by West, Maven
“You’re going to ruin his life?” I asked, my heart racing. “Just like you did mine.”
“Just like I did yours?” she asked, her hand going to her mouth.
Before I spilt the beans we needed to get out of the bar. “Can we go outside?”
Ana clomped off without a second thought.
Chapter twenty-seven
This was it, the moment, the one that I had been fighting for all along. And now that it was right in front of me I didn’t know how to go about it.
Ana waited to hear it. She stood in front of the parking lot, arms crossed.
“I ruined your life?” she asked.
“I don’t want to do this back and forth thing. So I’ll just say it.” I raked a hand through my hair. “You slept with my husband.”
Ana scrubbed a hand over her face. “This is ridiculous.”
She was trying to deny it; her denial wasn’t far from what I predicted.
“I found all the pictures,” I said. “And the hotel receipt.”
Ana crossed her arms. “You’re delusional.”
I gritted my teeth. “No, I was, but not anymore.”
“We didn’t plan for it to happen,” she said, looking away. The wind blew, sending her hair off her shoulders.
I was ready to hear the reason. “Why did it?”
Ana scratched the back of her neck. I hoped she would be honest with me. She knew what I had been through losing Eric. “Ever since the day I met you guys, I couldn’t get over how infatuated Eric was with you.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I wanted someone to care about me the way that Eric cared about you. So one night I invited him out, claiming to need a man’s advice on a breakup and he bought it. We had a few drinks and I don’t know what happened but Eric gave in.” She sat down on the sidewalk. “And I loved it; he treated me like a queen, even if it was only for the night.”
I jumped as a couple of drunk men came stumbling from the bar. “It happened more than once.” I saw the letters, and the pictures.
“Because I told him if he stopped I would tell you and he didn’t want to hurt you. Eric was always thinking about you,” Ana said.
I balled my hands into fist, unable to stand still. “You’re disgusting.”
Ana wouldn’t look at me. “You don’t think I didn’t feel bad about it?”
“You sure didn’t act like it,” I scoffed, shaking my head. “You were one of the few people I confided in, and not once did you tell me.”
Ana jumped up. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
I looked around trying to figure out what she meant.
“You fucked Carter,” she said. “What makes you any better?”
I opened my mouth, at a loss for words.
“Maybe next time you should remember to take home the panties you bought with your friend the next time you’re in his apartment. I’m not an idiot.” She raised an eyebrow. “But I told myself I would let it be because I screwed your husband. What goes around comes around right?”
Chapter twenty-eight
We lived and we learned, so they said. I was pretty sure Eric would have wanted me to forgive Ana for all the wrong that she did. He wouldn’t want me to hold onto hate for my so called friend, even if she did something god awful.
And I knew that life wasn’t a fairy tale. I knew that my husband was just as responsible as she was. He didn’t have to keep it a secret and keep it going. I wasn’t stupid. Maybe a little part of Eric got some kind of thrill living a double life, having secret getaways in hotel rooms with another girl.
Nobody was perfect, and I sure wasn’t. I hadn’t acted any better jumping into bed with Carter. We all made mistakes.
I felt I had closure. And in the mistake I felt that I got a small piece of me back. Ana and Eric’s mistake in a weird way helped me move on.
“This damn fax machine,” Lilith said, slamming her fist down on it.
I stood up. “I’ll take care of it.”
She smiled, brushing a curl behind her ear. “You’re a lifesaver.”
I grinned. “I know.”
Walking down the hall I opened the file. “Carter fucking Sterling.”
I hit the button on the elevator and headed to the agents. The doors opened, I shut the file as I entered, moving through the mob of aspiring actors to make it to the front desk.
“Fax machine is down,” I said to Pam, handing over the file.
Pam narrowed her eyes on the file and frowned. “I wasn’t expecting anything.”
I touched my lips. “That’s weird.”
I spun around hands on my hips a little surprised to see him.
He smiled, bringing his hands to his hips mocking me. “The job fell through so I decided to try out for porn.”
I lifted my chin, a slow smile building. “Is that right?”
He nodded, moving closer. “That’s right.”
I moved closer. “How’s that working out for you?”
“Shitty,” he said, giving me a pathetic attempt at a frown, pouty lip and all.
I wrapped my arms around him. “I thought I was going to be mad at you.”
“But you’re not because for once I did the right thing,” he said, touching my face.
I nodded. “Sure.”
“You remember when I said that there was only one thing that made me nervous?” he asked.
I shook my head, hitting the button on the elevator. Carter gave Pam a smile for helping lure me away from my job.
“The one thing that makes me nervous is meeting a beautiful girl and falling head over heels for her.”
I grabbed a hold of him, my lips searing into his.
Carter fucking Sterling, he was sweet bliss.
About the author
The author of over 10 books, Maven West writes Romance, often with a paranormal twist, in two different worlds: Young Adult (as Holly Hood), Adult Romance(as Maven West).
Maven West was born in 1983 and grew up in Toledo, Ohio, USA. She lives with her husband and four children in Sylvania, Ohio, where she writes, swims, hangs with her super cool kids and amazing husband and has two dogs Calvin and Measha.
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