Page 34 of Picture Perfect Love

“Someone who’s a dime a dozen?” Valerie laughed. “Please, Cassie. If there’s any ounce of truth to what you’re saying, it’s only because Joshua was heartbroken over Abby and handling it poorly. You were a side effect. A bad decision and nothing more. And definitely not one he’ll be making again. Especially when Abby takes him back.”

Valerie turned back to me and noticed the tears welling up in my eyes.

“You said he could have done far worse things,” I croaked. “I guess he was more than willing to prove that point.”

Before she could respond, I was rushing out of the room. I wasn’t about to break down into tears right there in front of everyone more than I already had. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself on the way out. Joshua seemed hell bent on getting me fired or convincing me to quit, and now he might have finally succeeded. I left without a word to my boss or anyone else about where I was going. I just had to get out of there.

I jumped into the first cab that stopped and blurted out my home address by habit. My phone immediately started exploding with messages from my boss and from Valerie, followed by a slew of texts from my other friends asking if I had seen the articles floating around about Joshua’s wild night at the club with Cassie. Every new ding of my phone made my stomach turn.

After a few minutes, I couldn’t see the screen through my tears anymore. My hands dropped into my lap, covering up my phone as if to shield me from anything else that might come through and add to the tragedy of my already ruined day.

I started thinking about home to comfort myself. Sweatpants. A bath. A bottle of wine. Comfort chick flicks. Junk food. Bed. Most importantly, privacy… where I could be as depressed or angry as I wanted without anyone bothering me. I needed all of that so badly at that moment, it was worth risking my job over.

The cab went over a pothole in the street, nearly knocking me over in the seat. The jolt was all I needed to come to my senses. What was I doing? Why was I about to slink off into some hole to lick my wounds? All of this was Joshua’s fault, and he deserved to live with the guilt of just how badly he had hurt me. If nothing else, he was going to have to answer for his shitty behavior to my face.

“Stop!” I shrieked to the driver, rattling off Joshua’s address instead. I swore he started driving faster, matching the sudden urgency in my voice. Which was good. I needed to get there and go off before I lost my nerve.

My heart was racing as I stormed through his building, up the elevator, and to his front door. But my hand stopped just before knocking. What if there was evidence of Cassie still hanging around his place? Would her bra be draped over his couch or her lipstick be smudged on his shirt collar? What if he smelled like her? And more importantly, was I strong enough to face any of it?

I had come that far, I thought. And I was already hurting. Might as well follow through. Joshua certainly had no problem driving the knife in deeper it seemed. Finally, I clenched my fist and started banging until I heard shuffling inside.

The door swung open. A very tired and hungover Joshua stood there, looking about as terrible as Cassie had looked, only maybe not so proud. Especially once he registered it was me standing there, looking mad as a hornet.

“Abby,” he murmured with a hoarse voice. “It’s you. I can’t believe you’re here.”

My ears rang with fury as he started begging me to come inside as if everything would be alright now. I didn’t smell Cassie on him right away, but that might have just been because he reeked of booze so badly.

Somehow part of my heart still caved into him. I felt my body sway, wanting to go to him. I wanted to collapse into his arms and say forget everything and never talk about any of it ever again. But then Cassie’s voice started echoing through my brain, followed by the look on Christopher’s face when we ran into him at the restaurant.

Where had this guy come from and how had he managed to do so much damage in such a short amount of time? My veins pumped with anger, growing hotter by the second.

Without thinking, my hand flattened and reared back, cracking across his cheek. We were both shocked, and I couldn’t stand to see that pitiful look on his face. My sobs erupted all over again as I turned to run away back down the hall.

---