28. Jude
JUDE
“That’s the last of it,” I tell Mel as I tie a knot in the top of the trash bag and add it to the pile in the hallway.
“How do you feel?” she asks, surveying the impressive collection with her hands on her hips.
“Good,” I announce with confidence.
“Excellent.” She grins.
“There’s just one thing left.” I pull my phone from the back pocket of my jeans and unblock Callum’s number.
I hit dial, steeling myself mentally for hearing his voice.
“Jude?” he answers, more than a hint of optimism in his tone.
“Callum,” I reply flatly, not caring if I execute it like a fly beneath the sharp whack of a rolled-up newspaper. “We need to talk. Can you come to the apartment?”
“Yeah, of course, of course,” he gushes eagerly. “I’m off shift in an hour, I can come after and—”
“Great. See you then,” I reply through clenched teeth, ending the call.
“Ooh, savage.” Mel chuckles. “Jaws Jude takes a bite out of the cheating ex.”
I tuck my phone back into my pocket. “Just new and improved Jude refusing to take his bullshit any longer.”
“I like this version of you,” Mel declares.
I toss her a brittle smile. I know what she means. She likes this newer version of me that’s no longer crying inside one of her crushing hugs every day.
I save the tears for when I’m alone now.
They aren’t a daily occurrence anymore, which is something to be thankful for.
But my heart still clenches, and my gut still twists if I think of Slade and where he is and what he’s doing.
And the really self-destructive part of me has had me visiting Fifth Avenue more times than I care to count.
I swear the doorman thinks I’m staking it out for a jewelry heist or something, given the amount of time I’ve spent gazing through the window, unable to bring myself to step a foot inside.
Mel and I finish up, and I spend the hour after she leaves until Callum is due to arrive drinking a cup of coffee and doing my best to avoid going online.
I crack at forty-seven minutes and am still devouring some gossip columnist’s piece speculating over baby names for the upcoming addition to the Beaufort family, when there’s a knock at the door.
I close the article, and the picture of Slade’s blue-eyed silver-fox father, Sterling Beaufort, with his arm around his new pregnant wife, disappears.
Soon, he’s going to have a baby sibling that he’ll never meet.
I wonder if he even knows. Does he look them up like I do?
Pore over every story and article? Or is it too painful to see how they’re continuing their life without him?
“Hi,” I say with as much enthusiasm as I’d greet a dog turd on the sidewalk as I open the door.
A giant bouquet of roses covers his face before he lowers them, peering over the top at me.
“Jude. You look… beautiful. Wow. I’ve missed you.”
I stare at Callum and arch an unimpressed brow.
“These are for you.” He thrusts the flowers into my arms, his face falling as he notices the pile of stuffed trash bags piled up in the hallway.
“Jude…” He steps inside, his eyes widening as he surveys my spring-cleaning efforts.
“Please tell me you’re not leaving. We can work this out.
The thing with Kelly…” He winces, scrubbing a hand around the back of his neck.
“It was a stupid fling. A couple of times, nothing more. It meant nothing.”
I stare at him as he flounders.
“What do you want me to do to prove it to you? Whatever it is, I’ll do it. Just don’t move out, please.”
“I’m not moving out.”
His shoulders fall as he exhales. “Thank y—”
“You are,” I say, tipping my head toward the trash bags. “I packed for you because I’m helpful like that. If I missed anything, let me know. But I think I got it all.”
I smile when he says nothing.
“Jude…” he splutters, my words hitting their target and having the desired shock value that makes his eyes bug out of his head like one of those squeezy dog toys.
“Callum,” I counter.
“We can get over this, I know we can. Don’t… don’t be hasty, okay? We’ve got the rest of our lives for me to make this up to you. All of our friends, our families… they’re expecting the wedding to be rearranged. Your father’s waiting to walk his daughter down the aisle.”
I stiffen at the mention of my father, narrowing my eyes at Callum in distaste. He knows about the strains in our relationship, and how anxious I get over wanting my father to be proud of me. To make him a part of this and use it to try and push me into forgiving him is gross.
“Maybe you’d like to explain to him exactly why that won’t be happening, then. Don’t miss anything out. He’ll need all the sordid details. Number of thrusts, etcetera.”
His face pales and he looks like he’s been sick in his mouth. I smirk internally. He’s more in love with my father than he ever was with me. The idea of losing that professional respect from his greatest role model is what’s got him showing up here with a pathetic excuse for a grovel.
“How did you get here? Cab?”
“Yeah.” He frowns, his eyes volleying between me and all the bags stuffed with his shit like he’s realizing I’m not going to be the pushover he anticipated.
“Well, you’ll need to get another to fit it all in. I’ll help you take some stuff down to the street.” I smile brightly, my tone somewhere between helpful and scathing.
Callum looks at me, lost for words, and I glow inside with warm strength.
“You, um… need more time; I can see that. I thought your trip was long enough to get over this, but clearly you aren’t ready to discuss this like adults as I hoped.”
My fake smile thins at his dig. I’m behaving very adult-y here.
I could have tossed his shit out of the window into the street below and let him pick up his underwear while the other occupants of our building watched.
Or I could have put it all in the dumpster like I did with the mattress from the master bedroom the second I returned home.
“Where did you and Mel go?” he asks, eyeing the bags uneasily and stalling for time.
“Somewhere really beautiful.”
“Did you meet anyone there? Make any friends?”
He runs a hand around his jaw, his gaze narrowing as he spots a pair of women’s panties in the top of one of the bags.
I hold his gaze when he brings it back to mine.
“If you’re asking if I fucked you out of my system, then yes. I guess I did. At least, the first second or two, maybe. But the rest of it… all the rest of it… was purely for me.”
He scoffs. “You cheated on me? With who? Someone who doesn’t know you? Some asshole?”
I glare at him, hating the way he’s referring to Slade like he knows anything about what happened between us.
“I didn’t cheat. I got on that plane single. A fact I thought was made clear when I handed you back the ring and told you it was over. You recall? I did it just after you shoved your dick in my bridesmaid?”
His mouth flaps like a fish.
“Still struggling? You know… it was after she was sucking on your dick? Must have been great if you can’t remember.”
His jaw tightens, a vein pulsing in his forehead.
“I said I was sorry. What else do you want me to do?”
“Grab a bag for starters,” I say, hooking a fingertip through a small light one and carrying it, along with the giant bouquet of roses through the apartment door.
I trot happily into the hallway, humming as I descend the stairs to street level. Luckily, we live on the first floor, so I don’t have to wait on the elevator to get his stuff out of my sight. A few trips and he’ll be gone.
Callum races after me, and I’m happy to see he’s picked a bag up to bring with him as he trails behind me down the stairs, spewing out lies about how he loves me, and how I just need more time.
Walking out into the street, I take a deep breath of the crisp air. Already my shoulders feel lighter as I descend the few stone steps and drop the bag on the sidewalk.
“Hopefully no one steals it while you wait on your cab,” I say, not caring if they do.
I glance down the street and there’s a yellow cab pulled over.
“Ooh, your lucky day!” I exclaim, breezing over to it.
Callum practically trips over his own feet to catch up. “Wait!”
His rushed yell, coupled with the shifty look in his eyes, has me shouldering past him where he’s trying to block me, and marching over to the cab to see what he’s so bothered about.
I peer into the back seat. Kelly’s sitting there. Her eyes pop wide and her cheeks turn pink when she sees me.
But I feel… nothing. I no longer care what Callum does, or with whom. The realization is like a weight being lifted from my chest.
But he still doesn’t deserve to get away without me saying something.
“Nice. Did she tell you what to say to me too? Coach you on what a girl wants to hear after she’s been lied to and cheated on?” I flick a glance in his direction.
“Jude…” he splutters.
I give the cab driver an apologetic smile through his open window. “I’m sorry about this. I just need to get my ex-fiancé’s shit out of my apartment so he can load it in the trunk. But his mistress in your backseat will tip you double for the inconvenience.”
The driver’s eyes slide back to Kelly, and she folds her arms and scoffs like I’m the bitch.
“Do you have a vase at home?” I ask the driver.
“My wife does,” he replies.
“Great. Perhaps she’d like these.” I pass the giant bouquet through the open window and the driver accepts it with a smile.
“She sure would. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
I turn to Callum who’s staring at me like I’ve gone mad. He’s carrying the bag containing the pair of red lace panties I found down the back of our bed when I threw out the mattress.
I scoop them out and fling them into the cab at Kelly. “You forgot these.”
She recoils at the unwashed strip of fabric that’s landed in her lap. “These aren’t mine.”
My eyes snap to Callum and the shifty look that’s back on his face. I must have missed it for years. But now I’ve identified it, I can’t unsee it. The man is a pathological liar.
I can’t help it. A laugh bubbles in my throat.
“Looks like you have some more explaining to do. Sorry, I already gave your flowers away. You’ll have to place another ‘cheating asshole’ order with the florist.”
I turn and walk back into the building with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I head into the apartment and open up the front window that overlooks the street.
“You know… I’m kind of tired of taking the stairs. Here you go,” I call down below.
Callum stares up at me as I toss the first bag out through the window, narrowly missing him. It lands with a thud and the plastic tears, spilling some of its contents onto the grimy sidewalk.
“Jude! What the hell?”
I pretend not to hear him as I toss the next bag out.
Followed by the next.
Once the last one has been purged from the apartment, I wave to a scowling Kelly in the cab as she drives off without Callum inside.
Then I slam the window shut.