by Amy Sparling
“Of course I believe you,” he says, taking a long sip from his water bottle. “That woman is out to get you and she has been since the day she started working at Mixon. The only way you would have cheated on Bay is if you were drugged.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Do you think she roofied me?”
He shrugs. “I dunno. We drank a lot. Like a fuck ton of liquor. You could have just passed out on your own.”
“Which means I can’t possibly have sex if I was that drunk.”
He nods. “I was thinking the same thing.”
I rub the condensation from my water bottle, watching the drops slide off the plastic and disappear into the weeds below our feet. “I don’t understand how I even got there. You wouldn’t have let me go.”
He shakes his head. “Nah, of course not. I didn’t even know she was there. I was talking to this chick who claimed she interned at Motocross Weekly magazine and when I turned to introduce you to her, you were gone. I gave it a few minutes, thinking you were taking a piss or something but when you didn’t come back in half an hour, I called you. I called a million times and finally went home.”
He sighs, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Jace. I shouldn’t have given up like that. I should have looked for you.”
“You’d never have thought to look in a store that’s closed,” I mutter. “It’s not your fault.”
“I was pretty damn drunk. I kept thinking maybe you went home and told me about it and I’d just forgotten.” Park runs a hand through his hair and I watch him, his expression as somber as mine. “I’m here for you, you know. Anything you need. If I knew how to hire a hitman to take out that bitch, I would.” He smiles and I smile back, but the expression feels all wrong on my face.
I draw in a deep breath and focus on keeping that donut in my stomach. “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
“You should talk to her. Demand a pregnancy test. Hell, demand an ultrasound. It’s only been a week. Doesn’t it take longer than that for a chick to know she’s pregnant?”
“Yeah it takes a couple of weeks,” I say automatically, recalling on my experience with Bayleigh. And then my stomach twists into knots and I feel like throwing up again. An unexpected baby with Bayleigh was the greatest thing in my life.
This situation is the absolute worst.
And then suddenly I’m crying. Crying like a fucking child in front of my best friend. “I didn’t do it, man,” I say between sobs. “I know I didn’t. I would never.”
“I don’t think you did. I bet she got knocked up by some idiot and is trying to pin it on you for child support.”
“Why would she do that?” I say, shaking my head. “DNA would prove her wrong and she’d get nothing from me.”
He bites his lip. “Damn, you’re right.”
I draw in a deep breath and wipe my eyes. This is such bullshit. I am a father and a husband. I should be the strong link of the family—the one who keeps us all together, protected and safe. And now I’ve ruined everything. I don’t even have a job right now.
I pull out my phone and open it to the text message from Natalie. I call the number while Park watches me silently.
“Hey there, Jacey,” she says, sounding not the least bit surprised that I’ve called her.
I force my voice not to crack. “What do you want with me?”
“I’d rather talk in person,” she says. Park eyes me intently and I put the phone on speaker so he can hear the conversation. Maybe he can help me make sense of it later.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I snap. “I didn’t sleep with you.” If I say it with enough confidence maybe she’ll admit that it’s true. Or maybe she was drunk as well. Maybe she has no idea.
She laughs. “Oh honey, you did a whole lot more than sleep with me.” The lighthearted tone of her voice makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “But don’t worry, I’m not here to ruin your stupid marriage or anything.”
I swallow. “What do you mean by that?”
“Twenty five thousand dollars and I’ll go away.”
“Why the hell should I believe that?”
“Hmm,” she murmurs into the phone. “I’ll send you the abortion papers after you pay. If you don’t pay, I’ll have a chat with your wife.”
I’ve never hated anyone or anything more than I hate Natalie.
I open my mouth, unsure of what I’ll say next. Park holds out his hand. “Call her back,” he mouths.
“I’ll call you back,” I say and this time my voice does shake.
“Make it quick, Jacey. I won’t wait longer than an hour.”
I end the phone call and stare up at my best friend. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? I’m not paying her that kind of money.”
“You don’t need to kill a baby you don’t even know is yours either,” he says, taking out his cell phone. “Let’s see how long you have to wait to get a DNA test. I think they can do that shit in the womb now.”
I shake my head. “She seems to have this all figured out. Is this just a money grab? I mean, I thought she liked me or had a crush on me or something but this is some next level evil shit.”
Park nods. “Man, you need to find out if you really did sleep with her. I mean, could you live with yourself if you did? And if she has your kid?”
Bile rises in my throat. It’s easy to deny it because I’d never dream of doing such a disgusting act when I’m sober. “I was out of my mind wasted,” I say, staring at the scratched up paint on Park’s tailgate. “No matter what she says, I was too damn drunk to have sex. I mean, it’d be practically impossible. And I wouldn’t do that to Bay.”
“I know man,” Park says solemnly. He throws an arm around my shoulders and it’s a thousand times more comforting than it is weird. His muscles stiffen a moment later. “Holy shit, I’ve got an idea. I know how you can figure out if you slept with her not.”
“I’m all ears,” I say just as my phone rings. With shaking fingers I look at the screen, expecting to see that random Natalie number or worse, Bayleigh. But it’s a call from my landlord’s office. I know the rent isn’t late, so this weird. “Hello?”
“Hey there Jace,” my landlord says. His raspy voice is ten times more gravely than usual. “Just wanted to let you know that we can offer a lock change for free if you’d like. Some people like that kind of thing.”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong with my locks?” He must have the wrong apartment.
“Well, uh, it’s just a courtesy. You don’t have to do it if you think you’ll get back together…”
My battered, worthless heart finds a way to ache even deeper. “What are you talking about?”
“Jace your wife just moved out. I’m sorry but I thought you would have known about it. She took her name off the lease and gave me her keys. Said ya’ll were getting divorced.”
Park watches me with an unreadable expression, probably matching the one on my own face. “I see.” I hang up the phone without a goodbye. So this is what the end of the world feels like.
“What the hell was that about?” Park asks.
I stare at my hands. I don’t even know who these hands belong to anymore. “Natalie lied about giving me an hour.”
Chapter 30
Park won’t take me to my truck. He says I’m in no condition to drive and because of this, he chauffeurs me to my apartment complex. Everything looks the same, almost. Bay’s blue car is gone and we park in her spot.
I am an emotionless zombie as I take the stairs up to the second floor, put my key in the lock and turn. The first thing I see is my iPad on the kitchen table. The screen is shattered, a simple yellow sticky note waits in the center of the screen for me.
I can’t believe I trusted you.
Bayleigh’s handwriting is rushed, pained scrawls across the note. I don’t want to look, but I do anyway. I turn on the iPad and it’s open to my messages that sync with my phone. Natalie’s unsaved phone number is at the top, followed by her message.
“She saw it,” I say, my voice barely a whisper. “She thinks it’s true.”
Park stands next to me, a solid force of pissed anger. “I’m going to kill this bitch,” he says, his hands clenching into fists.
My knees shake and I drop onto a nearby barstool, unable to hold up my own weight under all of this heartbreak and anger and shame. I know it’s useless but I try to call my wife. My call goes straight to voicemail.
I call her again and again and get the same reply. Finally, I try Becca. My heart jumps when she answers the phone. “Jace?” she says.
“Yeah, I need to talk to Bay.”
“You’ll never talk to her again,” she hisses into the phone. “I can’t believe you, Jace.”
The call ends.
I’m crying again.
“I will kill her,” Park mutters to himself as he paces the space between the kitchen island and the wall. “I fill find this bitch and end her.”
I shake my head. “No need for first degree murder. This is my fault. This is all my fault.” I slam the iPad across the room and it soars until it crashes into the wall, leaving an indention in the drywall.
I can’t live without her. I can’t do it. I can’t go on day after day without my girl by my side. How could I have done this? What the fuck was I thinking?
“I know you might not want to hear anything right now,” Park begins, sliding into the barstool next to me. I feel the rush of air when he sits but I don’t look over. My eyes are full of tears, my head resting in my palms. I don’t think I could move if I wanted to.
Park continues, “I have an idea that might get to the bottom of things. Bayleigh might understand.”
“She’ll never speak to me again,” I say.
“You don’t know that. She’s pissed, yeah, but she needs to know that you didn’t purposely cheat on her.”
I shake my head. “She moved out, Park. In like two hours’ time, she’s gone. My life is over.”
A long moment passes. Park rises to his feet and slaps his hands on the counter, making me startle. “I’m going to fix this. Natalie will admit exactly what happened and Bayleigh will take you back.”
I look up at him, incredulous. “Do you have a fucking time machine?”
“No, but I have the next best thing.” His eyes are alight with a fiery plan. He nods, more to himself than to me. “I have a video camera.”
Chapter 31
The sun shines unrelentingly bright on the long glass windows of the abandoned Dairy Queen on the outskirts of Mixon. My truck is parked on the other side of the parking lot. This is the meeting place. It’s isolated and has everything Park needs. We got here an hour early and the time has dripped by slower than cold lava.
My heart is lodged in my throat, my palms sweaty appendages at my sides. No amount of rubbing them on my jeans will dry them. My heart has surpassed its usual thumping like a jet engine and is now hovering somewhere in the dangerous zone. I might fall over dead at any minute from how hard I’m panicking about this.
But Park swears it’s going to work. And right now he’s all I’ve got.
It’s a few hours after I came home to find that Bayleigh had left and she hasn’t answered any of my calls. Her mom has blocked my number and as soon as Becca realized her boyfriend is with me, she swore not to talk to him until he got away from me. For all I know, my texts to Bayleigh have been deleted unread.
Still, I send another one because I can’t not tell her.
I love you honey. I love you with everything I have.
I swallow back the pain and the fear and stare at my phone.
I have no idea if Park’s plan will work, but I squeeze an ounce of confidence out of myself and send her one final text.
I will prove it to you. I promise.
When my phone beeps a minute later, I swear I must have imagined it. But there it is, right there on the screen—Bayleigh’s name on a new text message. I almost don’t want to read it as fear overwhelms me. But I find the courage to open it and tears fill my eyes.
Bay: My heart will never heal from this. Don’t text me again.
I think I’ll cry but there are no more tears in my body. I put the phone in my pocket, an act so familiar and frequent that it brings back two years’ worth of flashbacks. Putting my phone away after phone calls with Bayleigh, putting my phone away after texts from Bayleigh. Smiling like crazy when she sends me dirty photos and I’m at work, with only a second to look at them before hiding my phone back in my pocket.
Please God, don’t let this be the last time I read a message from her.
“It’s almost time,” Park says, appearing from the other side of the abandoned fast food restaurant. “Everything is all set up.” He points to a faded red picnic table which was once part of the outside dining area when this place was in business. “Stay near the table. Try to get her to sit if you can. The entire area will pick up any sounds but my camera will only pick up that table area. Stay by it.”
I nod.
“And Jace?” he says, stepping forward and grabbing my shoulder with a firm hand. “You’re an actor right now. You’re fucking Leo DiCaprio, okay? Don’t break character.”
I nod again. I have never been an actor in my life. But I draw in a breath and steel myself. I will act for her. I will get to the bottom of this and win my girl back.
Not that I deserve her.
But I need her if I want to live.
Park takes an envelope out of his back pocket and licks across the top of the flap. He folds it over and seals it closed with his fingers. Then he slides a pinky under the flap and rips it open. He takes out the folded paper inside, gives it a shake to wrinkle it up and puts it back in the envelope. “Here,” he says, shoving the paper into my hands.
“Guess that single college credit in graphic design has paid off,” I say dryly.
He smirks. “Some guy online helped me, actually. Not much graphic design involved. Alright, I’m out of here. I’ll stay in the backseat of your truck until she leaves, okay?”
I nod. “Will you be listening to the video in there?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t have that kind of technology, dude. It’s just a helmet cam but it’s uploading to the cloud so we’ll have a copy no matter what.”
“Okay.”
He gives me a flat smile. “Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Park disappears around the corner of the building and I start pacing on the old concrete, stepping over weeds that have sprouted up between the cracks. Bayleigh and I came to this Dairy Queen once before it closed. She got an ice cream cone that was nearly as big as her head and I got tacos and she laughed, saying she didn’t even know they sold tacos here. They were the best tacos I’d ever eaten.
Footsteps catch my attention, pulling me out of my memories. I turn around and find Natalie approaching me. She’s wearing a pair of ripped up jeans and a Mixon Motocross shirt that’s been cut up the sides and retied to make it as skimpy as possible. We stare at each other silently and I square my shoulders.
“Did you bring the money?” she asks.
I step closer to her, putting myself right in the view of Park’s hidden camera. “Sit down,” I say, pointing to the picnic table.
She folds her arms across her chest and lowers her chin. “Why? It takes two seconds to hand me the money. So do it.”
“I have some questions first,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets. I am Leo DiCaprio. I am not afraid. I am not thinking of my heartache. “Sit down and answer them if you want the money.”
She rolls her eyes and huffs, but she sits at the table. I join her on the other side, knowing the camera is facing both of us now. “What the fuck do you want, Jace? You knocked me up and you need to pay for your mistake. There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I want to know every detail about that night,” I say, lacing my fingers together on the table. They do not shake. Every shattered piece of my soul is hidden beneath this façade. “I was too drunk t
o remember. I don’t even remember seeing you that night. So why am I supposed to believe you?”
She rolls her eyes. “We left the bar. We had sex. You fell asleep and woke up the next morning, realizing what you had done. You should have seen the look on your face,” she says with a snort. “It was priceless. But you wanted me that night. I know you did.”
“No I didn’t.” I say it as if I’m bored. I need to catch her in this lie. I need to know the truth.
“You did.” She holds her hand palm up on the table. “If you don’t want your wife to know then fucking pay me now.”
I take the envelope with the fake clinic letter out of my back pocket and put it in her hand. She scowls. “This doesn’t look like twenty five thousand dollars.”
“It’s not. But it’s something you need to see.”
She lifts an eyebrow and takes the paper out of the envelope, unfolding it carefully while watching me. She glances at the paper quickly then back up at me. “What is this?”
I keep my voice flat. “It’s my STD results. You gave me herpes, Natalie.”
Her face is emotionless for a beat. And then she starts laughing. Definitely not the reaction I had expected. “Wow,” she says, slapping the table. Her smile stretches across her entire face. “Just, wow.”
“Is this how you react to knowing you have an incurable disease?” I shake my head. “You purposely set out to ruin my life. Why? Because I fired you? Because I ignored your advances?”
She shrugs and drops the paper, leaving it in the envelope. “You should have hooked up with me when you could. Obviously that wife of yours has been cheating on you left and right.”
Oh my god, this might actually work. I lean back on the bench seat. “Why do you say that? And why aren’t you more worried? If I have herpes then you do, too.”
A gust of wind blows her blonde hair into her face and she pushes it back. “Nah, I’m not worried. I mean I did give you a blow job but it didn’t last long.” She runs a hand across her mouth, then shrugs, looking pleased with what she feels on her lips. “I don’t think I caught anything from you. But you need to talk to that wife of yours, because if you aren’t cheating on her then she’s sure as hell cheating on you.”