by Elle Casey
“It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is. If he had a girlfriend who meant anything would he have slept with you last night?”
“Maybe not. Or maybe he slept with me to teach me a lesson.”
“A lesson? A lesson about what?”
“I don’t know. He seemed mad at me from the moment he saw me.”
“Did he remember you were married?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“But he was mad at you, even though he took off and never called.”
“Yes.”
“Hmmmm… Well, how come you never called him? Weren’t you even curious why he disappeared?”
I shrugged, sitting alone in Ian’s room, trying to remember back to that day two years ago in the hotel room. “I couldn’t.”
“You couldn’t what?”
“Call him. I didn’t have his number.”
“Are you sure? You blacked out for half the night. You blacked out during a whole damn wedding. Surely he could have put his number in your phone and you wouldn’t have remembered that either, right?”
My face burned right along with my stomach. “I … I don’t remember seeing a strange number on there.”
“Pfft. You have like a million numbers on your phone. Didn’t you even think to look for his name?”
A memory came rushing back. “I couldn’t!”
“Why?!”
“Because you dropped my damn phone in the toilet, don’t you remember?!” I was gripping the bedsheets, feeling like I could shred them with my nails.
“Oh, crapski. I do remember that. Oh, maaaan. And all your contacts had to be loaded on to a new phone when you got back to your office.”
“Except for the one that was added in Las Vegas, since it wasn’t in my office back-up,” I said sadly. “Assuming there was one added in Vegas.”
“I guess you have a mission, then,” said Candice. “You need to ask him if he gave you his number. Maybe you were supposed to call him, and when you didn’t, he got mad.”
“But why wouldn’t I have given him my number? If he wanted to talk to me, he could have just called me, right?”
“You’ll never know until you ask.” A stranger’s voice spoke softly next to Candice. “Shit, I have to go. My next client is here. We’ll talk more about this later. Promise me you won’t disappear!”
“I promise.” I wanted to curl up in the bed and sleep the day away. This was a royal mess, and now I realized on top of everything else how I’d basically almost thrown my best friendships in the garbage. When the man-crap hits the fan, girlfriends are the only ones who can make things better. Why had I let them go for Bradley?
“Good. Chin up, gorgeous girl! We’ll figure this out. Meanwhile, I’ll bring Kelly into the loop and get an update from Ruby.”
“No! I don’t know what Ruby’s doing over there, but Bradley cannot find out what’s going on here!”
“Uhhh, it might be too late for that. Gotta go, lovebugger. Tah-tah!” The line went dead.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
MY FINGERS SHOOK AS I dialed the phone. If Ruby had told Bradley, my ship was sunk. Not only my lifeplan ship but my work ship, too. I’d built up a reputation as a professional, hard-working woman, and the rumor that I’d gotten married to some guy who I didn’t even know out in Vegas during a drunken party binge would destroy all of it. Poof! Six years, out the window. Back to square one with zero plan for the voyage and shame as my baggage.
I didn’t even wait for the receptionist to finish her introduction to the firm. “Jackie, can you pass me to Ruby? This is Andie and it’s kind of an emergency.”
“Sure, Andie, hold on a second for me.” I got no indication that she knew anything about what I was going through from her tone, but that didn’t mean anything. Jackie was as professional as they come. She could be in on who assassinated the president and she’d still sit there with a bland look on her face and act clueless.
I waited for what felt like forever before the phone connected again.
“Andie?”
My heart sunk. The voice was way too deep to be Ruby. “Yes…,” I squeaked out, barely more than a whisper.
“Andie, this is Bradley. Where in the hell are you?” He sounded both worried and angry.
I swallowed hard. “Pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Where are you?” I wanted to smack myself on the forehead. Way to sound confident, Andie!
“What do you mean, where am I? I’m at work, where you should be.”
“But what are you doing answering Ruby’s phone?”
“I heard it was you and I intercepted. I don’t know why you’re calling her and not me. Something’s going on, Andie, and I want to know what it is.”
I could hear Ruby’s voice in the background now, and she didn’t sound happy. Thank God for Ruby. “I just need to talk to Ruby about some paperwork and then I’ll call you. My phone was dead and my charger wasn’t available, so that’s why I haven’t called.” And I was with another man. Ahhh! This is horrible. I’m going to hell for sure. I need to confess. My ears burned with the idea of coming clean, but it was the only way to handle this now. Lying was wrong and unfair and not who I am.
Bradley was not happy. “Ruby’s threatening to impale me on her fountain pen, so I have to go. Call me immediately, Andie, I mean it. As soon as you’re done with her.”
“Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I’m done with Ruby. I promise. We have to talk.”
“You’re damn right we do. Here.” He passed the phone away and Ruby’s voice came on the line.
“I’m filing a complaint, Bradley. You hear me? An official complaint. You’ve gone too far.”
Bradley responded, but I didn’t catch the actual words.
“Ruby?”
“Yes, Andie, I’m here. Can you believe the nerve of that man? Picking up my calls on my phone and putting his nose in my business? He’s going to pay for that one. I’ve had it up to here with him.”
“Ruby, calm down. You can’t report him for that. He’s upset with me, it’s my fault.”
Ruby sighed heavily. “When are you going to learn that you are not responsible for the behavior of the men you date? He’s a big boy. He makes his own decisions.”
“I haven’t called him in over twenty-four hours. He was worried, especially when the first person I called wasn’t him.”
Her voice dropped lower. “Good for you! Does this mean you’re finally going to get rid of his sorry behind?”
“No. Maybe. Shit, Ruby, I don’t know. That’s not why I called.” My hands were shaking so bad, I clenched my free one in a fist and hit the bed with it a few times.
“Mmm-mmm-mmm, you still haven’t cleaned up that language, I see.”
“Stop. Seriously. Did you go into my computer and look at my files?”
Silence.
“Ruby, I know you did. I already talked to Candice. What did you see?”
“Well…” She stopped there.
“Come on, Ruby. I don’t have all day.”
“Fine. I saw your…,” she lowered her voice to a loud whisper, “...marriage license.” She raised her voice again. “Is it real? Did you really do that?”
Tears threatened. “Yes, I really did do it. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, but I married a practical stranger two years ago at that stupid bachelorette party you made me go to, and now I’m out here trying to unwind the mess before my wedding to Bradley.”
“You’re blaming me for this?”
“No. I just put that in there to make you feel guilty.”
She snorted. “Huh, like that would work. I’m proud I did it. I’m glad I did it. Anything to get rid of that Bradley is a good thing.”
“Listen, Ruby, he didn’t do anything wrong, okay? He’s been a good boyfriend. I was set to marry the guy for … poop’s sake.”
“Were set to marry him? As in past tense?” She was back to whisper-yelling at me.
I shook my head and took a deep breath, ready to bawl ag
ain. “I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. I have to talk to Bradley, and I have to talk to Mack. It’s pretty much out of my hands at this point. My lifeplan is swirling down the toilet as we speak.”
“Who’s Mack? Is he your husband?”
My heart lurched at the word husband. Mack is my husband. The idea gave me chills and brought gobs of fear along with it too. “Yes. He is.”
“Oh my dear Lord … this is a problem, isn’t it? Do you want me to start canceling things? Maybe we can get some of your deposits back.”
“No! No, don’t cancel anything. Just transfer me over to Bradley’s line, please. And Ruby? Please don’t say anything to anyone else. Candice is fine, but no one else can know. It’ll ruin everything at work.”
“Oh don’t worry, baby girl. Your secrets are safe with me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, right. Bye, Rubes. Talk to you later.”
“Please hold,” she said in her professional secretary voice, sending me over to Bradley’s line.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“BRADLEY.”
THAT ONE WORD SAID it all. Strong. Firm. Take no prisoners. He never cared who he trampled over to get what he wanted. It’s what attracted me to him eventually, that he made no apologies for who he was. He was so driven and in control. I was jealous of that for a long time until I became that. Now I knew it had been a mistake. I’d lost me somewhere along the way, right along with my two best friends and the respect of my colleague, Ruby.
Time to finish destroying my life. “Hi, it’s me, Andie.” The line went silent for so long I thought I’d lost him. “Bradley?”
“Still here. Just waiting for an explanation.”
His voice was so cold it made me ill. I’d hurt him. He was a prick sometimes, but that didn’t mean he deserved to be cheated on or lied to. “I have something to confess. Something big.”
“You’re with another guy, aren’t you? How long has it been going on?”
I sighed, trying to work up the bravery to come totally and completely clean. I saw my future crumbling into tiny fragments right in front of my eyes, my lifeplan and all the solidity and security it offered disappearing into the wind. My future was now a cloud of dust motes floating away to clog up some stranger’s nostrils…
“Andie, I’m not going to sit on this line forever. I have work to do.”
“Sorry. I’m just … never mind.” I cleared my throat. Time to do the right thing. “Do you remember when we started dating?”
“Of course. I’d been trying to get you to go out with me for months. Getting that first yes out of you was a real coup.”
I smiled sadly. “I think … I might have said yes for reasons that weren’t necessarily all the right ones.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Are we going to be talking in riddles now, Andie? Because I really don’t have the time or the patience for it.”
Typical Bradley. He was doing me a favor being harsh. I just needed to get this done with. “Two years ago I went to Las Vegas with Candice and Kelly.”
“The bimbos.”
“No, Bradley, they’re not bimbos.”
“I beg to differ. Anyway, as you were saying…”
“I went to Las Vegas with my two best friends. And while I was there, something happened.”
“You broke up with Luke and got laid. It’s no big deal, Andie, people do it all the time.”
The way he said it gave me a weird feeling, like he was being defensive instead of understanding. I shoved it aside because all this garbage had to be said, and I was on a roll. “Yeah, well, it was more than that.”
“What? You fell in love with the guy? You want to get back together with him? Please, what a bunch of horse shit. You’ve been with me for two years, Andie. I’ve invested two long years of my professional and personal life with you. Do you know what two years is like in my life? They’re like dog years. Multiply them by seven and that’s how long we’ve been at this thing together. Fourteen years is too long to play games. Just tell it to me straight, because right now I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”
Dog years? Since when did our relationship get measured in dog years? “I’m trying to tell you, but you keep interrupting.” He was irritating me now, making me see some of the things Ruby saw in him, reminding me of the things that used to bother me about him before we started dating.
“I’m sorry,” he said, toning down the jerk a little. “Please continue. I’ll wait until you’re done before I comment again.”
“Thank you. As I was saying … I went out to Las Vegas. Luke broke up with me by text on the way out, as you might recall. I got really drunk and met this guy named Gavin. He’s from Oregon, and yes, we had sex. And then the next thing I remembered was waking up in the hotel room with Candice next to me and Kelly in the other room. The guy was long gone and I never saw him or heard from him again.”
“So?”
“So, when I applied for our marriage license last week, I found out that there’s a marriage license with my name on it out in Nevada.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“It means I married him. I married the stranger.”
“You said you fucked him.”
“Well, I didn’t say that exactly, but yeah, that’s the idea.”
“So he wasn’t a stranger. And you’re with him now, too, right?”
“Yes. I came out here to get him to sign the divorce papers.”
“Okay, fine. So get the asshole to sign the papers and then get your butt back here. We have a wedding to put together.”
I held the phone out and looked at it, not really believing what I was hearing. How could he be so casual about it? I frowned. Probably because he didn’t know the worst part yet. Deep breath. You can do this.
“Did you hear what I said?” he was asking as I put the phone back to my ear.
“Yeah, but … I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“What do you mean it’s not going to happen? We’ve been planning this for six months! People have plane tickets in hand. Non-refundable ones.”
“I know but … I’m sorry, Bradley … I … shit,” I pressed my fingers into my forehead and crushed my eyes closed. “I slept with him again. Last night.” I let out a huge breath. “I’m so, so, so sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’m a total jerk, I know.” I had to swallow several times to keep the bile down. Admitting to being a slut with zero morals is quite a step down for me. I had expected it to be somewhat cleansing, but instead I just felt dirty.
“Did you go out there to do that?” His tone had calmed down considerably, which made it even scarier than his anger would have been.
“No. Hell no. I came out here to get divorced, that’s it.”
“That’s interesting, don’t you think? That you went out there to get divorced and instead fucked him?”
“Bradley, please don’t.” I sighed shakily. This was going to be ugly. I deserved it, so I sat there, preparing myself to take it in. My punishment.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I just come right out and say it. It’s what everyone else is going to say. Bradley couldn’t hold on to his woman. She married some dumb fuck redneck out west and left his ass at the altar.”
“No one’s going to say anything, because the only ones who know are you, me, him, and Ruby.”
“Oh, I’ll bet Ruby’s dancing a goddamn jig over this one.” I could picture Bradley running his hands through his short hair in frustration. He did that when he was upset and only out of the view of other people.
“She’s not, Bradley. She might be glad that we’re breaking up, but she’s not happy that I hurt you.”
“Breaking up? We’re not breaking up. Don’t be ridiculous.”
My eyes nearly crossed. “What?”
“You heard me. We’re getting married. This doesn’t change anything.”
“Are you insane? Of course it changes things!” I laughed a little hysterically.
“It doesn�
��t have to.” He went from angry to courtroom convincing in the space of half a second. “Listen, let’s be honest … we’re perfect for each other. We both have the same goals, the same drive, the same reputation.”
I wanted to argue that last point, but he talked right over me.
“So you made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I know I’ve made a couple. That’s life. But once we say the vows, we know that the fun is over. We’ll be monogamous, dedicated to our goals as a couple. We put another five years in at the firm, then we either keep going if the bonuses are good or we start our own firm. Right now we could take half the place with us. Then you pop a couple kids out, we buy a place in Colorado for ski season and bam, we’re all set.”
“You’ve got it all figured out, huh?” My voice went all weak and I hated myself for it. He was offering me an out. Blanket forgiveness for all my sins. And I, in return, would have to offer him the same. I wondered what his sins might be, considering how magnanimous he was being. I was sure I didn’t really want to know.
He sounded excited now. Almost endearing in a way. “Yeah, I’ve got it all figured out. That’s why you love me, right? Lifeplan, babe. You’re the one who turned me on to all of that stuff. Am I or am I not the only guy you’ve ever been with who can appreciate the lifeplan?”
I nodded sadly. “Yes, you are. And I think that’s why we have to break up.”
“What?! Fuck that. No, I don’t accept that. We’re not breaking up. Being apart is not an option.”
“Bradley, don’t make this harder than it needs to be. Seriously. I screwed up big time … too much to fix it. You deserve better than me. I don’t love you like I should. I’ve come to admire you and look past your issues, but that’s not enough.”
“You don’t marry someone you just admire. You love me, Andie. You’ve said it a thousand times. And you agreed to marry me.”
“I don’t think I knew what love meant when I said it, though.”
“Until now? Until you screwed that redneck? Please.”
“He’s not a redneck. Listen, I have to go.”
“I’m coming out there, Andie.”
My heart stopped beating for a full three seconds. “No! Do not come out here Bradley.”