Page 8 of Chasing his Ex

“Aren’t you a virgin?” Jade asks.

“I’m just saying.”

“Aren’t we here discussing Ava?” Sophie’s voice is short and snappy. “What do you know, Charlie?”

“His father’s company took three floors in the building around a month ago. I’m surprised you’ve only just bumped into him.” Charlie glances around the bar area, then stares at me over the top of her pink drink. “Do you think he’ll want you back?”

“Oh, no. That ship sailed and too much happened when we broke up.”

Sophie grins.

“Too much? Was it painful?” Charlie asks.

Was it painful? I swipe my tongue across my lips as I think of that. It was painful for a while. My heart was so broken, all I wanted to do was pick up the phone and beg him to take me back.

But he hurt me too much, and I could never forget that.

“It was the worst time of my life. I was so angry at first, but once I calmed down, the pain of the split hit me like nothing else ever could. I never wanted my heart to ache like that again, so I deleted his number and vowed to never speak to him.”

Charlie takes a long sip of her drink, not taking her eyes from me. Placing the glass on the bar, she purses her lips, giving me a sorrowful look. “That bad?”

I nod.

“Put you off men?” she asks.

“Not now, but I’m not interested in anything serious. My life is not ready for relationships.”

“Not even Jameson Sterling?”

“Nope,” I say, taking a sip of my drink.

Charlie takes all of her blonde hair and quickly braids it and places it over one shoulder. Her eyes not leaving mine as she does. “So you don’t want the gorgeous Finn Jacks. Would you be offended if I did?” She grins and her expression is devious, and I imagine her flicking her hair and swaying her hips as she moves toward him.

Yes.

“No.” I swallow the lump that has risen in my throat. Charlie is beautiful, but I know she lacks confidence, and if it wasn’t for that lack of courage, I know she would make a play for any man she wanted.

“Your mouth says one thing, your eyes tell me different, you protest too much.” She props her elbows on the bar, her fingers rhythmically tap her cheeks as she rests her chin on her hands. “But if you want Finn, you need to break things off with Jameson.” She lifts her eyebrows. “Otherwise it will get messy.”

“I don’t want Finn and I do not know why nobody believes me, but I am only friends with Jameson.”

“With benefits,” Jade asks, taking a sip of her wine and looking over the rim of her glass.

“With benefits is good. Until it isn’t. My neighbor was casual,” Charlie says, hesitating as she puts the word ‘casual’ in air quotes.

“Not friends with benefits, nor casual,” I say and sigh.

Charlie continues, ignoring me. “Until she started casually seeing someone else and then everything went crazy, noisy. The entire neighborhood heard them. The next thing they went off to Las Vegas and got married in front of Elvis.”

“Romantic,” I whisper.

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Ava,” Amber says with a grin.

“Oh it does,” I say and smile.

“And those Vegas weddings are my bread and butter,” Sophie, our resident divorce lawyer, says, taking a sip of her wine. “Divorces all round.”

Amber nods in agreement.

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