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“But do they, really?” she questions, sitting back and folding her arms.
Licking my lips, I distract myself by pulling apart my muffin and shoving it in my mouth. “Sometimes,” I say, staring out the window. For good or bad, people change every day, and I happen to be one of them.
“Why did you leave?” she exclaims, adjusting herself in her chair with a grimace.
I raise a brow at her, staring off at the apartment complex in the distance. Why did we leave? Because I felt like we had to.
“You see that apartment building over there?” I ask, pointing out the window toward Gloria’s home.
River huffs. “You know what? Forget it. I’ve explained a lot of shit to you assfaces over the last few days, explaining myself over Lyric. But you assholes can’t even answer one question I have.” Slamming down her cup, she moves to get up, but I catch her by the wrist. When my flesh touches hers, a fire ignites beneath my skin, and electricity darts up my arms. Taking a deep breath, I ground myself.
“Gloria lives in that apartment complex.” Her expression falls, and a paleness washes across her face. “That’s why I was downtown before I saw you. I had questions for her myself.”
She swallows hard, settling back in the chair. “What did that conniving bitch have to say for herself?” River asks, a flame burning bright in her eyes, ready to burn the world at her feet. That’s the River I remember. The girl who took no one’s shit, especially mine.
“Well, you have the conniving part right. I went to have a friendly discussion with her. After what you said to me in the hallway, I had a lot of questions I needed answers to.” River blinks rapidly, grinding her teeth so hard a vein protrudes from her neck. With a wave of her hand, she silently encourages me to keep going. I sigh, running a hand across the back of my neck. “We didn’t sign restraining orders, River,” I say in a low tone, reaching across the table and chancing my fingers when I brush against hers. She doesn’t pull away from my soft touch, but I can tell she wants to back away and put as much distance between us as possible.
“You didn’t?” she asks, pursing her lips and keeping her emotions locked tight behind the fire in her eyes.
“She admitted to getting Van’s dad to sign the papers without our signatures,” I say, gripping her hand in mine. “Believe me. We didn’t leave on those terms. We…”
“Then why the fuck did you?” Pulling her hand from mine, she shakes her head and abruptly stands from her chair. “One day, you guys were my fucking world, and then the next, you left me a grieving mess and deserted me like I meant nothing. Did I not deserve a text or a phone call that you were leaving without me? You promised me that we would go together. I played my part, Asher. Why didn’t you? Huh?” Every word she speaks slowly gets louder and louder until the eyes of the other customers fall on our little spat.
River’s chest heaves as her fists curl at her sides. She’s kept this in for so long that I can tell it’s worn her down, and she cannot gain the answers she needs. And it’s all my fucking fault. I need to piece us all back together. It’s my responsibility now. Whatever happens to us in the future, I will make this better. Even if I have to sit on the sidelines and watch my best friends be happy, this is what I deserve.
“I’ll tell you everything if you sit,” I murmur, pointing to the chair, and silently I beg her to follow my direction.
With a huff, she sits on the edge of her seat, preparing to dart off if I don’t give her the answers she wants. I swear my heart skips a beat, and my tongue sticks to the top of my mouth. I could tell her nothing but the truth. I know that. I could get on my knees, beg for forgiveness, and explain my role in everything. But in the back of my head, I know the consequences if I lay the reality out for her. Lyric’s sweet face pops into my mind, calling me daddy with a grin lighting up her tiny face. My conscience yells at me to confess and reveal my bad decisions, but my mouth works faster than my guilty conscience, covering my damn tracks.
“A few weeks before we left, you asked for space after what happened to your mom. It was hell being away from you when you were hurting so bad. Kieran was clawing at the walls to get back to you and take you in his damn arms. But—uh—someone sent my phone a video of you and—um—” I blow out a breath, working myself up to say what I need to say. My fingers fiddle on the table, twiddling my damn thumbs.
“Spit it out, Asher. I’m getting pretty pissed off,” she snaps, running her tongue across her teeth.
“Someone sent me a video of you and Van screwing around in the back seat of his Mustang.” River stops moving. Hell, I swear she stops breathing at my confession and narrows her eyes. “It came with a text that you’d been screwing him behind our backs just after we’d gone exclusive with you. And…”
“So, let me get this right,” she says with a thunderous expression clouding her face. “You all got a video of me and Van doing the nasty. The same Van who had stalked me for months and never really stopped until I left. The same fuckin Donavan Drake who broke my heart as a teen because his mommy and daddy fucking hated my guts. And your first thought was, yeah, that’s what River would do when she wasn’t with us?”
I swallow hard, feeling the hints of her anger squeezing around me. It’s so palpable in the air everyone within a five-foot radius moves away from the hurricane building inside her.
I lick my lips, lying through my fucking teeth. “Callum saw you,” I say, trying to clear my throat. “He…”
“Ah, yeah. That’s the proof you need then, huh?” she asks with her face twisting in anger. The vein in her forehead expands, and a redness encases her entire face. “He waltzes in uninvited, just like fucking Van did. Then Van forcefully shoved his tongue down my throat, and you know what? Fuck. You. All. We were adults. Do you know what adults do? They have conversations. They communicate with each other instead of leaving without a goodbye.” Promptly, River stands, slamming her chair back, and looms over the table with ragged breaths. “Let me make this very clear: Van and I were done, and so are we. Have a good fucking day, Asher. I’ll see you at band practice tomorrow. Prepare yourselves,” she growls an ominous warning, stomping away and rushing through the door without a backward glance.
“Fuck,” I mutter, staring out the window until she gets into her vehicle. That’s not how I wanted this conversation to go at all. Fuckity. Fuck. Actually, I don’t know what I expected from her. I knew she’d be upset to find out why we left.
Movement whirls around me, dragging me back into the restaurant. Several pairs of eyes glare daggers in my direction, including the scowling older man who shakes his head in disgust. Feeling the awkwardness crashing down on me, I throw my barely-drank coffee and half-eaten muffin into the trash and walk out the door with my head hung low. I have a lot of shit to talk to the guys about if they’ll fucking listen. I need to make this better without revealing the absolute truth. There will be a time and a place for me to tell them what happened, but I need to tell them what I discussed with Gloria. Fuck. I rub a hand across my tightening chest, crumbling under the vise, viciously squeezing it.
As I walk out the door, I reach into my pocket and pop two more antacids to tamp down the rising heartburn, eating away at my insides.
“I hadcoffee with Asher this morning.”
Accidentally, might I add. The little bastard followed me from point A to point B, trailing after me like a lost puppy dog. I couldn’t shake him off. So, I made him buy me breakfast. I was starving, and he was offering. So, I took the opportunity to drag information out of him.
Something tells me Evil Ash had more to say but wasn’t willing to give it all up.
Olivia chokes on her glass of wine. “What?” she croaks, wiping her mouth.
“I had coffee—”
