Page 88 of The Hearts We've Broken
My thoughts were cut short as we turned around the corner and I made contact with someone’s shoulder.
“Oops…” I began to apologize until I realized who I had run into.
Ava’s eyes widened. “Juniper? I didn’t know you…” Her eyes flicked to Mikey’s then down to our interlaced fingers. “Wow, I didn’t realize you were still with him. I figured once you’d gotten what you wanted, you’d be satisfied.”
Mikey’s gaze also bounced back and forth between me and Ava. “What areyoudoing here? How do you know each other?”
“What, you didn’t recognize her?” Ava crossed her arms, the corners of her lips dipping in a frown. “Juniper and Iused tobe best friends.”
“Babe? Everything okay?”
I heard his voice before I saw him. Brady didn’t realize it was me until after he’d put his arm around Ava’s waist.
“Juniper,” he muttered.
As though my true identity dawned on him when he saw Brady, Mikey’s eyes widened then narrowed in suspicion. “What’s going on here?”
“I-I can explain.” I stumbled over my words at the same time Ava pointed at me with one hand placed on her hip.
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“I—” Words failed me, and defensiveness boiled up in me. “You were my best friend until you decided to fuck my boyfriend, Ava.”
She forced out a laugh, but there was no humor in it. “What? And you’re so much better? Youknewabout me and him. You were there last year when he took me home from the bar.” She pointed to Mikey, recognition flashing in his eyes for a brief moment. “You couldn’t have chosen literally anyone else, Juniper?”
Brady piped up next. “Yeah, babe, if you wanted me back, all you had to do was say the word. You didn’t have to use my favorite bull rider to make me jealous. Although, you did look damn good last night.”
I didn’t miss the way Ava glared at Brady, but my attention was torn away from them when Mikey snapped his head toward me. “What are they talking about?”
Ava scoffed, still giving Brady a look that said,We’ll talk about that later, then continued without letting me explain or defend myself. “What, did you actually think she wanted you? You actually believed she liked you? She used you. I mean, what better way to get back at your ex and best friend than fucking around with the famous bull rider who just so happened to be my sloppy seconds. The media attention was just the cherry on top.” Directing her attention to me, she asked with a laugh that sounded all too genuine, “How did you manage to do that one?”
I rolled my lips, prepared to argue, but Mikey beat me to it.
“That’s why you agreed to be my girlfriend? You wanted the media’s attention to do what? Make someone jealous? What, was defending me to the press part of your revenge plot, too?” Hurt—betrayal—flickered in his eyes.
“No, I—” The media attention was never part of my original plan, but he didn’t give me time to explain. “That wasn’t my intention, but?—”
“You knew why I didn’t want the media attention.” His voice grew louder. “Youknewit would drag things out longer, but you made it happen anyway.”
“I wasn’t planning on it being more than one night!You’rethe one who asked me to do this!” I retorted, not even realizing that Ava and Brady had already gone,leaving us to fire accusations at each other. “Why did you even need a fake girlfriend to begin with?”
He hesitated like he didn’t want to tell me, but I wanted answers. I needed the answers to the questions I’d been so afraid to ask from the beginning.
A rational person would let the dust settle, come back to the topic when we were calmer, less emotional.
But neither of us had ever been rational when it came to this.
“Was it for your image? Did you do it so the fans would leave you alone? What was it?” I pushed and pushed, not letting up until he finally exploded.
“It was a bet, okay!” he yelled, even though it was drawing attention to us.
Bystanders paused in their tracks to see what was going on. When they realized who was getting in a fight, a few pulled out their phones. Mikey noticed and pulled me back around the corner, away from prying eyes. The social media trolls would have a heyday with this.
Lowering his voice, he growled, “Are you happy now? The guys bet me that I wouldn’t be able to keep a girl for longer than two weeks. Then they bet me a month. Colter offered me a nice plot of land if I could stay with the same girl until the end of the Houston Rodeo.”
I flinched, my body recoiling at his words as though he’d sucker punched me in the gut. “That’s what those texts were. Why you didn’t want me to see them. Youusedmefor money.” The words fell out of my mouth under my breath. Humiliation washed over me. “That’s why you didn’t want the media attention. You didn’t want anyone to know.”
Mikey scoffed, throwing his hands in the air. “Do you realize how hypocritical you sound? I wasn’t the only onewith an ulterior motive. AndIwasn’t the one who dragged it out longer. This was never supposed to last more than a month.”
