“It’s nice to see you too, Mrs. Marshall,” I reply, giving her a gentle squeeze. In her heels and my bare feet, we’re the same height.
“You’re even prettier than the last time I saw you.” She steps back to inspect me, her perusal going from head to foot. “You were with Mitch’s girlfriend… Oh dear, what is her name?”
“Paige,” I supply.
“Yes, that’s right, Paige. Such a lovely girl. You must be looking forward to the wedding. I know I am.”
I let out a short laugh. “I don’t think anyone is more excited about the wedding than their daughter.” Bree is in L.O.V.E luurve with her dress, a pale pink satin—her favorite color—with a floor-length tulle skirt. Just four more weeks until she can walk down the aisle with the other flower girls. And two more weeks until the co-ed bachelorette and bachelor festivities of deep tissue massages, facials, manicures and water sports.
Mrs. Marshall nods toward Carly. “Erin, this is my friend Carly Templeton, the one Josh spoke to you about. She’s wanted to meet you from the moment she saw your interview about the kidnapping. By the way, that was extremely brave of you.” She beams approvingly at me.
I distractedly shake the hand Carly thrusts at me, mindlessly exchanging pleasantries with the woman even though my mind is stalled on the part where Mrs. Marshall just said that Josh spoke to me about her friend.
He didn’t. I would remember.
In search of answers, I shoot Josh a look. But when he meets my gaze and then quickly looks away, my confusion is heightened and something heavy begins to settle in my gut.
Carly’s smile looks close to wistful as she regards me. “The camera would absolutely love you. But I understand why you weren’t interested in the job. Relocating to the West Coast is a big move. Certainly not something to be taken lightly.”
For an instant, I forget to breathe. I turn to Josh to find him studiously avoiding my gaze.
Somewhere in my conscious, I’m aware Carly is still talking.
“And in my defense, at the time I suggested you interview for the job, I had no idea you and Josh were dating. But I completely understand you not wanting to leave him or your family and friends.”
Don’t ask me how, but somehow I find the wherewithal to reply, “Yes, moving out there would be a big move.”
Josh
I’m a dead man.
This has never happened to me before.
I mean, I saw the train bearing down on me when I opened the door and saw who my mother brought with her, but there wasn’t anywhere for me to run to. All around me was miles and miles of train tracks.
It was one of those times when surprise meant you’re totally fucked.
True to my mom’s word, they didn’t stay long. Not even ten minutes. But now, as I close the door behind them, I wouldn’t have minded if they’d stayed an hour or two longer because, let’s face it, Erin and I are not picking up where we left off. Sex isn’t only off the table for tonight, I’ll be lucky—and grateful—if I can salvage our relationship.
I turn to find Erin holding up the business card Mrs. Templeton gave her. In case things change or you need career advice, please feel free to give me a call.
“She contacted you about a job, which you were supposed to pass on to me. Stop me when it starts to sound familiar.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Actually, it was exactly like that.
“Oh yeah, then what was it like? I’m all ears,” she mocks. Fury and sarcasm are a scary mix.
I approach her like she’s an injured lioness poised to sink her fangs into my jugular should I get too close, slowly and with the utmost caution.
“I was going to tell you. I swear I was.” That was my initial intention. When had things gone awry? I’m not even sure I can answer that.
“Then what stopped you?” she snaps, her eyes flashing angrily.
“I don’t know,” I mumble, scrubbing my hand over my face.
My response must not come close to being good enough because she goes off. “I can’t fucking believe you,” she yells. “You never intended to tell me.”
I gently grasp her by the shoulders. “No, baby, I was. I swear I was going to tell you.”
“Don’t touch me,” she cries, frantically wrenching away and stumbling. She quickly regains her balance and hurries to the other side of the room.
A sense of helplessness and despair washes over me. “Erin, I was going to tell you,” I repeat, this time my voice softer. Pleading.
Swiping a hand over her eyes, she swings sharply back to me. “When? When she hired someone else for the spot? Six months from now? A year? When were you planning to tell me? For God’s sake, Josh, you know I’m about to lose my job.”
At the sight of the single tear rolling down her cheek, my heart squeezes and guilt pummels me like a heavy weight fighter. “Oh, baby, don’t cry.”
When I make a move toward her, she thrusts her arm out, holding up her palm. “I said don’t come near me.”
Shit! I stop and shove both hands in my front pockets. How am I supposed to get through to her if she won’t let me near her? That’s not how I work.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I don’t know how many times I need to say it, but I’ll do it until I’m hoarse if that’s what it’s going to take. “I should have told you right away. I know that now. I had no right to keep it from you.”
Wrapping her arms around herself, she purses her lips and narrows her glassy eyes at me. “I don’t believe you.” Angry and hurt, she stands there walled off, her entire demeanor shouting, come near me at your own risk.
I force myself to remain still and keep my distance. “I know I screwed up. I should have told you from the start, but I don’t understand why you’re so angry. Would you have seriously considered taking the job? Moving away from your family and friends? You said you couldn’t leave Paige and Bree, don’t you remember?”
“Oooooh no,” Erin says, shaking her head. “You don’t get to turn this on me. Whether I want to take the job or not isn’t the issue. It’s the fact that you decided to play God and didn’t think I deserved to make that choice for myself.”
The only thing that registers is she doesn’t deny it. “Is that it? Are you thinking of interviewing for the job? Would you really move to California?” Panic swells inside me like an inflating balloon.
Erin tightens her arms across her chest, and she looks like she wants to hit me with the nearest heavy object. After her look of exasperation fades, she says in a deadly quiet voice, “Maybe I am.”
Those three words drive a stake in my heart. “So to hell with us, right?” My voice is tight and controlled.
“What us?” she cries out. “How can there be an us if I can’t even trust you? And it’s clear you don’t trust me. You’re the guy who wants to control everything, including me, and I’m sick to death of being controlled.”
Stunned, I stare at her, my eyes widening. Me? Controlling? What planet is she from? No, what drug is she on? “So now I’m controlling because I don’t want my girlfriend moving thousands of miles away? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No, you’re controlling because you made the choice for me. Like you didn’t trust me to make the decision for myself.”
For herself, not us. That’s what she said. Once again, what I want and how I feel doesn’t get factored into the decision. I’m just the boyfriend who has no option but to accept whatever his girlfriend decides to do.
She levels me with a look of disgust. “God, and here I actually thought you were nothing like Dale.”
The verbal slap almost has my head snapping back and hurts ten times more than a physical one. A haze of red fills my vision. My voice is low and my jaw is clamped so tight, my lips barely move when I speak. “You’re comparing me to a fucking rapist and kidnapper?”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” she snaps impatiently. “You’re like him in the sense that you don’t care what I want. His word was law. We did the things he wante
d to do. That’s how it starts.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Incredulity quickly gives way to blazing anger. How dare she compare me to that piece of shit. “When have I ever told you what to do?”
Exasperated, Erin throws up her hands. “We’re here, aren’t we? At your apartment because it’s what you want. And we only go out when you want us to. When’s the last time we hung out with Paige and Mitch or any of our other friends?”
I’m speechless and wondering who the hell has taken over my girlfriend’s body because even for Erin, that’s low.
“Are you forgetting you still live with your parents? Or the fact that you were the one who insisted we stay in so you could ride my fucking dick all night? Or that Paige and Mitch are parents and can’t drop everything to hang out with their friends whenever they goddamn want?” My tone is lethal and so are my words.
Erin is shocked into dropping her hands to her sides.
“Look, I don’t deny that you have a right to be mad at me. I should have told you about the job. And I apologized for that. But to compare me to your fucking ex-boyfriend—” I break off with a furious shake of my head.
“He didn’t support me having a career either,” she shoots back.
What the fuck? “You know that’s a lie. I was thrilled about your promotion, and I’m going to do everything in my power to help you find another job if they lay you off.” She’s not going to dump everything on me.
Her eyes get squinty, her lips tight. “You mean the kind of help where you actually tell me about the job in LA?”
I release an audible breath. “You gotta understand, by the time you told me about what was going on with your job, I thought it was too late.”
“No,” she says, sniffing back angry tears and stabbing her finger in my direction. “You wanted it to be too late. You didn’t want me to go so you made sure I wouldn’t.”
I don’t have an answer for that because I’m not sure of anything anymore. The situation has veered so far out of my control, I can’t see a way back. But hell if I’m not going to try. “Why don’t we take a day or two to think things over or we’re going to end up saying things we can’t take back.”
After a long pause, Erin abruptly starts toward the bedroom. “Yeah, I have a job opportunity to think over,” she tosses over her shoulder.
What? “You’re actually thinking about interviewing for the job?”
Spinning on the balls of her feet, she turns back to me. “Wouldn’t you like to know. How about I give you the same courtesy you gave me when it came to telling me about it? That should work, right?” With that, she resumes course.
Three minutes and twenty seconds later, she and all her belongings are gone from my apartment.
Chapter Thirty-One
Josh
“She probably just needed a few days to cool off. She didn’t actually say that you guys were done, right?” Mitch asks, observing me over the can of Coke he has poised to his mouth. He takes a gulp.
I shrug. “I have no idea what she’s thinking right now. She won’t take my calls or respond to any of my messages.” I huff a humorless laugh. “Yesterday, I even went by her house, but she wasn’t home.” Her mom answered the door and I could tell Erin hadn’t told her what’s going on with us because it was obvious she couldn’t understand why I didn’t know where her daughter was.
Are you having problems getting her on her phone?
We just keep missing each other.
Well, I’ll certainly tell her you came by. Unfortunately, I have no idea what time she’ll be home.
I badly wanted to ask her where Erin was but that would only have raised more questions I had no desire to answer, so I left.
“Anything else?” Mitch asks.
I go on to tell him about the flowers I sent to her work and that on Wednesday, I waited in the lobby at her job after work hoping to catch her on her way home. Each time I came up empty, which is what has me here now.
Misery loving company is an indisputable fact. For over a week, beyond stalking Erin, I’ve done little but go to work. I’m sick and tired of my own company.
“Has Paige said anything to you?”
“You mean since you asked me this morning?” Mitch asks with a rueful smile. “That would be no.”
I roll my eyes. Fine. “Is that your way of telling me I’m being a pain in the ass?”
“Dude, you’re my best friend. She’s not going to tell me anything she doesn’t want you to know.”
“So nothing about the job in California?”
Mitch shakes his head. “Nope. Nothing. Why don’t you ask your mom? It’s her friend.” Mitch dips his fry in ketchup before popping it in his mouth. I picked up Five Guys for us before coming over so we’re dining on double cheeseburgers and fries in Mitch’s kitchen while Paige is out with Erin and Bree picking up the something new for the wedding.
“I did. She’s waiting for Carly to call her back. Her office says she’s overseas for another two weeks.”
My mom has no idea Erin and I broke up. She also doesn’t know I never told Erin about the job. One woman pissed at me is enough. Two if you include the way Paige has been giving me the side eye, although she swears she’s Switzerland when it comes to the state of my and Erin’s relationship.
But in the misery that’s been my life since Erin walked out of my apartment, there’s been one ray of sunshine. Erin isn’t being laid off. I learned that from Paige. The paper decided to make cuts to their management staff and expand the digital side of the business.
The LA job would be much more attractive to Erin if she were unemployed—a fact that gives me hope. Yeah, I’m pretty pathetic these days.
Mitch balls up his wrapper, drops it in the Five Guys signature brown paper bag and then glances at his watch. “Well, hopefully you’ll be able to talk to her when they get back. Bree needs to be in bed by eight-thirty so that should be soon.”
That’s the goal.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I say with the tip of the chin.
“When Paige sees you, she’s gonna know and you know I’m going to hear about it.” He’s talking about the fact that he called me the minute he found out Erin was coming over. I immediately left the office, where I was working late, and hightailed it over here, stopping only to grab dinner.
I need to talk to her face to face to plead my case. There’s no way this is the end of us. No way.
Suddenly, I hear the front door open followed closely by the scampering of little feet and, “Daddy, I home.”
Soon Bree is barreling toward us, her arms and feet pumping energetically as she charges across the kitchen.
At the sight of his daughter, my friend’s expression is instantly transformed. Talk about adoring father. He’s out of his chair and scooping her up in his arms. “How’s my best little girl?”
Bree giggles madly as he presses a kiss on her flushed cheeks. “Daddy, Mommy got me bracelet,” she says, proudly sticking out her right arm for him to see.
Mitch chuckles and faithfully admires the tiny charm bracelet adorning her wrist. “That’s very pretty, sweetheart.”
Then, as if she only just spotted me, she cries excitedly, “Unca Josh!”
“Come here, you little monster, and give Uncle Josh a hug.” I take her from her father’s arms, peppering her face with kisses and tickling her wiggly form.
“Where’s Mommy?” Mitch asks, smiling lovingly at his daughter.
Once I stop tickling her, she’s able to get out between choppy breaths, “Wif Air-win.”
I don’t hear anyone out in the hall so they still must be outside.
With Bree still in my arms, I exit the kitchen and into the hall just in time to see Paige step inside and close the door behind her. She’s alone.
“Where’s Erin?” I ask, urgency threading my voice.
There’s something commiserative in the way Paige looks at me. “She said she had to go.”
Fuck. She saw my car.
I quickly hand Bree back to her father and set off down the hall and out the door, passing a startled Paige on the way. Outside, I spot Erin’s car backing out of the driveway. I make a dash for it, reaching the driver’s side before she’s able to drive off.
The car stops abruptly as if my appearance startled her into stomping on the brake. And by the look on her face, I’m the last person she wants to see.
Damn it all. I really hoped she’d have cooled down by now. That she’d be able to see things from my perspective. She has to know how much I care about her.
I place my hand on the roof of her car. I’m not going anywhere.
She gives a visible sigh before rolling down her window. “You wanted something?” she asks.
Yeah, you, I want to say but the frost in her voice tells me that it would go over as well as a clown show at The Metropolitan Opera.
“I want to talk to you,” I state simply. After going almost an entire week without seeing her, I just want to look at her, imprint her image on my brain. I’d like to say she has bags under her eyes from missing me, but she looks as gorgeous as ever, her hair pinned up in a loose bun at her nape and her makeup picture perfect.
“Okay, you’re talking to me now.”
Damn, this is going to be even harder than I thought.
“Could you please turn off the car?” I hate that she refuses to look at me or that she has one hand on the steering wheel and the other hovering over the gear shift as if she’s seconds from bolting.
“Look, Josh, I don’t have a lot of time here,” she says in a strained voice.
I switch tactics, gentling my voice. “You haven’t answered any of my calls.”
“Which should tell you everything you need to know.”
“So that’s it, it’s over? You’re done?” She had yet to put it into words. I guess she thought clearing all her stuff out of my apartment that night said everything. I need her to spell it out.
That has her lifting her gaze to mine. “You ended it when you lied to me.”
Played (Trapped Book 3) Page 25