Page 24 of Fake Bride's First Love
He had been texting me every day for the past week, ever since I saw him come home with her in the passenger seat. Not a day went by where he didn’t beg for me to tell him what he had done wrong, nor did I feel compelled to call him out on his lies. The two times we’d slept together only confirmed that he was a womanizer I never should have gotten involved with. And even though I was still wearing his diamond tennis bracelet, I finally saw it for what it was—a passport into my panties.
Which was precisely what I’d told Margo.
“Ginger? Are you listening to anything that I’m saying?” Eva made me realize that I was staring off into the distance.
“I’m so sorry, Eva. You were saying that her husband travels a lot or something?”
She shook her head at me while looking concerned. “You’re thinking about Jorge again, aren’t you?”
I glanced down at my phone, secretly hoping that he had texted or called me again. But there was nothing. In fact, it had been several hours since he last made any attempt to contact me. “I can’t worry about him anymore, Eva. Because the more I do, the more I find it impossible to focus on work. And I didn’t spend all of that time in college to throw away a career over some guy.”
“I know you’re worried about ruining your new career, Ginger, but I’ve never seen you this depressed before.”
Eva wasn’t wrong.
“If he and I hadn’t formed such a strong bond before it happened, then I’d probably be over him by now. But we were friends for a whole year, and then he goes and sleeps with Ria after he had told me it was over between them! After I spent my time looking over his books for him! Do you realize what a slap in the face that is, Eva?”
She nodded while sipping the rest of her drink.
Just thinking about it made me want to burst out crying, right there in the middle of the bar. I had never felt more screwed over than I had with Jorge, and it was so hard to think about anything other than him sleeping with her.
“But how do you know they slept together, Ginger?”
I dabbed at the few tears streaming down my cheeks with a tissue. “Oh, come on, Eva. She came home with him in the middle of the afternoon on a workday. Who does that sort of thing?”
“But wasn’t he trying to buy her out of her partnership in the business? Maybe that’s why she was back at his place.”
I shook my head defiantly while trying to suppress the tears streaming down my face, which might as well have been Niagara Falls. “No, Eva. Jorge would have done that somewhere public, not in his own damn penthouse. Oh, God! I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t even go a day without crying over some guy! Who am I anymore? This isn’t me, Eva! I don’t want to be so hung up over a damn guy!”
I accidentally knocked my purse onto the ground. As I picked it back up, Chase and Jorge walked into the restaurant. Jorge and I locked eyes for several seconds, and my heart started beating too fast. I could hear Guadalupe’s voice saying, “What an alto, oscuro y guapo man!”
And he was.
Even though I was filled with rage over what he’d done, I also couldn’t deny that over the year of us talking on the phone, I had learned he was everything I’d ever wanted in a man.
I threw two twenty-dollar bills onto the bar and ran out the door.
Jorge grabbed my hand as soon as I stepped outside, though. “Ginger, please don’t leave! Why aren’t you returning my calls or text messages?”
I turned to face him, and his mouth fell open when he saw how upset I was. “Oh, please, Jorge! I knew you’d go back to Ria! You just couldn’t wait to get her back into bed, could you?”
Jorge looked genuinely confused as he tilted his head at me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I should have known better. What hurts the most is the fact that we built a friendship before it all happened. Every week we’d talk on the phone, and I’d always go to bed with the biggest smile on my face. Even though I told myself we were just friends, deep down, of course, I was falling for you!”
“Ginger, I haven’t slept with Ria in months!”
I yanked my hand away from him but stopped myself from leaving. If our relationship was going to end, then I at least deserved a chance to speak my mind. “I saw how beautiful she was, Jorge. Gorgeous! Let me guess, she’s a supermodel on the side, isn’t she? And to think that I started developing feelings for you! I never should have done that accounting work for you, either!”
“Ginger, I am begging you to tell me where all of this is coming from.”
Fed up with his lies, I threw my purse onto the sidewalk out of frustration. “I saw you pull into the parking lot with her in your car last week, Jorge. And the two of you went into your building!”
Of course, Jorge looked surprised, because he had thought that I was busy at work.
“That’s right, I bet you didn’t think I’d find out! Well, guess what? I took the afternoon off because I couldn’t stop thinking about you!”
“Ginger, I didn’t have sex with her that day. I haven’t had sex with her in months, and I’m begging you to believe me.”
