Chapter 16
Paige stared at the woman on the other side of the door for a few seconds before responding. She was still half asleep and felt like she must have misunderstood this unwanted visitor.
“I’m sorry,” Paige started, “I’m confused. You’re looking for who?”
“My boyfriend,” she said with a deadpan expression. “Carter Kinney.”
Paige’s heart dropped to her stomach. Surely this was some kind of joke.
She was frozen in place, face white as a ghost.
“Carter. Kinney?” the woman repeated herself, looking more impatient if that were possible.
Paige was still frozen, trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing and hearing. Beautiful woman. Boyfriend. Carter. How could that be right?
“Monica?” Carter’s voice filled the doorway. “Wha—what are you doing here?”
Paige hadn’t even noticed Carter come up behind her.
“You asshole!” Monica took a step toward him and smacked her hand on his chest. “So, you’re really not going to return any of my messages? Or say thank you for the gift? That watch was expensive, you know.”
“Monica, we talked about this,” he hissed. “I thought I made it perfectly clear the other night. And please take the gift back. You know full well I haven’t even opened it.”
So that explains the perfectly wrapped gift I saw on Carter’s desk, and likely why he was in such a bad mood the night before the blizzard.
“Who the hell is this?” Monica pointed at Paige, who finally snapped out of her state of shock.
Carter had stepped in front of Paige now, shielding her from Monica’s fury.
“What? Oh, this is my roommate, Paige,” he replied.
My roommate. The words were like a slap in the face to Paige. There is no way you do the things we did last night to someone who is just your roommate.
“You expect me to believe you went and got a roommate?” She snickered. “Tell me, Carter, are you in the middle of making her daddy’s precious pancakes right now?”
She knows about Carter’s breakfast move. Of course that’s all this was to him. One big move to get me into bed.
Paige was fuming now.
“Stop this, Monica,” Carter said sternly. He turned to her. “I’m so sorry about this, Paige.”
“Don’t,” Paige snapped.
“I am not in a relationship with Monica,” he insisted, shooting a glare back toward the door where the woman in question still stood. “We broke up back in October. You have to believe me.”
Paige rolled her eyes and stormed past him back toward her bedroom.
“Paige, wait,” Carter pleaded, but she didn’t turn back around.
Her head was spinning as she entered her room and slammed the door. All this time he’s had a girlfriend? Here I was worried about being a rebound, when I actually needed to worry about being the other woman.
Her ears were ringing, and she hoped if she laid down and put a pillow over her head, it would make it all stop. She could barely make out Carter arguing with Monica.
“I told you I was done, Monica. I didn’t mean we need a break. We needed to break up. I thought my moving out sent a pretty obvious message.”
“Oh, come on, Carter, you’re being dramatic. We go together. I mean, just look at us.”
“Me, dramatic? We both know I’ve never been the dramatic one.”
“Well, when you’re done playing with your shiny new toy, you can come back home . . . You’ll be bored with her soon enough. But I expect you to be groveling when you return.”
“Don’t hold your breath. On the other hand, do. I really don’t care. We’re done.”
Paige heard the slam of a door followed by the chime of her phone. A notification from the airline confirming today’s flight was still on time.
Thank god, she thought. I need to get out of here ASAP.
She opened her messaging app, sent a scathing text about Carter over to Nadia, and threw her phone down on her bed. She then moved her mostly packed suitcase to her bed and started frantically throwing in last-minute essentials.
Paige had meant to finish the night before, but when things with Carter heated up, it was the last thing on her mind.
Why did you sleep with him, Paige? She asked herself. Of course it was too good to be true. Just another scumbag who cheats on his girlfriend.
As if on cue, Carter knocked on her door. “Paige, you have to let me explain.”
“Explain what?” Paige asked without going to the door. “The fact that you have a girlfriend? The fact that you conveniently forgot to mention her to me before you got me into bed? I mean, come on, Carter, she knows your big move. I can’t believe I was so stupid not to see that you were playing me.”
“It’s not like that. She is not my girlfriend,” he insisted, still yelling through the closed door. “Can I please come in?”
Paige paused her packing and looked at the door. She figured she’d just get the conversation over with while she was still angry and could give Carter a piece of her mind. So she made her way to the door and opened it to a crestfallen Carter on the other side.
The second the door opened, he took a step forward.
“Monica is not my girlfriend anymore, I swear,” he blurted out.
“Like I started to say last night, we were dating for three years, and we started living together six months ago. I knew I shouldn’t have moved in at the time because my heart wasn’t in it, but I was too chicken to say anything until a couple of months ago.
I agreed to go on a break, even when I knew I was done.
I just didn’t think she would try so hard to get back together.
I figured she’d just forget about me and move on to the next guy who gave her attention. ”
“And you didn’t have the balls to actually end it then?” She couldn’t look him in the eye as she threw the last items into her suitcase.
“Well, no, it’s just tha—”
Ding.
Paige’s phone interrupted Carter’s rebuttal.
He looked down instinctively after hearing the chime to see her phone open on her chat with Nadia.
He must have seen a few words from the exchange.
Real-life Grinch.
Self-centered asshole.
Can’t wait to get away from him.
“Wow,” Carter said, rolling his eyes. “Couldn’t even give me two seconds to explain myself before talking shit about me? That’s real mature.”
“Well, maybe you deserved it,” Paige said defensively.
She knew as soon as she said it that it wasn’t fair, but she was too angry to care.
“Give me that.” Paige snatched the phone from where it was lying on the bed. “And what do you care what I think, anyway? I’m just your roommate, right?”
“I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it,” he bit back.
“The only thing I know is that when I get back from California, you and all of your things better be gone.” She was fuming.
Paige could see the pain in Carter’s eyes, and deep down she believed his intentions were good, but she was filled with too much rage to be rational. Everything about this situation with Monica brought Paige right back to last year with Chance, but this time she was the other woman.
“Well, it’s clear you want nothing to do with me, so I’ll happily give you what you want,” he said as he headed out of her room. “Merry fucking Christmas,” he grumbled as he passed through the doorway.
Paige heard his door slam a few seconds later as she was calling a rideshare.
She finished packing the last of her things and went outside to get into her Uber to the airport. She was going to be four hours early, but she couldn’t bear the thought of spending another second in the condo with Carter.
Yet, she couldn’t stop thinking about the situation the entire car ride.
Paige felt like she had been made a fool of again.
She was so angry with him for playing her—for not being completely honest with her before they slept together.
The more she replayed everything in her mind, the more she realized how many opportunities he had to bring up Monica.
Even if he was telling the truth about them not being together anymore, it was still so recent.
She deserved to know—especially before taking things to the level they had the night before.
Paige had come to believe Carter was different from other guys. Their dynamic had felt so different and so right. And as mad as she was, she was also sad, too, to lose something that seemed special.
She closed her eyes and rested her head against the window.
In a few hours I’ll be wheels up and will never have to see this prick again.
The thought gave her some solace, but she couldn’t shake the pit in her stomach.