Page 29 of The Moment You Know

“Yes.”

Jules crossed her arms over her chest in typical battle stance and he knew he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

“Paige and I went out for dinner one night about a month before your divorce was finalized,” she said. “We ended up in the booth next to your young assistant and a couple of her friends. Paige had told me a few things about Ashley, but this was my first real contact with her, so to speak, and it was quite enlightening. We overheard her talking about you, which wasn’t hard because she was more than half trashed on Tequila shots and loud as fuck. She talked about how thrilled she was that you were getting divorced from your ‘ugly’ wife and she didn’t know how Paige ever landed you in the first place, since you were way out of her league—”

“What?”

“That’s right. She also said that Paige must be a frigid bitch because you always looked like you ‘needed to get laid’ and as soon as the divorce was a done deal she was going to ‘get you’ and take care of that, pronto. Repeatedly. She went into excruciating detail about what she was going to do with your dick when it became hers, which couldn’t happen soon enough, because she was getting tired of waiting for it. In the meantime, though, until she could get her hands on it, she was taking the edge off with a few other dicks, because she had ‘needs’. I wanted to go and kick Ashley’s ass, but Paige begged me not to. She didn’t want Ashley to know we were there, so we sat and listened to all that shit, even though it nearly brought Paige to tears—”

“Jesus, that’s enough.” David scrubbed at his face, picturing Paige hearing all of this and being devastated by it. He hadn’t thought it possible for this night to get any worse but he’d been wrong.

“So, this ‘friendship’ you had with Ashley?” Jules asked sarcastically. “I’m guessing it started off with her being sympathetic to the divorce you were going through and understanding your ‘pain’. She wanted to be there for you and help you through it, so she started making you laugh and became the cheerful face at work that lifted your spirits when you needed it. It was all very innocent and you got used to it. Then there was some harmless flirting on her part and you got used to that, too. Pretty soon you two were texting after hours, sending funny memes to one another … whatever.” She waved a dismissive hand in the air. “This led to having a friendly drink after work once in a while, which became the occasional dinner, until one night she crossed the line, you grabbed a condom—hopefully—and the two of you fucked like bunnies.” Jules tilted her head. “Is that about right? Did I miss anything?”

David just looked at her.

“That’s what I thought. So, how long did it take before you two fucked like bunnies?”

After a slight pause, he answered, “Six months.”

Jules’s disappointed shake of her head triggered a defensive posture. “I was divorced,” he pointed out.

“Barely,” she said, only to add, “But I’m sure to Ashley that was a long time. You know, since she was having to go without your dick, and all.”

“Damn it, Jules—”

“You want to know what the worst part is?”

“Not really.”

“I told Paige you would never get involved with that girl. Those were my exact words. And I believed them. But boy, was I wrong—and I really hate being wrong.”

There was dead air between them for a long moment, then Jules squared her shoulders. “So, Paige sees you with Ashley and gets ‘upset’ and then what? How did she end up in the hospital with a concussion?”

Reluctantly, David filled her in on what had happened, starting with Paige telling Ashley to shove her ‘Hello’ up her ass, which made Jules smile. By the time he was finished, however, she was no longer smiling and looked like she wanted to introduce a sledgehammer to his face, then shove it up his ass.

“You cock-sucking wanker,” she spit out.

David’s face flushed at the insult, which had been delivered at full volume, with hospital personnel nearby. “Fuck you, Jules.”

She exhaled through her nose like a bull seconds away from charging a matador. “No, fuck you, David. You know, for someone who supposedly loved Paige so much, you were able to move on in a goddamn hurry. A three-year-old? And you named him Jacob? I literally want to crush your nuts with my bare hands. And don’t get me started on what I want to do to your cunt of a girlfriend for what she did to Paige.”

Trying like hell to control her anger, Jules glanced in at Paige still asleep in her room. “I hope to God this doesn’t set her back.”

“Set her back?”

“She’s had a really shitty past couple of years. Unlike you.”

“What do you mean?”

She turned to give him a cold, unforgiving look. “Sorry, but your opportunity to hear about all of that came and went.”

“I’m confused as shit right now. I literally don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you don’t, but that was your decision,” she said, then added, “Which makes your decision to stay with Paige all night a little surprising to me.”

His jaw tightened in anger at her blatant bitchery. Did she actually think he’d have just waved to the ambulance as it drove away with Paige? “Are you fucking kidding me, Jules?”

“Sorry.”

---