Page 16 of Leah

I went tense and cold hearing his response.

The past should stay in the past.

That was what I’d been trying to do, and he just said it in the most blasé manner. At least he wasn’t denying my existence altogether. Maybe I was a fleeting thought in his life after all. He’d clearly moved on. Our past together seemed so trivial in the grand scheme of things.

The woman didn’t spare a second before she pestered him about his latest fluff. Some girl by the name of Molly Anderson. He seemed annoyed by that question, and I read him so well, noting the way he blinked rapidly and inhaled sharply.

Who is this girl?

Without shame, I opened up another tab and looked her up. Even though I felt like I wasn’t pining for him—truly, I was okay—this was still strangely hard. I swallowed a lump as the search results mirrored my expectations.

She had endless long legs and large auburn curls; she was a daughter of a rich investor, and she’d only started to gain popularity after her relationship with Carter came to light almost four months ago.

The gossip sites were all over them, posting up articles with images of them eating together, or in the streets together. All the photos consisted of her in some seriously fucked-up outfits plucked from the late 80s. She also was an aspiring model—gasp, who would have thought it?—and her photo shoots were borderline ridiculous than they were “artsy”.

Whatever. No judgement here.

These are just natural feelings.I reiterated to myself.Totally natural.

I then gritted my teeth, forcing myself to admit she was actually gorgeous.

A gorgeous giraffe, maybe.

But, as is obvious, I was too intent on finding ways to hate her.

When I finished feeding mycuriosity,only because I was tired beyond belief, I put the laptop down and went to sleep. Facing the screen, I stared at a picture of his face before my eyelids were too heavy to open.

In my semi-sleep state, I remembered him spooning me the way he used to. The way his hand roamed up and down the side of my body, and the feel of his breaths against my neck right before he kissed it.

I remembered the feeling of his chest vibrating with laughter after he told me a horrible joke, and in my dream state, I tasted an alternate reality that had his lips brushing against my ear, whispering delicately, “I love you, Angel.”

In that reality, I was no longer afraid to love.

Six

Carter

There was a naked girl in my bed.

As if my night couldn’t get any more fucked-up.

She was smiling up at me, her eyes shining beneath her fake eyelashes.

What the fuck?

I frowned, confused. Was I in the wrong room? No. I couldn’t have been. My shit was everywhere.

“Who are you?” I demanded, wondering for a moment if a fan had actually bypassed our security team. That would have been a first successful attempt since we’d started touring, and a little impressive too.

“Tiana,” she answered, attempting to put on a sultry tone, but in my alcohol-muddled brain, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“Tiana,” I repeated, before asking, “How did you get in here?”

“Jared.”

Ah, now things were clicking together.

Fucking Jared, trying to break my dry spell. I didn’t need pussy at the moment. I needed something harder, something that could ease this tension inside my chest.

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