Page 28 of The Moment You Know

“Yeah.”

Her deadpan response made him feel like shit. “Please let me know if I can do anything. I mean that.”

A look crossed her face, half Yeah, right and half You’re a dick, as she pulled her hand away. Then, before he could say anything, she gingerly turned on her side, giving him her back, apparently done with him.

Knowing something had just happened—but not knowing what—David left Paige’s room. He couldn’t bring himself to completely leave, though, so he sat in a chair just outside in the hall, getting as comfortable as possible in the plastic contraption, intending to stay until Jules arrived in a few hours. However, he should’ve known Jules wouldn’t wait that long to come, not after hearing her best friend was in the hospital and less than half an hour later Jules was striding toward him.

Not surprisingly, due to the early morning hour she looked a little rough, her copper-red hair in a haphazard ponytail and her make-up noticeably smudged.

When she saw David sprawled in his chair, she blinked, not trusting her vision. “David?”

He got slowly to his feet. “Hi, Jules.”

In the medium lighting of the hallway, she set down the small duffel bag she was carrying and looked him over with a rather frosty expression. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

He had been good enough friends with Jules that he’d missed her a lot after the divorce. But it was clear that she was in no way happy to see him and that hurt more than he thought it would. “I’ve been here all night, actually.”

“Why?”

“What did Paige tell you when she called?”

“That she was in the hospital with a concussion and would need a ride home. So what am I missing? I’m guessing it’s a lot.”

Her tone was deceptively soft, but David knew better than to think Jules wasn’t ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Mentally preparing himself for the unpleasant conversation they were about to have, he began filling her in. “Paige and I ran into each other at Bender’s earlier tonight—well, I guess technically it was yesterday evening—”

“Jesus Christ, no one cares,” she rudely cut him off. Then, lowering her voice a little, added, “Look, I got out of a perfectly good guy’s bed to come here and I don’t need you to go wandering off into the weeds, all right? You and Paige ran into each other at Bender’s and then what happened?”

He cleared his throat. “She saw me with Ashley and—”

“Hold up. Ashley? As in, your office assistant with the big tits and even bigger mouth? That Ashley?”

David almost took a step back at Jules’s full-throttle animosity toward Ashley; it was even more perplexing than Paige’s had been. “Yes. Do you know her?”

“I know of her. So, are you and Ashley together?”

“Yes. And Paige got upset—”

“Upset?” She gave a humorless laugh. “For fuck’s sake, David.”

They looked at one another in charged silence and then her eyes narrowed. “Please tell me you waited at least a year after the divorce to start fucking that girl.”

“Jules—”

“Oh, my God, you didn’t.”

He took a deep breath. He was really goddamn tired, but even when he was at full strength, Jules could be formidable. “Look, not that it’s any of your business, but we were friends first, all right?”

“Friends? Are you serious?”

“Yes. I don’t expect you to understand it—”

“Oh, I understand it perfectly. Don’t worry about that,” she told him snidely. “It’s you that doesn’t understand.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“David, pull your head out of your ass. You had a target on your back and you didn’t even know it. Ashley had you in her crosshairs before you and Paige were even separated, so whatever ‘friendship’ you think you had with Ashley was total bullshit.”

“What? No.”

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