“That proves nothing.”
“Look at who’s tagged in the photo, Ren,” she said, pointing back at the screen. “I didn’t want to believe it, but why else would her ex be kissing her?”
Sighing, I looked back down, and above the photo, Tony had written that he was with Maya and Andy. I glanced at the picture and saw she had her arm around this Andy guy, too, and she didn’t look like she was unwilling or unhappy with his proximity and the kiss.
I thrust the phone back at Francheska and walked away as quickly as I could, with her yelling my name behind me. Shoving open the Diner door so hard that it hit the wall, a majority of the people inside looked up at me as Jeff too glared at me from behind the counter. Ignoring all of that, I looked for Cole. I needed to show him before I lost my shit. Seeing him in a booth in the corner, I stormed up to him. “Open your Facebook!”
Cole’s eyes were huge as he looked at me and saw how close to losing it I was, and he quickly did as I asked, handing it to me. Typing in Tony’s name in the search field, I pulled up the photo and tossed the phone to Cole to look at. His hand shot out to stop it from flying off the table, and a grin broke across his face as he saw the photo.
“Really, man, you’re this pissed because some dude is kissing her cheek?” Chuckling, he shook his head slowly and looked at me.
“Look at the name of the guy kissing her.”
Cole looked back down and stared at the screen. I saw the moment it hit him because his eyes widened, and he moved his thumb up and down, obviously reading all of the comments.
“Is this him?”
“Looks like it!”
“Listen, man,” Cole said in a tone that he’d only used a handful of times with me, “we don’t know that this is him. We were both there when she got the call that day, and you saw how upset she was because of it. I don’t think it’s what you think; she really hated that guy.”
Just as he finished, the scent of sickly perfume engulfed us.
“Oh my God, Ren, I’m so glad I caught up with you,” Francheska squeaked beside me.
“Not now,” Cole snapped at her and turned back to me.
“I’m so sorry that I had to be the one to break the news…”
“How did I not guess that it was you?” Cole sneered at her, hatred and disbelief all over his face. “You were stalking Maya on Facebook; do you know how twisted that is? To actually stalk someone, waiting for shit like this so that you could run up to Ren, who gives not one single shit about you, and show him. I bet you planned this all night, didn’t you? Are you happy now?” He gestured to me, and I realized I was shaking so hard that the table was visibly moving.
“No,” she replied, looking horrified. “I’m devastated for him! It breaks my heart that she’s putting him through this and that she’s blasted her infidelity all over Facebook for everyone to see. That is just embarrassing and such a dirty thing to do.” I couldn’t listen to any more bullshit and got up so quickly that my chair crashed to the floor, and I stalked out of the Diner with Cole shouting and yelling behind me.
I didn’t want to talk to or see anyone, so I went to the garage, got into my car, and blasted out of the lot, almost hitting the barrier beside the exit. I finally stopped driving when I got to the lake where I’d brought Maya on our first date, and walked to a place that I went to when I needed peace.
I’d just sat down on a rock when I heard branches breaking behind me. “Fuck off, Cole; I want to be alone!”
“It’s me, honey,” the viper squeaked. How the fuck did she know about this place?
“Leave me alone, Fran.”
Not taking the hint, she sat beside me and put her arm around my waist. “Oh, Ren, I’m just so sorry about all of this. I remembered what you told me that first night we were together about this place and figured when you drove away that this was where you’d come. Listen, I’m not here for any other reason but as a friend, okay?”
“I don’t know what to think or believe.”
“I know it’s hard to get your head around, but Ren, family and friends are meant to have your back, not take the side of the person who broke your heart.” Pausing, she bit her lip and then asked hesitantly, “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know what to do.” I rubbed my hands down my face and then moved them up through my hair and grabbed two handfuls and pulled. “FUCK!” I roared as I jumped up.
“You know, Ren—” she started, but then paused and got up to come and stand next to me. “No, actually that’s not good advice to give.” She started walking away from me with her finger on her lips, tapping away as she thought hard about something.
I wasn’t going to chase after her and beg for her to tell me. Nothing she had to say would be useful.
“Well,” she finally said, drawing out the word and tilting her head. “My Gammy used to tell me, don’t get mad, get even.” She trailed off and stood looking at me.
I stared back as it finally registered what she meant. She was even crazier than I’d thought if she believed for even a second that I’d do anything with her, let alone anything to hurt Maya.
Turning around, I walked back to my car without saying a word; engaging her would only encourage her psychosis.
As I got into my truck, I looked up and saw her standing there smiling at me; images of cute white bunnies popped into my head, making me shudder. Thankful that we didn’t have rabbits, I started the engine and drove away. Something about the whole conversation with her had left a bad taste in my mouth.
Needing to talk to someone sensible, I picked up my phone and called Brett. He’d know what to do.
Maya
Luke arrived at the airport forty minutes before Tony and I did, so George was collecting all three of us at the same time. He’d also gotten me a new phone, so all I had to do was get all of my numbers from my computer in the office and load them onto the new handset. I don’t know how he’d managed it, but he’d also gotten my number transferred to the new phone so that I didn’t have the hassle of contacting two hundred people with my new number; I hated doing that.
After making the introductions and getting our baggage from the conveyor belt, we all got in my uncle’s SUV and started the thirty-minute drive back to Piersville. George and Luke went very quiet when I told them about what had happened, before exploding at the same time.
“What the fuck!” Luke roared and turned around in his seat to glare at me. “How could you not tell us that? You could have been killed, Maya!”
“You should have told us, Maya; that’s not some tiny thing that people don’t deserve to know. Where are you hurt?”
I’d managed to hide the dressing on my hand, and my knee was covered by my leggings, so I told them where and that I’d been checked out by the Mackays’ doctor that same night. The journey continued in silence after that, with only mine and Tony’s voices in the car as he asked questions about the area and I pointed things out to him.
As we pulled up in front of my home, George and Luke got out of the car and went to get our luggage out of the trunk.
Climbing out of the car, I walked around to them. “I’m sorry, guys. It was such a shock when it happened, and I knew that if I told you over the phone that it would scare you, and you’d end up leaving what y’all were doing…” As I said it out loud, I realized how weak my reasons for not telling them were. “I also didn’t want to scare my parents,” I whispered, looking up at them both.
Luke gave me a hug and got into the passenger side of the car as my uncle hugged me. “I don’t understand your reasons for not telling us the severity of the situation, but I love you, honey, and I hate that we could have lost you. You also need to call Ren, because when I saw him yesterday, he was out of his mind with worry about you.”
“I’ll do that tonight,” I reassured him, and gave him a weak smile. I hated upsetting any member of my family, and this was the first time I’d done that to them, and it broke my heart. Kissing me on the forehead and telling me he’
d see me tomorrow, he said bye to Tony and got into the car and drove off.
“Girl, your family is freaking hot.” Tony fanned his face watching my uncle’s car drive away, making me giggle. “If I wasn’t trying things with Andy, I would have been all over that!” Laughing, we made our way up to the porch to the front door where Luke had put our luggage.
Walking into my house, I was hit with memories of Ren, so deciding not to wait any longer to talk to him, I rang Luke.
“What, Maya?” I guess he was still upset with me.
“Can you text me Ren’s number right now?”
“Sure thing,” he replied, and hung up.
Hearing the ping of a text on my phone, I opened the message and hit the number that Luke had just sent me. As the phone rang in my ear, I begged Ren to pick up. “Pick up pick up pick up!” Maybe he was working on a car? The garage could get noisy with all of the machinery, and I’d imagine that that would mean that a lot of calls went unanswered during the day because of it, so I tried again.
After the seventh call, I gave up and texted Luke.
Me: Can u send me Cole’s number pls?
Seconds later, another text pinged on my phone with the number on it. Figuring it might be better to send a text message if the garage was that busy, I texted both Cole and Ren.
Me: Hey, can u tell Ren to call me asap pls? I need to talk to him. Hope ur ok and see you soon?
Me: I’m home and have just got my new phone. I’ve missed you so much so call me as soon as you get this x <3 x <3 x
Sighing, I put my phone down.
“Don’t worry, baby doll,” Tony said, giving me a hug. “He’s a man, and we’re prone to being stupid and doing things like not answering the phone. Well, not me, because I’m the best of both worlds.” He winked. “But the non-perfect males of my sex, well, they aren’t perfect and do stupid shit; he’ll be okay once you explain it. Are you gonna tell him exactly what happened?”
“Of course! He deserves to know!”
“Well alrighty then. Now show me to my passion pit, Wilbur. I need to see what I’ve got to work with.” He snapped his fingers and bumped his hip out to the side at the same time, making me laugh. He was such a freaking diva and damn did I love him.
Three hours later, I still hadn’t heard back from Ren, so I committed the ultimate sin in the girls’ handbook—I called him again. On the fourth ring, he picked up, and I could hear the bar noise in the background. “What?”
He’d never once in all of our time together spoken to me like that, so the bad feeling got even worse. “Hey, it’s me!”
All I could hear were the bar noises, though, and I realized that I was shaking; not just my hand, but a full-body shake. “Um”—my voice was getting quieter the more reality started to sink in—“I wanted to talk to you…”
“Listen, I’m busy right now. I’ll talk to you later.” And the call cut off in my ear.
“Maya, shit, sweetie, are you alright?” Tony came up to me as he saw me standing there staring into space. “Honey, you’re so pale you make milk look tanned,” he joked in a strained voice as he bent his head to look at me properly.
“He…he just hung up.”
“Right, so, maybe he was just busy?”
I repeated it all to him and then burst into tears. Picking me up, he took me to the couch and sat down, stroking my back, rocking me and whispering to me until I couldn’t cry anymore and just sat in his lap, shaking.
“Let it all out, My.”
After listening to me tell him everything Ren had done to win me over and make me trust him, Tony moved my damp hair off my face. “Sweetie, I don’t think that was a lie. Even players wouldn’t go to that much effort just to have sex with a girl. You need to talk to him and find out what’s going on; maybe give him some time to realize what a dick he’s being, first, and then after a couple of days, go to him and get him to lay it all out. What do you think?” Nodding, I got up off of his lap as he groaned, “Oh, thank fuck bacon. I lost the feeling in my legs half an hour ago.”
Laughing and feeling a bit better about it all, I went upstairs to run a bath. Christie had dropped off dinner for Tony and me, so he could eat that while I went to bed. Crying that hard for that long had left me with the worst migraine, and all I wanted to do was soak and sleep. Maybe things would be better in the morning?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ren
B rett had told me to get some space from Maya so I could get ‘my balls back,’ so that was what I was doing. I thought I’d feel better, but if anything it hurt even more because I didn’t have her in my home where I so desperately wanted her to be. When my phone had lit up with her name on it, it had taken everything in me not to answer it. It wasn’t sitting well with me, either, that she could be in danger and I wasn’t protecting her; instead, George was. I just couldn’t get that photo and the name ‘Andy’ out of my head, though, so I’d drowned my ass in whiskey last night at the bar. This morning when I’d been leaving for work with the hangover from hell, Mom had been waiting for me with her arms crossed, but I’d told her I was late and had just driven off. No doubt she’d kick my ass for that later, but seeing as I was going to the bar again right after work to do some more of what I’d done last night, she’d have to wait.
Getting out of my truck at the garage, I saw Cole standing with pretty much the same expression on his face that my mom had had ten minutes before.
“I’m not in the mood,” I snapped as I stalked past him and into the garage, taking the steps to the office two at a time and slamming the door behind me. When I did shit like that, Cole knew to leave me well alone, but apparently this was different, because no sooner had I sat down than he opened the door and slammed it behind him before stomping up to my desk.
“Listen, asshole,” he hissed, leaning over my desk and giving me such a pissed-off look that I paused what I was doing with the computer, “first, I don’t believe Maya would do that. I get that you’re pissed and that you do believe it, because you’re pretty much a fuckwit, but I don’t. Second, you’ve taken the word of the girl that has harassed you for the last ten years and who has fucked so many guys that her pussy is like the Brooklyn Bridge. That bitch has never told the truth in her life, fucker, and you know it. Yeah, it looks bad, but you’ve not given the girl who loves you and who has made you happier than you’ve ever been before in your life a chance to explain it. Maybe you should get your head out of your ass and do that? Third, Mom knows and agrees, and if she thought for one second that Maya would do that, she would be out there giving Maya a piece of her mind. Fourth, Brett doesn't have a clue about relationships. Fifth, if you don’t get your head out of your ass, I swear to God that I will kick it as hard as I can. Fucking grow up and think with your head and not your fucking pride!” he finished on a roar.
Storming out of the office, I slammed the door so hard that the glass shattered, pissing me off so much that I shouted as loud as I could across the garage. Just fucking great.
Five hours later, I was trying to detach the exhaust from the car that I was standing under and the fucking clamps wouldn’t turn. Just as I was about to throw the wrench, it was grabbed from me and I was moved out from under the bastard piece of shit that was causing me so much trouble. Cole placed the wrench over the nut and moved it in the opposite direction to the way that I’d been, and succeeding in ten seconds doing what had already taken up ten minutes of my life that I’d never get back. That was such a rookie mistake that my already majorly pissed-off attitude rose to the point of boiling.
“Whatcha doing after?” Cole asked as he removed the rest of the clamps holding the exhaust on and gently lowered it to the floor.
“Bar.”
“Cool, what time you wanna go?”
Technically, I hadn’t invited him along, but fuck it, I’d take the company so long as he kept his mouth shut and didn’t annoy me. Then again, him breathing annoyed me at the moment, so maybe this wasn’t such a good idea?
Sighing, I looked up at the bottom of the vehicle on the lift. “Seven?”
“Sure, we can get cleaned up and make our way there for dinner, too,” Cole replied as he slapped me on the shoulder.
I couldn’t stop my mind going back to Maya; I wanted to see and talk to her so badly. Cole had seen her in the distance at lunch and said she had a bandage on her hand and was limping. What the fuck had happened? Shit, I didn’t know what to do. Scrubbing my hands down my face and leaving shit all over it, I sighed and walked to my office to clean up. Roll on 7 o’clock.
Maya
I was glad I only had one day in the office to get through so that I could sleep from the time I got home until Sunday night. Not letting everyone know that inside I was a wreck, I’d dressed carefully, making sure I looked immaculate to help with the facade. Tony hadn’t been fooled when I walked down the stairs this morning, but he could always read me as well as my sister and Amy. God, I missed them.
It was taking off the jewelry that Ren had given me, though, that made it all hit home. I’d find Cole at some point to give it back to Ren.
I still couldn’t understand what had happened while I was away. Cole had replied to my message last night telling me to leave it to him and that all would be okay. I wasn’t sure it would be.
When we got into the office this morning, Tony immediately took over with the mound of paperwork, invoices, and requests while I caught up with designs and emails that needed my attention. Luke had popped his head in at eleven to ask me if I wanted to go to the Diner for lunch, but I didn’t want to risk running into Ren, so Tony had offered to go to the deli for me. The only time I had left my office was to collect some paperwork from town hall for George, and since it was close to us, I’d walked there, so my knee was throbbing like a mother now, adding to my bad mood. From now on, work, home, work, and repeat.
At two o’clock, a text came through from Ava.
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