Ally.”
“What are you gonna do?” I asked,
and his anger hit the car, stifling me, just as his eyes flashed with a light
that even I found scary.
Right.
There you go.
Ren was going to deal with it.
“Don’t hesitate to make a mess,” I
invited, giving in, and I actually felt him relax as the heavy air shifted out of my Mustang.
“Dry cleaning blood out of suits
costs a fuckin’ whack,” he replied.
Yikes!
I was absolutely not going to go
there.
“Take care of yourself, honey,” he
said quietly, ending our conversation, ending our time together, reminding me
he’d ended us and that I was the reason there was no us.
In other words, major ouch .
I powered through the hurt and
nodded. “You too, Ren.”
He continued to hold my eyes, and
long moments passed. Those moments feeling like he was waiting for me to say
something, do something.
I did neither.
Then he turned, opened the door and
angled out.
I watched him saunter to the pool
hall and kept watching, even after he disappeared through the door.
I did this with a knot in my
stomach, something stuck in my throat.
Then I pulled my shit together.
Something I’d had to do a lot since Ren entered my life, and more after he
exited it.
I decided I’d find another way to
make amends to Sadie, though I didn’t know how I’d do that.
I just knew I would.
I turned the ignition, put my car
into gear and drove away.
* * * * *
One
month, one and a half weeks later…
I was at Sadie’s art opening at her
gallery, but a more apt way to put it was that I was in hell.
This was because Ren was there and
he was with another woman.
This was also because he was
avoiding me.
This was not surprising. We were
done and he was with another woman. I got a look, a chin lift and that was it.
It was the classy thing to do, not
ignoring me, not getting in my space and being sweet or cool, and thus
reminding me we were over and all I was missing.
Still, it hurt.
But this was mostly because, even
avoiding him, that didn’t mean my eyes, against my strong directive, kept
moving to him.
Therefore I’d caught him watching
Ava.
Worse, he did it with a soft look
on his face I’d never seen. I was too far away to be certain it was longing. I
just knew it was something.
He was still hung up on her.
The only thing I had going for me
was that I looked hot. My dress was awesome, showed enough skin and was tight
enough to be slinky, but not enough of either to be slutty. And my high-heeled
sandals were my own, and they were even better.
That was all I had.
Sadie and Hector were, I was
hoping, heading toward the Rock Chick Reward. That was, everything got sorted
and they moved into their version of happily ever after. There were still
issues, all the Rock Chicks knew, and it wasn’t only because of the Balducci
brothers (all of them were giving Sadie problems), we just couldn’t put our
finger on what.
“You okay?” I heard from my side,
and I turned my head and saw Indy there.
My best friend had lots of fabulous
red hair and a lush body of the Ava variety. In other words, old-fashioned
Hollywood bombshell: great rack, lots of ass, long legs and the ability to work
them all in a huge way, as her current dress and strappy heels, which were
(almost) as awesome as mine laid testimony to.
“Yeah,” I told her.
She studied me closely. “You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure,” I answered
casually.
Indy didn’t take her eyes off me.
She’d been my BFF for so long, we
were so tight, we knew each other’s deepest secrets (well, in Indy’s case, only
most of mine). We’d been through pretty much everything, so even with the
additions of the Rock Chicks, I would never have a BFF who was more of the “B”
than Indy. I loved her. I would lay down my life for her and that was no joke.
I knew she would do the same for me.
I also knew her just as well as she
knew me.
And right now, she knew I was full
of shit.
She leaned in, her eyes never
leaving mine, and
“What are you gonna do?” I asked,
and his anger hit the car, stifling me, just as his eyes flashed with a light
that even I found scary.
Right.
There you go.
Ren was going to deal with it.
“Don’t hesitate to make a mess,” I
invited, giving in, and I actually felt him relax as the heavy air shifted out of my Mustang.
“Dry cleaning blood out of suits
costs a fuckin’ whack,” he replied.
Yikes!
I was absolutely not going to go
there.
“Take care of yourself, honey,” he
said quietly, ending our conversation, ending our time together, reminding me
he’d ended us and that I was the reason there was no us.
In other words, major ouch .
I powered through the hurt and
nodded. “You too, Ren.”
He continued to hold my eyes, and
long moments passed. Those moments feeling like he was waiting for me to say
something, do something.
I did neither.
Then he turned, opened the door and
angled out.
I watched him saunter to the pool
hall and kept watching, even after he disappeared through the door.
I did this with a knot in my
stomach, something stuck in my throat.
Then I pulled my shit together.
Something I’d had to do a lot since Ren entered my life, and more after he
exited it.
I decided I’d find another way to
make amends to Sadie, though I didn’t know how I’d do that.
I just knew I would.
I turned the ignition, put my car
into gear and drove away.
* * * * *
One
month, one and a half weeks later…
I was at Sadie’s art opening at her
gallery, but a more apt way to put it was that I was in hell.
This was because Ren was there and
he was with another woman.
This was also because he was
avoiding me.
This was not surprising. We were
done and he was with another woman. I got a look, a chin lift and that was it.
It was the classy thing to do, not
ignoring me, not getting in my space and being sweet or cool, and thus
reminding me we were over and all I was missing.
Still, it hurt.
But this was mostly because, even
avoiding him, that didn’t mean my eyes, against my strong directive, kept
moving to him.
Therefore I’d caught him watching
Ava.
Worse, he did it with a soft look
on his face I’d never seen. I was too far away to be certain it was longing. I
just knew it was something.
He was still hung up on her.
The only thing I had going for me
was that I looked hot. My dress was awesome, showed enough skin and was tight
enough to be slinky, but not enough of either to be slutty. And my high-heeled
sandals were my own, and they were even better.
That was all I had.
Sadie and Hector were, I was
hoping, heading toward the Rock Chick Reward. That was, everything got sorted
and they moved into their version of happily ever after. There were still
issues, all the Rock Chicks knew, and it wasn’t only because of the Balducci
brothers (all of them were giving Sadie problems), we just couldn’t put our
finger on what.
“You okay?” I heard from my side,
and I turned my head and saw Indy there.
My best friend had lots of fabulous
red hair and a lush body of the Ava variety. In other words, old-fashioned
Hollywood bombshell: great rack, lots of ass, long legs and the ability to work
them all in a huge way, as her current dress and strappy heels, which were
(almost) as awesome as mine laid testimony to.
“Yeah,” I told her.
She studied me closely. “You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure,” I answered
casually.
Indy didn’t take her eyes off me.
She’d been my BFF for so long, we
were so tight, we knew each other’s deepest secrets (well, in Indy’s case, only
most of mine). We’d been through pretty much everything, so even with the
additions of the Rock Chicks, I would never have a BFF who was more of the “B”
than Indy. I loved her. I would lay down my life for her and that was no joke.
I knew she would do the same for me.
I also knew her just as well as she
knew me.
And right now, she knew I was full
of shit.
She leaned in, her eyes never
leaving mine, and
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