Chapter 28 – Asher
Twenty-Eight
PRESENT DAY
ASHER
The waves crashing against the shore were the only sounds at the empty oceanfront bar.
Chris and I sat at the only occupied table alone, neither one of us attempting to break the ice. Then again, if “conversation” included him glaring at me and muttering “What the fuck…” every few minutes, perhaps it was my turn to respond.
“I don’t see why you invited me here if you don’t have anything to say,” I said finally. “Surely, there’s something on your ‘Best Itinerary Ever’ that you could be doing right now.”
“There is.” His voice was flat. “But Michelle wants to talk to you.”
“You didn’t mention she was coming.” I pushed back my sleeves. “But you know what? I’m glad you finally did, so I can stop pretending she can be trusted.”
“Excuse me?”
“Weren’t you paying attention to Katie’s psychotic episode the other night?”
“You both were having psychotic episodes…”
“Michelle doesn’t want to marry you,” I said, feeling the weight of the past several weeks lift off my chest. “Hell, I don’t even think she can stand to be around you for more than five minutes.”
He arched a brow.
“She hired me—through Katie—to sabotage things before the wedding,” I said.
“And honestly, this has probably been the hardest job I’ve ever had to do because it was you, but…
She doesn’t love you, and you need to get rid of her.
You can find someone else who wouldn’t ever dare to think of pulling this shit. ”
He looked at me like I was insane.
“Do you not understand what’s happening?” I asked. “Do I need to break it down with crayons or simply repeat myself?”
“I’d love for you to repeat yourself,” a soft voice said from behind.
I looked over my shoulder to see Michelle and Katie behind our table.
“Actually, hold that thought until I get comfortable.” Michelle moved to sit across from me, right next to Chris.
Katie didn’t sit at all.
She just stood there, looking as if she was on the verge of tears.
I was tempted to pull her close and ask her what the hell was wrong, but her recent words to me were still too raw.
“What were you saying, Asher?” Michelle asked. “Something about me not loving your brother?”
“Exactly.” I glared at her. “You don’t love him, and you’ve been putting on one hell of an act since we got here.”
She had the audacity to look confused.
“I’m making an exception to my typical policy in your case,” I said. “You need to tell my brother the fucking truth—right now—and then I’ll help you make up an excuse to share with everyone else. They’ll never know how heartless, fake, and fucking selfish you are.”
“That’s enough, Asher.” Chris growled.
“It’ll be ‘enough’ when Michelle finally stops lying to you.”
“I said it’s fucking enough.” He glared at me. “ENOUGH.”
He looked at Michelle, then at me, and I waited for him to demand the truth, but all he did was smile.
At her.
The woman who was plotting his heartbreak and humiliation this Sunday.
Michelle didn’t answer right away.
She just looked at me.
Then at Chris.
Then back at me.
“…You really believe that?”
Michelle’s lips curved into a small smile. Chris followed—but it wasn’t amused. It was relieved.
“You two seem pretty amused for the situation,” I said. “I don’t recall uttering a punchline.”
“You are the goddamn punchline, Asher.” Chris wiped his eyes. “You and Katie.”
“What do you mean?” Katie finally spoke.
“I’m not leaving Chris at the altar,” Michelle said. “And he’s well aware of me ‘hiring’ you to come here…”
“I’m still not seeing the joke,” I said. “And if you have to explain it, it was never funny.”
“We didn’t hire you to break us up,” Chris said.
“We hired you because you won’t admit you’re in love with her.”
“Come again?”
“She’s the only woman you’ve talked to us about for the past two years, and I’m tired of you coming up with all the ways you hate her when it’s obviously—”
“Obviously—the exact opposite.” Michelle finished his sentence. Then she looked at Katie.
“Your staff says the same thing about you, Katie,” she said. “I tried to book a wedding with you two years ago, and they said you were in something called Asher-recovery mode. Thankfully, one of your interns was drunk and couldn’t stop talking, and I put two and two together.”
“So, this entire thing was a waste of my time?” I asked. “You two just wanted to play a ridiculous game of matchmaker?”
“Is this a fake wedding?” Katie crossed her arms. “I squeezed you into my schedule and bent over backwards for a ruse?”
“No, we’re definitely getting married,” Chris said. “That won’t change, but the day after we say ‘I do,’ I’ll never listen to you complain about Katie again.”
“Oh. Okay.” I rolled my eyes. “How will I ever continue living my life with that type of boundary in place?”
“I don’t talk to either of you that often,” Katie said. “And I definitely won’t after this… How exactly does your bullshit game affect me?”
“It would suck for your business to get a bad review from a Fortune 500 CEO, wouldn’t it?” Michelle narrowed her eyes. “Especially if we contacted every person in media we know…”
“You wouldn’t dare…”
“Oh, I would.” Her smile was long gone. “I’ve lost count of the times you’ve talked about Asher whenever I called you to catch up.
Hell—it’s even more since we started planning this wedding, and that pink cork board in your office that you think is for your staff to count tasks?
” She paused. “It’s a running tally for the number of times you bring him up every fucking week…
They have to start over on Sundays because that’s how much you bring him up. ”
“My personal life is none of your business during this process, Michelle… You’re the client. Not me.”
“What an odd way to say thank you.” Michelle fired back, and then she squeezed Chris’s arm.
“We’re not asking you two to declare dying love for each other,” he said. “We’re just asking you to stop playing games for the remaining days we’re here. Oh, and to stop dragging everyone else into your drama.”
“The final pre-ceremony brunch is tomorrow at noon,” Chris said, standing to his feet. “I suggest that you’re both there on time, and that you come up with a truce so you won’t make another scene.”
“You’re lucky we made everyone delete the footage…” Michelle said to Katie. Then she stood up and looked at me.
She parted her lips as if she wanted to say something else, but she shook her head and let Chris lead her away.
When they were out of sight, I sighed and turned to face Katie.
“How much did you pay them for this game?” I asked. “I know you’ve always been attracted to me and you’re obsessed with ridiculous romance plots, but this is a bit extreme. Even for a desperate romantic like you.”
“I wouldn’t pay anyone to ruin my life.” She hissed. “That’s your lane.” She looked like she was about to try another version of assault, so I grabbed her wrist.
She jerked against my grip.
I didn’t let go.
Instead, I pulled her closer.
“Maybe if you ask me to forgive you for all the shit you said about me the other night,” I said, “I’ll consider being cordial for the rest of our time here.”
“Which part of what I said was untrue?”
“That you regret fucking me, for one.”
“I do.” Her lip quivered. “Especially since you slept with someone else right after.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You also said you hadn’t had sex in a while as well, and that was a lie too.”
“You’re slipping into another psychotic state.” I pulled her closer. “The only person I’ve fucked since being here, and all this year, is you. And I know damn sure you don’t regret it because you begged me to make you come again and again…”
“I was pretending.”
“You were pretending to take my dick down your throat, too?”
Her cheeks reddened, but the wrath in her irises remained.
“I didn’t tell one lie at that dinner,” she said. “Sorry that the truth hurts.”
“I don’t appreciate you telling everyone what I really do for a living.”
“Then maybe you should get a new job,” she said.
“I have goals I need to reach, Katie. Surely you know what that means.”
“You surpassed your second and third goal years ago.” Her voice was terse. “But you can’t bear to let go because you’re scared to realize that you might not be good at anything else except hurting people.”
“So, the wedding you had planned in your head with Brad years ago—the one you put so much time and effort into—all for him to make you waste your time in an on-and-off-again relationship…”
I paused as her chest heaved up and down.
“You’re telling me that you would’ve preferred he go along with the wedding just to make you happy for a day? When you damn well know it would’ve ended in divorce later?”
“I would prefer it if you finally—just finally—stopped acting like you’re doing anyone a favor by ‘handling’ things.” Her voice cracked. “And I would also like it if you never spoke to me again.”
“Say it like you mean it, and I will.”
“I don’t want you to ever speak to me again, Asher Brooks,” she enunciated every syllable.
“I regret ever crossing paths with you on the first day we met, and I can assure you after this wedding is over, that this will be the last time because unlike you, I am capable of seeing when I need to move on and pursue something else…”
I let go of her, and she didn’t linger for another second.
She stormed off, and I watched her walk away.