Chapter Twenty-Four
“Darlin’, your phone is ringing,” Hudson yells from the other room.
“Will you bring it here please?” I ask as I finish applying my eyeliner.
“Here you go,” he says as he hands it to me.
“Thanks.”
When I see who’s calling, I frown.
Why in the hell is she calling me?
“What’s wrong?” Hudson asks, picking up on my mood.
“It’s the friend who Troy cheated on me with.” The phone stops ringing.
“Well, it looks like you don’t have to talk to her.” The phone starts ringing again. “Or not. Are you going to answer?”
“I feel like I should. I mean, what if something’s wrong?”
“Then it wouldn’t be your problem.”
Sighing, I answer the phone and immediately put it on speaker.
“Hello?” I say as Hudson leans against the counter next to me.
“Hey, girlfriend,” Kimberly chirps as if no time has passed and we are still friends.
I look up at Hudson and see that he’s also giving me a “what the hell” look.
“I’m sorry, did you mean to call me?”
Kimberly laughs. “Of course I did, silly. I was wondering if we could get together. I really need to see you.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Esme, please. I would like to apologize. I did something to hurt you, and I want to make it right. All I’m asking is for you to meet me for a drink and let me say my piece. If you never want to talk to me again, I get it, but I miss you.”
Blowing out a breath, I lean against the counter. I don’t know what to do. While I would love to have an apology to get that closure, I just don’t know. Owning up to mistakes isn’t really Kimberly’s style.
Hudson presses mute on my phone. “It’s up to you, darlin’. What do you want to do?”
“I don’t want to, but I feel like I should. Not for her, but for closure,” I admit.
He tucks a piece of hair out of my face. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“You would do that?”
“Of course.”
I love this man.
Before that thought can go anywhere, Kimberly cuts through, reminding me that I’m on the phone.
“Esme, you still there or did I lose you?”
I unmute the phone. “I’m here. I was just thinking.”
“Please, just meet me at that little coffee shop you like across from the bookstore. I only need ten minutes of your time.”
“Okay, fine.”
“Great. Meet me in an hour.” She hangs up before I can say anything.
Hudson’s eyebrows wing up. “Didn’t even bother to ask you if that time would work for you, huh?”
“No, because Kimberly expects you to do things when she tells you to.”
“She sounds like a peach,” he says, making me smile.
“Not wrong.”
“Are you sure you want to go?” he asks as he rubs my arm.
“No, but I’m going to.”
“I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
An hour and ten minutes later, Hudson and I are sitting in the coffee shop, waiting.
“How long do we have to wait until we can leave?” Hudson asks as he plays with my hair.
“If she’s not here in the next fifteen, we are leaving.”
Just as the words leave my mouth, she comes walking into the shop. She waves but heads to the counter to grab a drink. Once she’s done, she comes over.
“Esme, good to see you.”
“You too,” I lie, thankful that she didn’t try to hug me.
Kimberly eyes Hudson. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Hudson, my boyfriend.”
The way she looks at Hudson makes me nauseous. Like he’s a piece of meat. Did she look at Troy like that and I was too na?ve to notice?
Kimberly looks over at me. “So I wanted to…apologize. See, Troy came onto me, over and over again. He told me that you two were having issues, and I know it’s wrong, but it just happened. I never would have done it to you, though. Troy just…”
Raising my hand, I cut her off. “Actually, I really don’t want to hear your excuses. I came here to tell you something.”
Kimberly jerks back like I’ve hit her. “Excuse me?”
“You were a shit friend. The absolute worst, in fact. Our friendship was one-sided and always about you. It was what you wanted to do, where you wanted to go, all about you, you, you. I gave you everything. and in the end, you betrayed me. You slept with someone I had been dating. To make matters worse, you let me talk about him, all the while you were having sex with him.”
Hudson’s hand moves from my hair to my shoulder, giving me the support to push forward.
“By you fucking him, you did me a favor, though. You made me realize that he wasn’t the right guy for me and that you were truly awful and didn’t deserve my friendship.
You even managed to get Amber to show her true colors.
So thank you for that, but you can fuck off.
I wish you no ill will, but I don’t ever want to see or speak to you again. ”
By the time I stop, I’m breathing hard.
Holy shit, that was exhilarating.
“I thought you came here so we could bury the hatchet, but that’s how you speak to me?” she hisses.
“I was never going to bury the hatchet with you.”
“You know, I didn’t even want to come here today.
Troy convinced me that it would be best for him.
He thought that if maybe you saw me, you would miss your old life and take him back, but let’s be real, you don’t deserve someone like him.
Or this one.” She looks over at Hudson and licks her bottom lip.
“Have you fucked her yet? Troy always said she would just lay there and take it. She wasn’t any fun and never wanted to try anything new.
That’s why he liked me, I’m game to try anything twice. ”
She reaches over to try and touch his hand, but Hudson quickly removes it from the table.
“Come on, don’t be shy Hudson. I can make all your wildest dreams come true,” she purrs.
She fucking purrs.
Bile rises in my throat. This can’t be happening.
I knew I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have let her set eyes on Hudson. God, this is my worst nightmare come to life.
I fucking hate this bitch.
I didn’t like her when I found out how she betrayed my girl.
She broke girl code and let a man come between their friendship, but it was fine.
She was out of the picture. Then she called this morning and pissed me off again.
I didn’t like the way she just assumed Esme would jump to reconcile, but I really fucking hate her now.
Does she honestly believe that I would give up a minute with my girl just for a chance at mediocre sex with her? Not fucking happening. The only pussy I’ll be sinking into for the rest of my life is Esme’s.
“Come on, Hudson, you know you want to,” she purrs again.
Does that really work on men? Does she not realize she sounds like a cat and not in a good way?
How in the hell did Esme even become friends with her? The woman should recognize a viper when she sees one.
With every word she speaks, Esme tenses further.
Goddammit, she’s getting to her.
Under the table, I rest my hand on Esme’s thigh, offering her a little comfort.
There’s only one thing you can do to teach someone like Kimberly that they don’t always win.
With one hand on Esme’s shoulder and the other on her thigh, I smile at Kimberly.
“I’m your type,” I say.
Kimberly’s eyes light up as she leans against the table, pressing her boobs up higher.
“Baby, you’re everyone’s type. You deserve so much more than this.” She waves her hand absently toward Esme, like she’s an object and not a person.
This bitch.
Is she traditionally beautiful? Sure, but that beauty is only skin deep. She’s as ugly as a tar pit on the inside. The worst kind of woman is one who demeans others to try and make themselves look better.
Unfortunately for Kimberly, I can see right through her little act.
“Tell me, does this actually work?”
“Huh?” she asks, caught off guard by my question.
“Does this whole fake seduction act actually work for you?”
“I’m not faking anything.” She huffs.
“Let me guess, if Troy talked you into coming here to try and win her back, then he also told you that she’s not just dating me, but my brothers.”
“Yeah, so? It’s not like Esme knows how to please one guy, let alone three.”
She says it so confidently that I can’t help but chuckle.
“First off, that pencil dick doesn’t deserve my girl.
He lost her, and now he has to live with that.
He needs to accept that before it’s too late.
As for you…you let a man come between you and a friend.
One of the most loyal women I have ever met, all for a little mediocre sex.
And now that you aren’t getting your way and this conversation isn’t going the way you expected it to, you turn to cheap insults?
” I scoff. “If only you knew how not boring Esme is. Instead, your head is so far up your ass, you didn’t realize how amazing she really is. If anyone’s a prize, it’s her.”
She huffs and opens her mouth, but I cut her off.
“Let me be abundantly clear, you never have and never will stand a chance with me or my brothers. The only one we want is the one right next to me. It’s really fucking sad that you feel the need to belittle another woman just to make yourself feel better. Honestly, you need some fucking therapy.”
Standing, I pull Esme up with me. “Come on, we’re leaving. We don’t have time for fake friends like this. You deserve better.”
“What, you can’t just leave,” Kimberly hisses.
“We can and will. Never, and I mean never, contact Esme again. If you see us on the street, look the other way or you’ll regret it.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asks loudly, getting the attention of other patrons.
“It’s not a threat, it’s a fucking promise,” I say quietly before raising my voice. “You know I’m taken. I don’t appreciate you hitting on me in front of my wife,” I lie.
Esme sucks in a breath but doesn’t pull away as I lead her out of the coffee shop. Only after we are out of earshot of the coffee shop do I speak.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?” she asks.
“Because if I didn’t go with you, it might have gone a little differently.
Maybe she wouldn’t have said all that nasty shit and made you feel like you aren’t good enough.
” Holding her hand, I pull her to a stop and face her.
“You are enough. You are more than enough. You make Levi, Walker, and me so fucking happy it’s not even funny.
I hate that she made you question that even for a second. ”
Esme sighs as she leans into my touch.
“Did it sting? Absolutely, she knew exactly what buttons to push, but she didn’t know that they wouldn’t hit like they used to. Really, I was more embarrassed than anything.”
“You had nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“I was embarrassed for her, not me.” She takes a deep breath. “Thank you for pulling me out of there when you did, though. Knowing her, the entire situation would have escalated further.”
“It was my pleasure. How are you feeling, though? That was a lot.”
Esme sighs. “Better, I think. I said my piece. Besides, I’m better off now than I was before she betrayed me.”
“How so?”
“Well, if Troy hadn’t cheated on me, I would probably still be with him, and I never would have met you guys. I wouldn’t be this happy.”
“I like the way you think.”
I lean down and kiss her. When I pull away, we start walking again.
“So…you called me your wife,” she teases, bumping into my shoulder.
“I did.”
I don’t bother apologizing. Was calling her my wife a little premature? Yeah, but that’s okay. It will happen eventually. I know it.