My Despicable Ex (Book 1) (5 page)

“
You’ve been working too
much and too hard, Nadia. I would’ve helped more, but I had that
big assignment last week with my job.”

“
I know. It’s hard doing
both.”

“
Well, you guys have fun
and enjoy your movie. Tell Darrin I said hello.”

“
I will. I’ll call you
tomorrow.”

“
Thanks for dinner, by the
way. It was nice to get out for a change.”

She smiled widely. “That was the game
plan.”

I grinned, and she walked away. It was
eight p.m., and I dreaded going home to my lonely apartment. Most
of all, I didn’t want to think about Jake. His betrayal was still
too much to bear, and sulking and crying my eyes out didn’t seem
like the ideal way to spend a Friday night.

I turned my phone back on to see if
I’d missed any important messages. Just as I was about to turn it
off again, the phone rang, and Jake’s number was on the caller ID.
I sighed and answered it. “Jake, this needs to end right now.
Please stop calling me.”

“
Ashly! You finally
answered.”

“
I’m not sure why. There’s
nothing left to say,” I said sternly.

“
Please just hear me out,”
he said, his voice deep and pleading. “Will you just have one drink
with me? I’m at the White Coyote.”

“
No.”

“
Okay. I respect that.
Actually, I deserve it. But if you change your mind, I’ll be here
till midnight.”

“
I’d love to meet you, but
my boyfriend wouldn’t like that so much…and he really wouldn’t want
me to go gallivanting around the country with you
either.”

He chuckled.

“
I’m glad you find my love
life so amusing.”

“
You haven’t seen anyone in
over a year.”

I was livid. “And what makes you think
that? Have you been spying on me?”

“
We hang out in the same
circle of friends, sweetheart. They told me.”

“
Goodbye, Jake,” I said,
furious and hanging up the phone.

Chapter 4

During my drive home, Jake
tried calling a few more times, but I refused to pick up, growing
angrier by the moment.
How dare he step
back into my life after what he did? How dare he keep calling me
like this?
I threw the phone on the
passenger seat.

I needed to see him, though, just so I
could personally tell him how pissed off I was. I needed to vent. I
hadn’t done a suitable or satisfying job of that back at the
lawyer’s office, and I needed closure. Watching that photo melt
into nothingness at the restaurant had been a good start, but I
needed more. I had never had the chance to confront him for
ditching me at the altar; like the coward he was, he had just split
and hopped on the first plane out of there. He didn’t even have the
nerve to say goodbye or leave a number where I could reach him. He
just vanished into thin air and had been gone for years. None of
our so-called “circle of friends” knew where he had disappeared to,
and his family refused to tell me anything. He’d helped me earn the
title of a jilted bride, and I was an authority on getting
dumped.

Worst of all, my ex-boyfriend, my
ex-loser, couldn’t face me after ruining our fairytale big day.
He’d made it clear that he wasn’t trustworthy or dependable. Most
painfully of all, he proved that he didn’t love me and probably
never had. Anyone who could stomp on my heart so easily couldn’t
possibly have had one of his own.

I opened the door to my house and
thought about the black and white pictures I’d taken of Jake all
those years ago. I’d always been a photography buff and had started
snapping photos at the ripe old age of ten. I’d often fantasized
about the great adventures I could have taking beautiful pictures
all over the world, but as a teenager, I developed an interest in
fashion, so my job now combined my two great loves.

After Jake left me, I attended Parsons
Fashion School, where I took classes in fashion photography and
journalism. I got a job as a fulltime fashion journalist with
Blare’s Fashion, which showcased high-end fashion clothing and
accessories. I knew the company would push the limits of my
creativity. I covered fashion shows and events, interviewed
important people in the world of fashion, wrote articles, took
pictures, responded to breaking news, created stories for the Web,
and performed several other tasks.

I also had many dreams of my own.
After starting a new line with Nadia, I wanted to start my own
magazine. I was sure I knew everything there was to know. After
all, I had drowned myself in work for years, ever since that
despicable loser had left me feeling empty.

Suddenly, I recalled my memory box
that I stored in the basement. I rushed down the stairs and dug
through piles of junk, boxes, and bags, until I found it. I quickly
thumbed through the pictures and found my favorite one: him,
standing naked against a black wall, covering his manhood with his
hands. I’d created shadows to cover the top part of his face,
giving him a mysterious and intriguing look. The black and white
image was amazing, and I wondered how the same shot would look with
his more mature, much more muscular body.

I stared at the picture, then looked
at all the others, recalling just how happy and in love we had once
been. I hadn’t looked upon those memories, those snapshots of our
moments, in years. Nadia told me to burn them, but I couldn’t bear
to for one reason or another. Not only were those pictures the
embodiment of the beginning of my career, but they were also
remnants of precious, albeit painful, memories. Jake had, after
all, bought me my first Nikon camera, and I used it all the time
and snapped pictures of anything and everything.

When I wasn’t shooting pictures, I
used my tripod to capture so many wonderful shots of us together. I
picked up the picture of Jake and me at the river, holding what
appeared to be the world’s biggest bass; we had equally huge smiles
on our faces. Then I looked at the pictures of us snuggled up
together on a blanket in the grass, so carefree and clueless to the
dark fate that loomed ahead for us. There was even a picture he
took of me, smiling as I held up my finger to show off my
engagement ring. It wasn’t big and fancy, but I didn’t care. Unlike
my mother, I had never cared much about money. I loved Jake for who
he was, and I couldn’t have cared less if that ring had been made
out of tin foil and plastic gems. The one thing I wanted it to be
was true, and in the end, it was just a lie.

When Jake crashed into my life, I was
a fifteen-year-old, a good girl who had never broken the rules. He
was the biggest, bad boy at our school, and my mother was horrified
when I started dating him. When I told her I loved him, she cried.
According to my mother, he didn’t fit in at all. She saw him as a
troublemaker, a poor kid who lived on the wrong side of town in the
projects. She didn’t think he was good enough for me, because his
father was in jail and his mother had a drug addiction. My mother
begged me to end it with him so many times, but I didn’t care what
she said. I loved him, in spite of his faults and his
socio-economic difficulties. Because she’d been so dead set against
us being together, I had to wonder why my mother would ask,
postmortem, for us to prance around the world together. Her Will
made absolutely no sense.

As I thought about that, I realized I
had to see Jake, even if I wasn’t sure why. I was in a daze, not
even thinking straight. I did need closure, the chance to really
say goodbye, which I’d not been granted before.

I also needed to change into something
sweet, sassy, and sexy, just to show him what he’d missed out on. I
slipped into my dark-wash designer jeans and a black, lace,
strapless top with beaded heels. In the lawyer’s office, my hair
had been pulled back in a French braid, but this time, I was going
to let it down. After curling my hair, I gave myself that
smoldering, smoky-eye look that made my hazel eyes pop. I pushed my
breasts up to give him a glimpse of my cleavage. I worried that I
might be showing off too many curves and that maybe I should tone
it down a bit, but in the end, I decided he deserved to be tortured
with what he would never be able to touch again.

Practically flooring it, I sped to the
White Coyote. I took a moment to gather my nerves, then walked into
the bar. Music played, and people laughed and chatted. I scanned my
surroundings until my gaze fell on Jake, who was shooting pool.
When he let out a laugh at his failure to sink the purple ball, it
jarred my memory; I remembered that deep, delicious laugh, the one
I could have spent hours listening to. I watched him lean over the
pool table. His faded blue jeans clung to his perfect ass like a
second skin. Huge muscles bulged through his tight t-shirt as he
made the next shot and then reached for his beer bottle that sat on
the rim of the pool table.

All of the sudden, as if he’d caught a
whiff of me or was somehow psychically aware of my presence, he met
my gaze and gave me that familiar, sexy smile. Tousled hair in
disheveled waves skimmed the collar of his t-shirt as he said,
“Wow. You look absolutely stunning.”

Mission
accomplished,
I thought, throwing a little
more sway in my walk as I approached him.

He motioned around him. “I’d introduce
you, but I’m sure you know all these guys,” he said.

“
Most of them,” I
responded, waving to everyone.

They all stared at me and gave an
awkward wave back; whether it was compassion, pity, or shock that
I’d even shown up, I couldn’t tell.

“
Can I get you a drink?”
Jake asked.

Ed smiled. “She doesn’t look like
she’s here for a beer, man. Get her some champagne.”

“
Ashly’s always been a
classy woman,” Mike said.

“
Mike!” I said, blushing.
“You know I’m just one of the regular folks.” I grinned.

Mike walked over and gave me a
friendly hug. “I’ve missed you, girl. It’s been years.” He kissed
me on the cheek. “I heard you and Nadia started a fashion line and
even own a boutique.”

Jake smiled at me.
“Congratulations.”

“
Thanks. We’ve got big
plans, and we’ve gotta start somewhere.”

“
Reach for the stars, I
always say. Anyway, we’ll catch up later,” Mike said. “I know
seeing Jake again must be, uh…quite the shock,” he
whispered.

“
I didn’t mean to lose
touch,” I said. “I just…”

He winked. “Don’t even worry about it.
Just give me a call sometime, and we’ll play catch-up over lunch.
I’m in the phonebook.”

“
Definitely,” I
promised.

Another one of his buddies slapped me
on the back. “Does Jake still look the same?”

“
I’m sure any minute, Earth
will fall off its axis from all his hotness,” I said
sarcastically.

They all laughed, and I could only
grin.

Jake finally managed to tear his gaze
away from my cleavage and smiled. “How about that drink?” he
offered again, sounding like he needed it more than I
did.

I pushed my long brown tresses behind
my ears. “Thank you, but I won’t be staying long.”

“
I was hoping we could
catch up,” Jake said.

Right on cue, another of Jake’s
friends walked in and hugged me. “Ashly! It’s been years. You must
be here for Jake.”

“
Yes, I’m here to talk to
my absentee groom. And I was the dumpee, so get your stares and
whispers out of the way or forever hold your peace.”

Most of his friends just said hello,
then left. Either they wanted to give Jake a little privacy or they
were too uncomfortable to face me.

“
Look,” I said. “I chased
your entourage away.” I blinked. “Imagine that. It seems I still
have that effect on people. I mean, I did somehow chase you away
on
our
big
day.”

“
I asked them to leave so
we could have a little privacy, Ashly. I know the White Coyote
isn’t the best place to meet to hash out our differences, but I
couldn’t have you going off on me at a restaurant or
something.”

“
So you’re expecting me to
go off on you?”

“
I know I deserve it. What
I did was rotten, and I’ve never been able to forgive myself.” He
inched closer. “I’m so sorry, Ashly. If I could take it all back,
you know I would.”

I reached into my purse and grabbed
one of the pictures of me in my lovely wedding gown. “Since you
never got to see me in my wedding dress, here,” I said, shoving it
into his hand.

He glanced down and pondered for a
long moment. “Wow. You’re so beautiful. I was such an
idiot.”

“
You got that right. How
could you just leave like that, Jake? How could you do that to me?
And the worst part was that you humiliated me in front of all our
friends and relatives. I didn’t deserve that.”

“
Ashly, you know as well as
I do that I never fit in with your rich family. I was a bad boy
from the wrong side of the tracks.”

“
But love conquers all,
right? I didn’t care, and you shouldn’t have cared
either.”