AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That she was. Is. She told me it was because I wasn’t giving her enough attention. I was fucking going to therapy every day. My career was over and I was still trying to come to terms with it. And I wasn’t giving her enough attention.” I sit back and watch the waves crash against the sand. “Hell, maybe I didn’t. It was in that moment that I knew I had to get out. I had to get away. I was certainly not going to stay married to a woman who could cheat so easily to try to get my attention. Especially when she accused me of whoring around our entire marriage.”
“I’m sorry, Sawyer.” Her apology isn’t necessary or needed, but still comforting all the same.
“It’s fine. I got over it and am past it. Well, I thought I was until Sunday night,” I say, her body tensing in the chair.
“What did she say?” she asks softly.
“She told me things…about you.”
“Me?” she asks, sitting up straight.
“Yeah, she said you broke up a marriage not that long ago. More than one, actually,” I confess, not at all proud to acknowledge that I chose to let Carrie’s words affect me as much as they did.
A look crosses her face, and for a moment I see a touch of guilt mixed with sadness. “Wait, how would she know anything about me?”
I chuckle, but it lacks any humor. “That’s the thing about Carrie. She’s very…resourceful. In fact, for a long time, I’ve suspected she was behind some of the photos that showed up in the rag mags. Half the time, I wasn’t in a public place that would be accessible for a photog. Yet, they always had a way of finding me, and always in the exact moment some strange woman walked up, posing as a fan, and moments later would plant her lips on mine.”
She seems perplexed. “So, you’re telling me that Carrie could have been following me?”
“Well, I’m sure it wasn’t Carrie personally, but yeah, I think she had someone looking into you. It’s the only thing I can come up with as to why she knew…things about you.”
AJ seems to be lost in thought for a few moments, so I just let her be. After a few minutes, her eyes meet mine. “I’m sorry you’ve been caught up in my crazy life. I guess, I just thought when I moved here, I was leaving all the bullshit behind.”
“It’s not your past that bothers me, Sawyer, it’s the fact that you didn’t come to me when she told you those things. The fact that you chose to let her words affect you, without allowing me to explain, hurts as much as your silence.”
Instantly, I’m on my feet and kneeling before her. “I fucked up, AJ. I’m so used to closing myself off or trying to stay one step ahead of her manipulation.”
“I’m not her.” Her words are blunt and to the point. The weight carries the force of a thousand knives to my gut.
“I know. Fuck, do I know. You’re so much the polar opposite of her that I can’t see straight.”
“I would have told you, you know. If you had asked about what she said…that marriage thing…I would have told you everything. In fact, I would have anyway because I’m one who believes there shouldn’t be secrets between two people in a relationship. And even though we never officially declared anything, it feels like we were headed that way. At least it felt like it to me,” she averts her eyes.
“Me too, baby,” I answer quickly, bringing my head forward and setting it against hers. “It felt like that because that’s exactly where we were headed. Where we are headed.” My eyes find hers and I see tears brimming.
She takes a deep breath. “Then you need to know about Joe.”
Just the sound of the guy’s name elevates my blood pressure, but I force myself to school my features and appear calm. I also reach for her hands, linking our fingers together, because if I’m going to hear about my AJ with another man, I need to feel like I’m grounded, and touching her does that for me. “Go on.”
“He lived nearby and came to town a time or two a week for work. He told me he was divorced, which it turns out he was not. I found out one night when his pregnant wife called me up and told me.”
“Fuck,” I groan, knowing where this was going.
“He lied to me for weeks while warming my bed, and then would go home to his wife and kids. I didn’t know,” she whispers, the tears finally falling and her guilt reflecting in her sad eyes.
“I know, baby,” I tell her before kissing her forehead, my lips lingering just a little longer than they should. “He was the ultimate douchebag.”
“He was.”
“She left him?” I ask, knowing that if the information Carrie was given was accurate, she did.
“I think so, though it’s not like she actually called me after that night to chat.”
“Of course.”
She gives me a sad little smile. “That was the only one,” she insists.
“Okay.”
