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I stopped in my tracks and took a step back when I spotted Mason leaning against the wall with his phone to his ear a few feet down the hallway. I’d accidentally overheard part of a conversation he was having with his fiancée, Rory, the first week on set, and I’d ended up red as a tomato because he was saying stuff that was definitely meant for her ears only. Ever since then, I did my best to give him privacy if it looked like he might be talking to her.
“It’s happening, baby. Vaughn moved Mila in with him, which is the best news possible.”
The blow was verbal instead of physical, but it hurt all the same. Tears welled in my eyes, and I couldn’t catch my breath. I had to lock my knees to stay standing upright instead of collapsing to the floor. Staggering backward, I dropped onto one of the chairs and took a few slow, deep breaths to stave off a complete breakdown.
By the time I semi-pulled myself together, I couldn’t hear Mason talking in the hallway anymore. Peeking my head out, I was relieved to find myself alone. I hurried out of the studio and hailed a cab, determined to get home as quick as I could. I needed to be somewhere safe and private when I called Vaughn because we were going to have a doozy of a conversation.
I barely kept it together during the short ride to my place, keeping my face turned to the window so the cabbie didn’t notice the tears streaming down my face. Luckily, I didn’t run into anyone when I raced into my building and up to the apartment. Slamming the door shut behind me, I pulled my phone out of my bag and stared down at it.
“Okay. You can do this. Call Vaughn, tell him what you heard Mason say, let him explain, and don’t freak the fuck out until you know for sure what the hell is going on,” I muttered, pulling his number up on the screen. “Just because he never has women over to his house and now has some rando staying with him and never mentioned it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a lying, cheating bastard.”
I pressed his number and listened to the call ring five times before he picked up. “Hey, baby. Wow, I hadn’t realized how late it was. Are you home for the night?”
My little pep talk didn’t do a lick of good, and my voice came out shaky as I replied, “Yeah.”
“Did you have a good day?”
“Um. Not exactly.” Talk about the understatement of the century. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something that happened just a little bit ago.”
“Sure. What’s up?”
I cringed at how normal he sounded, asking about my day and sounding interested in what was going on with my life. My lips parted, and I was about a second away from letting loose on him when I heard a feminine voice call his name in the background. “Who was that?”
“Just the TV, baby.” There was dead silence for a moment as though he’d hit the mute button, and then he came back on to say, “I’m sorry, but now’s not a great time for me to talk. I definitely want to hear about what happened, but I’m going to have to call you back tomorrow.”
After the call ended, I stared down at my phone in shock. Any hope I’d had that I’d misunderstood what Mason was saying to Rory was gone. There was definitely another woman in Vaughn’s home, and he’d just flat-out lied to me about her. “TV, my ass, you motherfucker.”
Stripping out of my clothes, I changed into my favorite pair of comfy pajamas. I gave serious consideration to calling Morgan for advice, but I didn’t want to rain on her parade when she and Gage were so happy. And it wasn’t like I didn’t know what she’d tell me to do, anyway. Cheating and lying were hard lines for both of us. As much as it hurt, Vaughn had to go before I fell any harder for him than I already had. Since it was Friday night and I didn’t need to be back in the studio until Monday afternoon, there was no time like the present.
I forced my fingers to tap out a message I never thought I’d send to Vaughn.
Me: You know that thing I said I wanted to talk to you about before you had to go? I hate to do it this way, but I’m too busy to see you anymore. It seems like you are, too, so it’s probably better for both of us to just break it off now.With tears streaming down my face, I hit the arrow to send the text that ended our relationship. Then I stomped over to the kitchen and yanked a pint of maple bacon ice cream out of the freezer. I’d stumbled across the flavor last weekend and bought a few pints as a surprise for Vaughn. I figured since he loved bacon almost as much as I did, he’d get a kick out of it. When he’d canceled his trip out here, I ate one of the pints. Luckily, I still had two left because they sounded like the perfect breakup snack to me.
