Chapter 47
PETAL
“It’s you again. You’re really stalking me now, aren’t you?”
Seriously. Who follows a woman into the store when she’s buying tampons?
Undeterred, Andy grins, the gap between his teeth I once thought was so cute now making him look like a stupid Howdy Doody. “Oh, calm down, Petal. You always were one for drama.”
Thank you. Thank you, asshole. This proves how little he paid attention to me, saying I’m a drama-lover. If anything, I’m the exact opposite. In our years together, he never looked close enough to learn even that little thing about me.
Andy’s asshole-ness. The gift that keeps on giving.
I look around the massive display of tampons and other period stuff, an aisle in a drugstore where a guy would not usually hang out. And yet, here we are.
“Need some mini-pads, Andy? Here, what about this flower-scented douche?” I ask, tossing a box to him.
He catches it and looks at it like he’s holding a turd.
He puts it back on the shelf and walks toward me.
I take a step back. “Get any closer, I’ll scream.”
He scoffs but holds his hands up like he’s surrendering.
I know better. He’s got something up his sleeve. He always does.
“I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. You won’t return my texts or calls, so what am I supposed to do?”
I don’t know. Maybe drop dead?
“I have something I need to confess,” he says.
“Interesting. You weren’t much for confessing when we were engaged to be married. Like how you were fucking someone else. You kept that to yourself just fine.”
He winces when the other women in the aisle throw him deadly stares.
“Look, Petal. I know you and I know you would never get married to someone you just met. That wedding in Vegas was a publicity stunt. You should own up to it. Be honest about it, rather than feeding these bullshit stories to the press. The truth will eventually come out, anyway.”
I sigh loudly. “You’re full of shit, Andy, but I have to ask, why do you care what I do? It’s over between us and what I’m up to is none of your business. It’s not now, and it never will be.”
He presses his hands together like he does when he’s making a point to the city council. As if he can manipulate me the way he does them. “I know I hurt you, and that the Vegas wedding was just acting out.”
Oh my God. Does he think I’m a two-year-old?
I put a hand on my hip and smirk, waiting for him to finish. He’s got to eventually run out of hot air.
On the other hand, this is Andy Stackhouse, professional glad-hander.
“I paid the locker room attendant to spy on Rake, to get the true story of your so-called ‘marriage’. Then I leaked it to the press.”
His words tighten in my chest and I’m filled with a fury that’s scaring the hell out of me. So help me God, if I had a weapon in my hand right now, he’d be a dead man.
“You’re a fucker, Andy Stackhouse. Total slimebag. I’ve never known anyone more hateful than you.”
I try to push past him, but he blocks me and grabs my upper arm.
Hard.
“Is this how you want to play it, Andy?”
He looks at me with pleading eyes, and I want to laugh in his face. But I’m shaking too hard to do much of anything except put one foot before the other.
“Please, Petal. Give us another chance. I knew that revealing the true story would make you realize you can’t get away with such a deception. You belong with me. Just think what a power couple we’ll be in the city, with my career in politics, and your family… background.”
I try to shake out of his grasp but he holds me tighter.
“My family background?” I laugh. “You mean my family money. That’s what you’re after, isn’t it?
Poor Andy Stackhouse, always on the outside looking in, has to marry his way into respectability.
You could never earn it on your own merit.
Like have you ever thought of, I don’t know, being a nice, normal human being? Not being such a phony fuck?”
His eyes darken. Yeah, I hit a chord with him. Why shouldn’t I? I was with him long enough to know his sore spots. I never would have poked my finger in them before, but things are different now. He’s asking for it.
He’s earned it.
“I’m going say it one more time,” he says through gritted teeth, “because no one walks down the aisle so soon after walking out on a wedding. The world knows you just pulled a stunt. When we’re together again, I can get past that. You’ll be respectable again.”
I get in his face, so close I can smell the cheap breath mints he downs all day, so paranoid he is about his breath. “We will never be together again, Andy, and if you don’t go away, I’ll go to the press and tell them all about you setting up Rake.”
He finally releases my arm, and howls in laughter. “You think anyone would ever believe you? You and Rake both have zero credibility these days. You’re a joke, and everyone’s laughing at you.”
I shake my head as my fury turns into pity. Yes, this man is pitiable. And sad. And alone.
“I’d rather have the world laughing at me with Rake than laughing at me with you.”
His mouth drops open, and I shoulder chuck him so hard while passing him that he bounces back against the store shelves and knocks a bunch of maxi pads to the floor.
I walk backwards, watching him try to regain his balance, when I see a store employee. “Ma’am,” I say, pointing, “the gentlemen over there needs some help with his feminine hygiene products.”
I turn and head for the register, first grabbing a bag of M&Ms. Figure I’ve earned them.