yourself?”

  “It was easier to pretend I was you,” Alec said. “Of course, now I totally regret it, but at the time it seemed easier than explaining your absence. And I never expected to end up with Scarlet.”

  “Fuck.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Dammit,” Mo said, grabbing his phone. He dialed Hadley’s number but it went straight to voice mail like her phone was off. “This sucks, Alejandro. I can’t believe you—”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Well, Hadley doesn’t know that it was you. She’s going to think that it’s me.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know.”

  He sincerely doubted it. “Do you think that’s the case?”

  “Uh, no. I already saw the alerts on my phone. I don’t know what to do. Does it make you look worse to say that you didn’t attend a reception in your honor or let the world think—”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck what the world thinks. It’s Hadley whose opinion matters, and right now she thinks I cheated on
her. Again.”

  “I know that. Listen, what if I call her and explain?” Alec said.

  “No. You can’t do that. I have to talk to her and... Hell, I don’t want to have to explain this. She’s the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with and I know her. She’s not going to be in a listening mood when she sees me. She’s probably going to deck me. And rightly so.”

  “Not rightly so. I’m the one who did this. Let me fix it.”

  Mauricio couldn’t let Alec do anything of the sort. He had to be the one to talk to her. He should have told her last night that he loved her.

  He could be worrying for nothing, but given their past, he knew that Hadley wasn’t going to just think there was an innocent explanation for those pictures. He didn’t blame her. He was already mentally switching his proposal plan to a grovel plan. Maybe she would see him and know immediately that he would never cheat on her. Not now. Not when they had come so far as a couple. But another part of him knew that she was still leery of trusting him and he didn’t blame her.

  He didn’t really blame Alec either. Mo’s past behavior was to blame—it had set Hadley and him on this path.

  “I have to fix this,” Mauricio said. His phone was blowing up with text messages from everyone who knew him. His mom, Malcolm, Helena and Diego.

  He sat down on the bed and rubbed the back of his neck. He needed to fix this. With Hadley but also for Hadley. Sure, he could tell her that it was Alec and she could believe him, but he didn’t want anyone in town to judge her because of this.

  He sent a group text to his mom and brother.

  It isn’t what you think. I will text more later.

  Helena was harder to respond to because her texts were a string of curse words and the final message just read, You stink. She loved you.

  “Order us something to eat. I’m going to shower and then we’re going to figure this out,” Mo said to his brother. Alec looked like he was going to try to explain or apologize again but Mauricio didn’t want to hear it. He just walked into the bathroom, put his hands on the marble counter next to the sink and bowed his head.

  He hoped Hadley was on the plane and hadn’t seen the articles, but he suspected she had. He’d seen the story and he wasn’t even looking for it. His stomach felt like it had a rock in the bottom of it. Unlike the time Hadley had walked in on Marnie Masters in his bed, he didn’t have mock indignity to fall back on now. He knew no matter what the explanation was and despite his innocence, this was going to hurt her.

  The last thing he ever wanted to do was to see her hurt, and there was no easy way out of this. He could say he was sick, but he knew there would be friends from Cole’s Hill that had seen him in the bar late last night while he’d been making his plan to propose to Hadley. There were so many places where she would be able to pick apart his story.

  If he were in her shoes, would he believe his own story? Would he be able to just say, oh, that makes sense?

  He knew he wouldn’t. He’d lost his cool when she’d kissed Jackson.

  Finally he took out his phone and called her number. This time he left a voice mail. He hoped she’d listen to it and it would help her to see his side in this mess. That he’d changed. She mattered to him in ways that he couldn’t really explain but that he needed her to believe.

  He showered, dressed and then started making calls. Alec looked hung over but was focused on figuring out the best options to fix the PR mess he’d created. Meanwhile, Helena wouldn’t take Mo’s calls, so he had to resort to using Malcolm as a go-between to try to figure out how to win Hadley back.

  Sixteen

  She’d always heard that old chestnut about how you can’t go home again, but she had never really understood it until now. Until she saw that voice mail notification from Mauricio and realized that somehow he’d become tied to her idea of home.

  The tears that she’d done a pretty good job of keeping at bay burned the back of her eyes and she blinked until they disappeared.

  She ignored the voice mail, keeping her large-framed dark sunglasses on as she towed her carry-on bag through the Houston airport. Once she was outside, she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have a car with her, and an Uber to Cole’s Hill would cost the moon. Should she rent a car?

  She felt like she was going to cry again but this time she kept it together. She was stronger than this. Stronger than a broken heart. She knew she needed to get past the sadness to anger if she was going to be able to get over this, but she had no fire in her. Not right now.

  Never had she believed that loving someone was a negative thing, even when she and Mo had broken up the last time. She’d seen it as her chance to find herself as a woman and to move on, which she’d done. But now... Well, now she just felt wounded and vulnerable.

  And stupid.

  And sad.

  Damn.

  She had to do something.

  She’d rent a car, drive home and then figure out when to see Mo. She could just ignore him for a few days if she stayed in Houston, but she wasn’t the kind of woman to run away from her problems and she knew it. She’d always been one to face them head on.

  And she really wanted to hear what Mo had to say. Her phone pinged, and she glanced down, expecting to see another text from Helena or her friends, but it was from Mo.

  Glad you’re safely back in Texas. Please call me.

  She sat there. Call him? What was he going to say? She’d forgotten they had each turned on the friend finding app on their devices.

  She’d never know if she didn’t respond to him and she knew it was past time that she did. So, she called him.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “Sure. So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked.

  “The photo. It wasn’t me,” he said.

  “It looked like you,” she said.

  “It was Alec.”

  Alec.

  “Why would Alec wear your tux and go to a gala in your honor?” she asked.

  “Because I was sick with food poisoning. He’s here at the Post Oak Hotel with me. Would you at least allow me to bring you over here, so I can tell you what happened?” he asked.

  Just hearing his voice sort of made her want to believe him. It was just like she’d suspected: she was never going to be able to just walk away from him. She wanted him to not be the man in that photo. And Alec and Mo had changed places before, but she’d always been able to tell the two of them apart.

  “Okay,” she said at last. This wasn’t the kind of conversation she wanted to have on the phone. She needed to see his face, because for all his faults, the one thing that Mauricio always had was his honesty. He had never lied to her. Even when she caught him with Marnie.

  “Thank you. I’ve texted the car service and they have someone at the airport. Where are you?” he asked.

  She glanced up at the sign over her head and told him, and then felt her tears stirring again. She hated how reasonable and nice he was being. It had been like a knife to her heart when she’d seen that photo, and she didn’t know if she would recover from it. Strangely that picture of the kiss hurt worse than walking in and finding another woman in his bed.

  She knew it was because this time they’d overcome so much to be together. And it was Alec kissing the woman, not Mo. But in her heart she wasn’t as ready to forgive. She realized how afraid of being hurt by him she still was.

  Her hand was shaking so she ended the call, because she realized that she couldn’t talk to him. Not now and probably never again if she wanted to keep her cool. Because she loved him.

  Whatever had been between them when they’d had their old relationship, it hadn’t been love. Not like this.

  This was something that wasn’t going to lessen with time. This was the kind of pain that was like an open wound, and talking to
him, hearing him tell her it was Alec, hadn’t fixed anything. Because she knew that she had no walls to hide behind. Not anymore. Not where he was concerned.

  “Ms. Everton?”

  She nodded at the driver who came over to her.

  “I’ll take your bag,” he said, reaching for her suitcase. She let him take it. He opened the door to a Bentley by the curb and she slid into the back seat. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend that she was going to be okay, but she knew that was a lie.

  And lying to herself wasn’t something she intended to do. She took out her makeup bag, fixed her mascara and then decided to add some eyeliner. She looked so pale that bronzer was in order too. By the time she arrived at the Post Oak, she had a full face of makeup on and felt like at least to the outside world she didn’t look like the hot mess she was inside.

  The driver opened her door and she climbed out.

  “Please check my bag with the valet. I’ll get it after my meeting,” she said.

  He nodded.

  She walked into the lobby with no real plan. Maybe she’d text Mo and have him meet her in the lobby and they could talk in the restaurant. She didn’t want to go to his room. Didn’t want to be alone with him where she’d be able to say all the things that were tumbling around in her head. Things she’d regret later and would burn all her bridges with him.

  * * *

  He didn’t bother waiting in the room for Hadley to come to him. He knew that he was on the back foot and needed to take the initiative. He could justify in his head that he was the innocent party, but he’d hurt this woman too many times in the past to sit in his room and wait for her.

  The driver texted to alert him that he was pulling up to the hotel and Mo took the elevator down to the lobby. He stood to the side of the entrance and waited.

  Hadley walked in with large sunglasses on her face. She pulled them off and scanned the lobby, and when their eyes met, she started blinking.

  His heart broke. Right then. There was no need to ask if she was going to forgive him.