Chapter 29
Harding~
“T his shit is insane, Harding,” Luke stated unnecessarily. “You’re lucky that you’re rid of her.”
It was Friday afternoon, and Luke had suggested a drink after work since we hadn’t gotten to talk a whole lot since the day that Paige had tried to ruin his marriage. With Trista busy with her kids, it’d been easy to agree to a few beers, because one just wasn’t going to do.
Luke had also just gone through all the texts, the final one being a real mind-bender. She had sent it Monday morning, and it’d been a follow up to the other weird shit that she had sent. Paige had gone on about being happy to sign the divorce papers because she was in love, and she wasn’t about to let me hold her back from her new lease on life. Honestly, the entire thing had read like a jumbled drunken mess, but I also hadn’t heard from her all week long, so perhaps it’d all been true. At least, true in her eyes.
I looked over at my best friend. “It’s more than just insane, and a part of me wants to warn the guy of what he’s getting into, but Trista’s already pointed out how he might not want to hear from the guy who happens to be with the girl that broke his heart.”
“He’s also a grown man, Harding,” Luke pointed out. “If he’s not smart enough to figure it out, he will eventually.”
“Like me?” I quipped.
Luke grinned as he slapped me on the back. “Five years is still better than twenty.”
I let out a deep sigh. “I guess I should just be happy that she’s not harassing people anymore. That shit was not fun.”
“Tell me about it,” he huffed. “Amy still wants to kick her ass.”
I took a drink of my beer, my experience with Paige refusing to let me relax completely. “Maybe I’m just scared to hope that she’s really going to leave me alone,” I voiced. “It’s only been two weeks, so it’s hard to believe that she’s fully moved on.”
“Well, you’ve said it before that she has a fixation type of personality, so with that new dude in her life now, maybe she really believes everything that she’s telling you,” he suggested. “She might really believe that she’s in love with that guy.”
“Which is seriously concerning, don’t you think?” I practically squawked.
“Not for you,” he replied bluntly. “She’s his problem now.”
I didn’t say anything as Luke flagged down the bartender for another round, but I also couldn’t get onboard with his blasé attitude towards Paige’s extreme tendencies. While I didn’t know Kirk Nabers or owe him any kind of loyalty, I still felt like someone should warn him about what really lurked deep inside Paige Shepard. I hadn’t seen it at first, and now I was paying the price for seeing it too late, and I just felt like no one else deserved to experience her like I’d had to.
“Maybe I can just send him a DM or something,” I suggested. “I can warn him, then let him do whatever he wants with the information afterwards.”
After the bartender placed two fresh beers in front of us, Luke said, “If you send that man a message, Paige is going to think that you’re jealous and want her back, Harding. Do you really want to open up that crazy can of worms?”
“No, I absolutely do not want to give that woman any mixed signals. In fact, if I never see her again, it’ll be too soon,” I said truthfully. “Still, knowing what I know about her, I just feel badly for any man that comes in contact with her.”
“Again, not your problem,” he remarked. “Just be happy that she’s out of your life and that you didn’t have any children with her.” Luke shook his head before adding, “Honestly, it makes me want to send Patrick Cato an edible arrangement or something. I could only imagine what that man had to deal with, having to co-parent with that woman.”
“Well, to be fair, he hadn’t had to co-parent all that much,” I reminded him. “The kids chose to live with him after the divorce.”
“Which should have told you everything that you needed to know about that woman when you met her,” he retorted ruthlessly. “Most kids choose the mother if they can’t choose both parents.”
“Thanks,” I deadpanned. “Like I don’t already feel like an idiot.”
Luke grinned at me. “You can’t honestly believe that I’m not going to remind you of this for the rest of our lives, Harding. I mean, this shit is gold.”
I flipped him off.
Just then, my old phone chimed with an incoming text, and I did my best not to wince. Even though I hadn’t heard from Paige all week, she still had my number, and anything was possible when it came to that woman. I also knew that I was going to have to get rid of this phone completely and soon.
Pulling out my phone from my pocket, I saw Paige’s name on the screen, and I almost started banging my head against the bar. Hope was both an amazing and destructive thing, and there was a reason that I’d been reluctant to believe that Paige had moved on.
“It’s her,” I said as I stared at my phone.
“Paige?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
Luke let out a low chuckle. “Might as well see what she has to say.”
Shaking my head, I swiped the screen to do just that.
Paige: After r divorce is finalized, please never contact me again. I do not need u 2 jeopardize my newfound happiness
“What does it say?”
I looked back at Luke. “She said to never contact her again once our divorce is finalized because she doesn’t want me jeopardizing her newfound happiness.”
His head reared back in surprise. “Is she fucking serious?”
“I…I have no words,” I muttered as I looked back at the text. “I mean…I’m the one that left her, so why would she think that I’d be reaching out to her in the future?”
“Because she’s batshit crazy, Harding,” Luke drawled out unsympathetically. “If I were you, I’d text back that you won’t, just to have it on record if nothing else.”
Since he was probably right, I did just that.
Me: Not a problem
I set my phone down on the bar, then took another drink of my beer. It was hard not to feel conflicted about Paige, not that I was regretting leaving her. It was obvious that she needed help, and I felt like I was unleashing her on an unsuspecting world, and that seemed rather irresponsible. Yeah, it could be argued that it wasn’t my job to save people from her, but knowing what I knew, it just felt…felt a bit wrong to step back, only saving myself.
“I hope that poor bastard sees her for what she is before he gets in too deep,” I remarked, meaning every word.
“If it’s not him, it’s going to be someone else, Harding,” Luke pointed out. “Until she gets some professional help, all the episodes of her crazy reality show are going to be the same.”
I looked back over at my best friend. “Well, that’s one hell of an analogy.”
Luke grinned as he shrugged. “It seemed apt.”
“So…I guess we should just toast to me finally being free, huh?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
We clinked bottles before we each took a drink, and while I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy, it still felt good to know that it was finally over. I never imagined that so much turmoil could happen in a span of two measly weeks, but it’d had, and I was glad to be able to move on from Paige’s drama.
“What kind of flowers does Amy like?” I asked. “Because I feel like I need to send her flowers.”
“She likes posies, but you should send her roses,” he replied easily. “In this case, it’s the cost of the thought that matters.”
I barked out a laugh at that. “Duly noted.”
“Hey, she almost caught herself an assault charge because of your crazy cuckoo bird wife,” he retorted. “You deserve to go into debt for her apology.”
I laughed again. “You might be right.”
We’d ended up bullshitting for two more hours, but there’d been no more talk about Paige or everything that she’d done. We’d spoken about work, sports, our kids, and everything else that we usually talked about when we went out to have a beer or two. It’d felt like old times, and it’d been nice.
Now I was swiping my keycard for my hotel room, and I was counting down the days when I no longer had to live in a goddamn hotel.