“No problem.”
I turn to Callum who’s staring at me like I’ve gone mad. He’s carrying the bag containing the pair of red lace panties I found down the back of our bed when I threw out the mattress.
I scoop them out and fling them into the cab at Kelly. “You forgot these.”
She recoils at the unwashed strip of fabric that’s landed in her lap. “These aren’t mine.”
My eyes snap to Callum and the shifty look that’s back on his face. I must have missed it for years. But now I’ve identified it, I can’t unsee it. The man is a pathological liar.
I can’t help it. A laugh bubbles in my throat.
“Looks like you have some more explaining to do. Sorry, I already gave your flowers away. You’ll have to place another ‘cheating asshole’ order with the florist.”
I turn and walk back into the building with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I head into the apartment and open up the front window that overlooks the street.
“You know… I’m kind of tired of taking the stairs. Here you go,” I call down below.
Callum stares up at me as I toss the first bag out through the window, narrowly missing him. It lands with a thud and the plastic tears, spilling some of its contents onto the grimy sidewalk.
“Jude! What the hell?”
I pretend not to hear him as I toss the next bag out.
Followed by the next.
Once the last one has been purged from the apartment, I wave to a scowling Kelly in the cab as she drives off without Callum inside.
Then I slam the window shut.
29
JUDE
I nurse my champagne cocktail,leaning back against the bar of the hotel ballroom where my father’s medical awards dinner is being hosted.
I made it through dinner by chatting with the friendly female surgeon I was sitting beside. She’s the youngest specialist in reconstructive surgery. A fact my father delighted in telling me when he introduced us. The undercurrent in his tone wasn’t lost on me.“Look what you could have been, Jude. If you’d only listened to me and stayed in medical school.”But the usual feeling of my father’s crushing disappointment is still something I’d gladly endure over being seated beside Callum.
I knock back my drink to disguise my shudder, before signaling the bartender for another.
Callum was seated on the other side of the table, a few seats away, thankfully. I was expecting him to be in his usual place, opposite my father, and beside me. Maybe Mom managed to tweak the seating. I’m not sure I could have made it through dinner without stabbing him in the hand with my fork. The lack of proximity didn’t deter him, though. I felt his eyes on me through all five courses. And when I went to the restroom, heexcused himself and followed me. The only reason I spoke to him at all was because the bathroom door got stuck and I had to yell through it for him to get someone to help.
Luckily, I’d managed to force the door by the time he returned with my father, so I didn’t need to waste any more breath talking to him, even though he tried. Callum always liked getting his own way, but he needs to accept we are finished. He has Kelly to massage his delicate ego now. I’m done.
Sipping my new drink, I cast my eyes around the room. It’s filled with medical professionals, all commended within their individual fields.
I couldn’t feel more out of place if I put a fake dorsal fin on and tried to blend in at a SeaWorld show.
“Jude?”
I turn and smile at the older gentleman who was sitting beside my father at dinner.
“Dr. Kingman. Did you come for a champagne cocktail? They’re good. Strong,” I say.
He signals the bartender. “Brandy is more my drink of choice. But I understand the need for something strong. These awards things are just a pompous show of dick-swinging in my opinion. Sorry.”
He holds his hands up, but I chuckle.
He’s a neurosurgeon whom I’ve met at dinners like this a few times over the years, and I can tell he likes them as much as I do. Only, he doesn’t drag his wife and adult children here like my father does. Like we need to be on display. The perfect surgeon’s family.
