Page 38 of Ashes of Us
“I reached out to Elena and Jimmy again, individually this time. Jimmy couldn't tell me much about it, he was living in New Hampshire when they were seeing each other, and he said that while Jasper told him he was seeing someone, he made it sound more like a friends with benefits type thing than an actual relationship and that she was fine with it.” Maverick wrinkled his nose and scratched his neck, looking like he didn'twant to say what else Jimmy told him. “They used to joke about how eager she was to please Jasper and how she would ditch previous plans if he reached out and wanted to hook up. Jimmy said he told Jasper that it sounded like she was falling for him, but Jasper shrugged it off and said that wasn't his problem because he made it very clear to her that he wasn't looking for a relationship, and she never brought it up.”
Danica nodded, well aware of Jasper's reputation as a fuck boy in high school and college. “Yeah, that tracks. His mom was thrilled when he first introduced me to them, because he'd never brought a girl home before. He fully admitted to never wanting to settle down before he met me, and his cousins didn't hold back on telling me about his numerous conquests at my first family dinner.” She rolled her eyes; she could laugh at it now, but at the time, she almost walked away. “I kept my cool in the moment, but fully intended to dump him, not because of the fact that he was a former man-whore, I knew about that already, but because his family were weirding me out. Emilia noticed I was starting to shut down but she liked how I was handling things so she pulled me aside to tell me if Jasper wanted me to meet his family, then he was very serious about me and predicted we would be engaged in six months if I stayed with him, promising the family would ease off after they got over their initial shock and got used to me coming around.”
“And were you?” Maverick raised his eyebrow, looking amused.
“He asked me to move in with him when my lease ended that night, and when I moved in with him three months later, he proposed in the middle of an argument about keeping his extensive Hot Wheels collection on display in the living room or moving it somewhere else,” Danica explained sheepishly.“Emilia was sort of right about the family; they stopped trying to shock me, but I wouldn't say they 'eased off.”
Maverick chuckled. “What happened with the Hot Wheels collection?”
“He sold them to buy a ring.” She laughed with him, surprised he had focused on that. “Look, when I say extensive, I mean his living room was fifteen feet by fifteen feet, and three walls had custom-built shelving that started four feet above the floor and went to the ceiling. He had over three hundred of the premium lines, including the historic ones, most sold between twenty and forty bucks, but a couple sold on eBay for over a hundred.”
“He sold them?” Maverick stopped laughing and stared at her. “Seriously?”
“Yep,” Danica nodded, smiling fondly. “We were in the middle of this, I don't want to say massive argument about the cars and how much space they were taking up, but we were definitely starting to get heated, and he just stops mid-sentence about how they were an investment and asked me to marry him. I was so surprised that I laughed it off, and we both let the argument go. I had to travel for a week for work shortly after, and when I got home, he had sold like ninety percent of them and bought me a ring, to prove he was right about them being an investment and to show he was serious about us and getting married.”
“Yeah, that would be hard to say no to.” Maverick nodded, and she saw he looked sad for her. Swallowing, she ducked her head, focusing on Watson, who was lying on his back and snoring.
“It never even crossed my mind to say no,” she said softly, then cleared her throat. “So, what did Elena have to say about Lucy?”
“Ah,” If he was thrown by the sudden change in topic, Maverick didn't let it show. “Well, Elena agreed that Lucy knew Jasper wasn't interested in a relationship, but Lucy thought he would change his mind and want to be with her when he saw how devoted she was to him. She didn't believe he was seeing other people, even when she saw him with other girls around campus, she would insist he was only interested in her and when they graduated and he was no longer surrounded by bad influences, he would settle down with her.”
“And instead, he dumped her.” Danica couldn't help the smug feeling of satisfaction that washed over her, but Maverick was once again wrinkling his nose and looking very unimpressed. “Why are you making that face?”
“Because saying he dumped her implies there was a conversation.” He explained. “According to Elena, he slept with her the night he graduated and then left after she fell asleep and cut her off without a word. Of course, we only have Lucy's story about what happened that night, and it's clearly not the most reliable, but I'm pretty sure she was telling the truth about how it ended, even if she's lying about what led up to that.”
Danica shrugged. “Jasper always said it was never serious, and she knew it was going to be over when he graduated.” She knew Jasper didn't come out looking like a great person, no matter how it was spun, but that all happened two years before they knew the other existed and had nothing to do with their relationship. “What about the other marriages she ruined?” She took another long sip of her coffee, savouring its flavour. “You also need to tell me where you get your coffee, because this is delicious.”
Maverick let out a chuckle and stood up, disappearing down the hall and coming back with a navy-blue package that he handed to her. “My girlfriend and sisters run a Wiccan supply shop and clothing store in Salem; the coffee is from a company called “The Scrying Bean.” They're local and buy their beans from ethical sources.” Danica flipped the package over, grinning at the logo of a crystal ball with a coffee mug in it.
“Gaze into the depths of your cup.” She murmured, reading the logo and passing it back to him. “Guess I'll be making a trip to Salem to stock up.”
“It's a pretty amazing shop,” Maverick grinned as he tossed the coffee packet on the table and picked up the first folder again. “But I might be biased about it, since my girlfriend runs the Wiccan supply side, my sisters design and sell their own clothing lines on the fashion side, and both are extremely successful. They also have a resident “grey” witch who will do a karma spell on Lucy and Amy if you ask her nicely.”
Danica chuckled, amused by the idea of having a karma spell cast on the two women. “Do they work?”
“You know, I didn't think so, but remind me to tell you D'Arcy's story sometime, it's pretty convincing.” He flicked through the folder of papers as he spoke, and Danica noticed he looked like he was caught between awe and doubt, like he didn't want to believe it was real, but also couldn't deny the outcome. “Anyway, besides Lucy's parents' other marriages, there was a professor at her university who went through a very nasty divorce while Lucy was his student. The university covered it up as best they could; he was tenured and in his late fifties, with no complaints or black marks on his file, and she was only nineteen. His wife ended up taking him to the cleaners, and Lucy mysteriously decided university wasn't for her and switched to Boston College. It was all rumours and conjecture; nothing wasever confirmed, and even his ex-wife refused to talk about it when I reached out. Said it was in the past and she was over it.”
So that's what? Four?” Danica shook her head. “All before she was twenty?”
“Yep.” Maverick nodded. “But no one will talk about that one, even Elena didn't know about it, so I have no idea how true it was or what happened. The next one was her ex-husband's first marriage. He claims he never cheated on his first wife, but she thinks he had an emotional affair and slept with Lucy at least once before he told her he wanted to end things, mostly because he moved away with Lucy to another town on the other end of Florida immediately after he gave her the divorce papers.”
Danica shook her head. She didn't know if Lucy was actively creating these situations and getting off on destroying marriages, or if the men lied to her about being single. However, as long as she got what she wanted, she didn't seem to have any sense of guilt or remorse about her actions.
“The next marriage she ruined was her own, by cheating with her boss until his wife found out and exposed everything to Lucy's husband and the rest of their very small, very religious, southern Florida town, and trust me when I say she was lucky she wasn't tarred, feathered and run out on a rail.” Maverick pulled out a piece of paper and passed it to her. Danica took it curiously and saw it was a photocopied newspaper article.
“Sunday Best, Weekday Worst: Local Businessman Caught with His Pants Down.” She raised her eyebrow as she read the headline and scanned the article, which went into great detail about the more salacious aspects, naming both the businessman and Lucy by their first and last names, and included quotes from the scorned wife and the town pastor. “Wow.”
“Yeah, he was very active in the church and presented himself as an upstanding pillar of the community with plans to run for mayor. Which is why his wife exposed him by taking the evidence to the local paper.” Maverick nodded as she passed the article back to him. “Which brings her total to six, then we have your marriage, which, while she wasn't the catalyst, she made herself part of the issue, and now your in-laws.”
“What a piece of work,” Danica muttered. “What is it about her that made these men do something so stupid?”
“She's reasonably pretty and has a way of coming across as sweet and innocent. From what I can tell, she doesn't actively chase these men, but she doesn't discourage them, has no concept of boundaries and likes the attention.” Maverick explained. “She's described as a conniving bitch by the wives and a naive free spirit by the husbands.”
“I'm inclined to agree with the wives,” Danica said dryly, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “But Iambiased, so what do you think?”
“I honestly don't know, and I don't want to be the one to find out.”
Chapter Thirty-Two: Playback
