AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You had a one-night stand.” Ashlyn rubs her hands in anticipation. “Tell us all about it.”
Juniper slaps her. “She didn’t say she had a one-night stand. I still say the two of them could be in a long-distance relationship.”
“Not a long-distance relationship,” I mumble.
“Because of Bob.” Aspen surmises. Correctly.
Lilac frowns at me. “What does your vibrator have to do with your views on long-distance relationships?”
“Not B-O-B. Bob. As in the name of a man,” Aspen explains. I throw a glare her way. Who does she think she is? Telling all my secrets.
“Who’s Bob and why don’t we know about him?” Ashlyn sounds hurt.
Sigh. There’s no way to tell this story without everyone getting their feelings hurt, which is why I didn’t want to tell anyone. Time to come clean once and for all.
“I met Bob when I was a junior in college.”
Ashlyn wrinkles her nose. “Can we pretend his name is Rodrigo or Diego? Bob sounds boring.”
“Robert is a perfectly acceptable name. Although it’s fallen in popularity, it remains the 80th most popular name for boys.”
I glare at Lilac, the statistics machine.
“What? Why are you glaring at me? I’m merely stating facts.”
“Can we get back to the story now, please?” Juniper pleads.
“Anyway, my entire junior year we were together and then Bob graduated. I loved him and didn’t want to lose him, so we agreed to try long-distance.” I hug a pillow to my stomach. “During my senior year, we kept in touch regularly and saw each other at least one weekend a month. I thought things were good. I even made plans to follow him to Seattle where he was working in the tech industry.”
Ashlyn gasps. “You were planning to live somewhere other than Winter Falls for good?”
Aspen wraps an arm around my shoulders and squeezes me. “There’s nothing wrong with leaving Winter Falls.”
I don’t respond to Ashlyn. I need to get this story out before I become a blubbering mess. I’ve been a blubbering mess entirely too much recently.
“I landed an interview for a big hotel in Seattle, but I didn’t tell Bob. I wanted to make sure I had the job first. I flew out there and they offered me the job on the spot. I rushed to Bob’s apartment to surprise him with my plans, except his surprise was bigger.” I blink as fast as I can and wave my hands in front of my face as if the action will stop the tears from falling.
“She walked in on Bob with another woman. And not some scamp he pulled off the street either. His live-in girlfriend,” Aspen finishes for me.
“What an asshole!” Ashlyn roars. “Let’s go burn his house down.”
“Must you always be dramatic? I can let Slinky lose in his place. Highly effective and no one has to know we were behind it.”
I’m almost afraid to ask Juniper who or what slinky is. “Slinky?”
“Her pet snake.” Ashlyn shudders. “And now you know why I no longer visit Juniper’s house.”
“I can send him a virus in an email. It will erase all the information on his phone and computer,” Lilac suggests.
I slash my hands in the air in front of me. “No. No. No. We’re not doing some big revenge thing against my ex. He’s not worth it.”
Aspen purses her lips. “Except what he did to you has made you afraid of relationships.”
I bristle. “I’m not afraid of relationships.”
“Then, why have you been ignoring Cole’s calls and messages?”
I glare at Lilac. “How do you know he’s been calling?”
