best.” Simon puckered his lips.
“It’s all smoke and mirrors. Without that red lipstick and all that hair, she’d be a solid four.” Rebecca puckered her lips at Simon, both of them imitating Marisol the Beautiful, who’d been at Andes the past three days.
We were sitting outside in the plaza in front of the office. They were shit talking to make me feel better. It wasn’t working, but I appreciated the effort.
“I don’t care about her.”
“Of course not.” Rebecca’s arm wrapped around my shoulders, and Simon squeezed my knee.
It was the truth. My heart had been decimated by Weston all on his own. Marisol hadn’t been a factor, nor was she. If he went back to her, I felt sorry for her. To willingly be with a man incapable of choosing the woman he said he loved was a form of self-hatred.
I’d spent too many years hating myself to ever go back to that.
“Tell me more about Wyoming,” Simon insisted.
“I’ll tell you about it when I get back,” I promised.
Last night, I’d been slipping into the kind of melancholy I hadn’t experienced since I was a teenager. My limbs were heavy and achy, and when Saoirse tried to speak to me, her voice sounded like it was cutting through water.
That was when she decided we were going to her family’s ranch in Wyoming for a long weekend. A change of scenery, fresh air, and cowboys were her answer for my heartbreak. I only agreed because once the weekend showed, Elliot would inevitably hunt me down. I’d been avoiding him too long, but explaining to him what had happened was the very last thing I wanted to do.
Weston could do that. He’d made this choice. He could tell my brother what he’d done.
“Just don’t stay away forever,” Rebecca pleaded. “I don’t know if I can go back to the days when it was just me and Simon at lunch.”
He threw a piece of bread at her. “You’re an absolute slunt.”
A laugh burst through the shards of glass in my chest. “A slunt? What is that?”
Rebecca covered his mouth with her hand. “Our dearest Simon just called me a slutty cunt. I’ve told him many, many times only Sam’s allowed to call me that—and only during sexy times.”
Another laugh. It felt like my sternum was cracking. “These are things we never needed to know about you and Sam.”
She shot me a wry grin. “Sam is a filthy man. I hope you’re happy for me.”
Simon threw another piece of bread at her. “Shut up, wench.”
She wagged her finger at him. “Now that you’re allowed to call me.”
While they bickered, three people exiting the Andes’ building drew my attention. In the middle, walking stiff as a board, her chin held high, was Marisol. She was surrounded by two men, security guards. They were gripping her elbows, and every couple steps, she tried to jerk free of them.
“Oh shite,” Simon muttered. “She’s being escorted out of the motherflipping building.”
“What in the world…?” Rebecca cut herself off, obviously as fascinated by the scene unfolding in front of us.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” I whispered.
As they got closer, Marisol’s protests carried across the plaza. “Stop touching me like I’m some kind of criminal. I’ll have you arrested for assault. This is inhumane.”
The security guards remained silent. They’d probably heard all this before.
“Where is Weston Aldrich? When he finds out you’ve treated me this way, you’ll lose your pathetic rent-a-cop jobs.”
“Ma’am, as we told you already, our orders came directly from Mr. Aldrich,” one of them informed her.
Simon was practically vibrating beside me, but he was quiet as a mouse, not missing a single word.
“This is absolutely ludicrous, and I refuse to believe a word you say. I need to speak to Weston. I demand it.” Marisol tugged her elbow free and tried to spin back around toward the building, but she was stopped before she took a step.
“Ma’am, if you don’t leave Andes’ property, we’ll have to call the police. If Mr. Aldrich wants to talk to you, I’m sure he’ll be in touch.”
The threat of arrest finally made her stop fighting. A car pulled up to the curb, and the guards helped her into it. They stood there, waiting until the car had driven away before retreating into the building.
Rebecca blew out a heavy breath. “Wow. I’m going to need to know what that was all about, stat.”
My stomach was a mess of writhing worms. I pressed down on it and swallowed hard.
“We’ll read about it in the news,” I uttered.
“Screw that, I’m heading inside. You know someone has the tea.” Simon squeezed me in a side hug. “Would you like me to text you when I find out?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t need to know.”
He sighed. “All right. Have a great time in Wyoming. Kiss a cowboy for me, love.”
The thought of kissing anyone but Weston made me want to scream, but I smiled at Simon and promised to tell him all about my trip when I got back. Rebecca waited with me until Saoirse arrived to drive us to the airport, then she hugged me and told me everything would be okay.
I didn’t believe that for a second, but at least I was getting out of there, giving in to my instinct to run far, far away from the source of my pain.
Hundreds of miles between me and Weston Aldrich.
It wasn’t forever, but it was all I could give myself at the moment.
