Page 42 of Some Kinda Romance

Ethan walked out with a weird grin on his lips, and maybe it was just because I knew things about him now that I hadn’t before, but it was strangely sinister seeing it there. As he got to the sidewalk, he spotted me. His eyes narrowed for a beat before he fixed a decidedly fake grin on his face and came over.

“Dash! This is a surprise. What are you doing here, brother?” He stuck out his hand and I shook with him but decided not to be completely honest.

He and I had been friendly once upon a time and we’d worked together on occasion, but after what she’d told me, I knew he was more cunning and dangerous than I had been able to guess and I wasn’t about to give him a reason to come at her for anything.

“I came by to pick up some things for my mom,” I said conversationally. “Can you believe she decided to get engaged last month and she wants to get married on Mother’s Day? It’s been a bit of a push trying to get everything done on time.”

He chuckled, nodding his agreement as he released my hand and gave me an almost steely, disbelieving look. He was trying to hide it, but I saw him assessing me. Saw his gaze studying my face as though searching for a trace of a lie, but he wouldn’t find anything.

“Yeah, I heard your mother was with my company,” he said, ignoring the fact that it wasn’t his company anymore. “It must’ve stung when she chose us over you, huh?”

“Nah, not really,” I lied. “You wouldn’t want the company of the person you were married to before organizing your next wedding either, would you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know,” he said with a smug smile on his lips as he pointed back at the building. “I don’t have any plans to marry anyone other than my wife.”

“Don’t you mean your ex-wife?”

He shrugged. “We’re working things out. We’ve been talking about it and it’s looking good.”

My blood went cold. I didn’t believe what I was hearing, but here he was, at her apartment. At night. Looking all smug, relaxed, and happy. Nodding stupidly, I tried to hide how numb I’d gone inside as I made a show of lifting my wrist to check the time.

“That’s great, man. I’m happy for you. I actually just remembered that I’ve got somewhere to be, though. I guess I’ll just have to get that stuff from Serenity tomorrow. Running into you threw me off-schedule a little.”

He laughed. “I wouldn’t want to keep you. I know how you are about your schedule.”

I let out a bark of dry laughter, then said goodbye and headed back to my car, head spinning. Just last night, she and I had talked about trying a relationship and now she was apparently trying again with Ethan.

I might not have a lot of experience with the whole relationship thing, but I was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to be trying it with a couple different people at the same time. Especially not if one of those people was your ex-husband who seemed to think that you were patching things up.

Refusing to be the second choice, the consolation prize if shit didn’t work out with her husband, I climbed back into my car and raced home. Then I grabbed a shower before I started getting ready. This was why I didn’t get involved with people.

People had a way of disappointing me. I didn’t think it would’ve been too much to ask for her to have sent me a fucking text saying she was getting back together with her husband. Getting involved got people like me hurt. People with old school values who believed in one great love like the one my parents had and who didn’t fuck around with other people once you thought you’d found your person.

Scoffing as I shook my head at myself, I wondered why I’d even bothered. I should’ve known better than to trust a reality TV star with a taste for drama and who thrived on publicity.

Anger coursed through me as I headed back out and got a cab to an upscale nightclub where I intended on consuming copious amounts of alcohol to drown my sorrows. Tonight, I was going out and having some fun. Then tomorrow, I’d let Serenity know that I knew what she was doing.

I briefly considered calling Lance to join me, but in the end, I decided against it. If I called him, I’d inevitably have to deal with his opinions about what I was about to do and I didn’t really feel like it.

While I didn’t really care to be with anyone tonight, I did make sure the paparazzi saw me with other people and that the angles were just right to make it look scandalous. I knew it was petty and childish, but with all the rage simmering inside after being duped and betrayed, I didn’t give a shit.

Whiskey after whiskey, I rolled out the more charming version of my personality, making new friends to drink with and taking them for a spin on the dance floor when the mood struck. Eventually, once I was satisfied that I’d spent at least enough time out that people would know I wasn’t moping about her and her husband after those photographs and rumors of us had surfaced, I headed home.

Nicely tipsy, I went straight to bed, closing my eyes and welcoming the abyss of dreamless, slightly drunken sleep. When I woke up the next morning, my mouth was cottony and my head ached a little, but it wasn’t so bad.

Getting out of bed, I chugged some water and took a couple aspirin, then sagged down on my couch and kicked up my feet with my phone in hand. The first article I saw was about Serenity and Ethan, and sickness rolled through me.

According to the reporter, the photos had been taken last night and the title read “King and Queen of LA back together?”

I squinted at the pictures, but I couldn’t make out much detail other than that they were locked in an embrace. Her head was turned away from the camera and it was clearly late at night. The building in the background was her apartment.

Ethan had his arms around her and hers appeared to be around him too, but I couldn’t be sure. The image quality was too grainy.

Tossing my phone down beside me, I groaned and scrubbed my palms over my face. I didn’t know how to feel, but anger was the most prominent emotion spiraling through me, so I went with that. Needing to get this whole situation over with, I grabbed my phone once more, my fingers flying across the keyboard as I fired off a quick text.

Me: We need to talk.

I didn’t wait for her reply, though. I needed to settle this and I needed to do it now.