Page 14 of Forever Home

“Something like that…” I mutter. “Caitlin, the girl I was seeing, seemed like the right girl at the time. Hell, she’s gorgeous and comes from a rich background in the same industry as myself, so I didn’t think she was after me for my money. Atthe time.”

He grimaces at my comment, shaking his head. “You want to talk about it? I’m sure that couldn’t have been easy.”

I hadn’t planned to come down and talk about Caitlin when I agreed to this time with Ash. But now that I was here with him and had a few drinks in me, the idea seemed appealing. I hadn’t had the opportunity to really vent how I felt after she did what she did.

She was the first girl I really took an interest in after I decided to stop chasing every skirt that came my way. The first girl I wanted to open myself up to, and in the end… she was just like the rest of them out there.

Before I can say anything, the waitress comes over with a few menus handing them to Ash and I. Though I wasn’t thinking about food before, it’s late, and with the amount of alcohol that Ash and I are putting down, it’s probably a good idea to eat something.

“And for you, sir?” the petite blonde asks, batting her lashes.

“Let me just get the steak, medium rare, seasonal vegetables, and a house salad.”

She pauses for a moment, as if expecting me to say something else before she finally turns to leave.

I don’t miss the way that she was attempting to flirt with me, but at the same time—I couldn’t care less.

“She’s cute…” Asher’s words make me wrinkle my nose and curl my lip in distaste before shaking my head.

“With desperation. No, thank you.”

He laughs. “Well, continue with what you were saying… What happened with this girl?”

“It was a complicated situation. I work long, hard hours to make sure my restaurant and reputation don’t suffer. And she seemed to understand that, in the beginning. In fact, at first, she was very supportive and always offered to help, if she could. But then she… changed.”

“She changed?” he asks, furrowing his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“Well, she was very controlling and could be vindictive, too. One time, Caitlin and I were arguing over the fact that she wanted to take a trip to Bali since her family was going. She told me that I didn’t need to be at work all the time, and they would be fine without me. But I explained to her that there was an important charity event at my largest restaurant coming up and I wanted to make sure it went flawlessly.”

Ash scoffs, shaking his head. “I take it she didn’t appreciate you telling her no?”

“Nope,” I chuckle. “She sure didn’t. In fact, she was livid. Started telling me that I must be seeing someone on the side because no man in their right mind would turn down going somewhere like that with a beautiful woman. I tried explaining to her again why I couldn’t and that if she wanted to go with her family she could, but that only set her off more.”

“It was a fucking charity event!” he exclaims in a hushed way, his eyes darting around the room. “What did she expect? That stuff takes time.”

“I know,” I reply, shaking my head.

“So, what did she do?”

I think back to the night that shit fell apart with her and how she had acted. Her dramatic entrance into my restaurant that night.

“She went ballistic in the kitchen of my restaurant, accused me of having an affair with an intern, and demanded the girl be fired. Turns out she had been giving the intern a hard time for a while and I didn’t even know because the poor girl was too scared she would lose her place with me. I’ll just say we didn’t last too much longer after that.”

“Well fuck,” Ash says with a low whistle as he shakes his head. “At least you dodged a bullet before it had time to burrow too deep.”

“No kidding,” I laughed, shaking my head. “I only found out after that she was planning a half million dollar wedding and buying a shit ton of other stuff without me knowing. I mean, money isn’t an issue but typically when you plan shit like that your partner is involved.”

We’re both quiet as the waiter brings us another round. The last thing we want is for someone working here to hear the details of the next bit of juicy gossip to splash across the tabloids.

“On a side note,” Ash says the moment the waitress leaves, “Sam looked so fucking good today.”

The sigh that exits his lips at his statement is quickly followed by a soft mutter that doesn’t miss my ears: “Fuck, I can’t believe how much I still miss her.”

I blink at the change of topic, pretending to not have heard his mumbled response.“I dunno, man. She looks the same as she did in high school.”

“Exactly.” He nods in reply. “She’s barely aged a bit. But she still looks hot as hell.”

I disagree with a slight shake of my head. “I think it’s Kylie and Madison who look totally different. I mean, did you see the curves on Madison?”

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