Chapter 1 – Whitney
WHITNEY
“I’m here,” I told my best friend as I parked my car.
“Is he there?” Stevie asked.
“I don’t think so. I don’t see his car.”
She snorted. “You can’t miss it.” She wasn’t wrong. My ex-boyfriend drove a lime-green convertible Porsche.
“And there he is.”
“Go inside. Eat lunch. Get your shit. Text me when you’re on your way home. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Meeting Glenn was the last thing I wanted to do on the first day of my three-day vacation, but he claimed he had found some of my belongings I had left when I moved out.
I knew I hadn’t forgotten anything. I spent the latter half of my childhood in foster care.
After being forced to leave things behind time and time again as a child, I never did it as an adult.
I also couldn’t stand the thought of unknowingly leaving something behind and willingly allowing Glenn to keep it.
So, I agreed to meet the man who cheated on me for the last year of our three-year relationship for lunch.
“Whitney,” he said, approaching me with open arms. “You look great.”
“Thanks.” I quickly turned toward the front door and hurried inside to avoid his hug. “Table for two, please.”
“It’s a twenty-minute wait,” the hostess said. “Or we can seat you at the bar now.”
“The bar’s fine.” I’d eat outside in the southern summer heat if it meant spending less time with Glenn.
“How have you been?” Glenn asked once we were seated.
“I can’t complain. How about you?” I didn’t give a single fuck how he’d been, but I wanted my stuff, so I pretended to care.
“Doing great,” he said, nodding far too many times. “I just made partner at the firm, and I moved into a new place.”
“Sounds like you’re doing well.”
He continued to brag about himself until our food arrived and while we ate.
The list of accomplishments he achieved during the year since our breakup would have been impressive if it were true, but I didn’t think any of it was.
When I left him, he was having trouble at work and was struggling to pay his monthly bills.
I highly doubted he had turned everything around in a year’s time.
He was blissfully interrupted when our server brought our check.
“So, you said you found some of my things?” I asked before he could start talking again.
“Yeah, they’re in my car. But listen, I was thinking, maybe it was a sign, you know? Me finding your stuff a year later.”
“A sign?”
“Yeah, a sign. We were always meant to be together.”
“I’m going to stop you right there. I appreciate you getting my stuff back to me, but we are not getting back together. Not now. Not ever.”
“I wasn’t asking you to get back together.”
“Oh, okay.” I rolled my eyes. “So, by we were always meant to be together, you meant what?”
“I meant you and I were good together. And we can still be good together. As friends.”
“You want to be friends with me?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Great, Glenn, let’s be friends,” I said flatly.
“I need to ask a favor.”
“Of course you do.”
“No really. My checking account was compromised, and I can’t do anything about it until Tuesday because of the holiday, so I was wondering if I could borrow some cash to get through the weekend.”
“How much?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Five thousand would be great, but I could make three work.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “There’s no fucking way I’m lending you five thousand dollars.”
“You don’t have to be a cunt about it,” he snapped.
“And that concludes this episode of Lunch with an Ex,” I said and reached for the bill.
Glenn snatched it from my hand. “I’ll get it.”
“No, thanks. I’m happy to pay for my meal.”
“I said I’d get it,” he yelled and tossed some cash on the bar before storming out.
I looked at the money and realized he had left two ten-dollar bills, not enough to cover half the total. Sighing, I reached for my purse and realized my wallet was missing. “That motherfucker!”
Jumping to my feet, I ran out the door after him. “He stole my wallet,” I yelled to the staff. “I’ll be back to pay as soon as I catch him!”
Glenn was peeling out of the parking lot by the time I reached my car, but thanks to the car’s bright color and city traffic, it wasn’t hard to catch up to the booger-mobile.
“Call Stevie.”
“I’ve only got a few minutes. How did it go?” she asked quietly.
“He stole my wallet!”
“What?”
“He asked to get back together, then he asked to borrow money. I said no, he stole my wallet, and now I’m chasing him through the streets of downtown.”
“Don’t do that,” she scolded. “Go home and call the bank before he can access anything. Wait until I get home to report it to the police. I gotta go. I’ll call or text during the next break. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I said as she disconnected. Then I continued to follow Glenn. He had my wallet and my stuff. He’d already taken three years from me. I wasn’t going to let him take any more.
“Where the fuck are you going?” I wondered aloud as I followed him out of the city.
Twenty minutes later, Glenn turned into a strip mall and parked in front of a pawn shop. By the time I parked and got out, he was already inside, but that didn’t stop me.
“You motherfucker!” I yelled as I flung the door open. “Give me back my wallet!”
Glenn turned around and looked surprised to see me. “Whitney?”
“You really are an idiot,” I scoffed and held out my hand. “My wallet.”
“Here.” He placed my wallet in my hand and gave me a little shove. “You need to go.”
“What about my stuff?”
“I’ll bring it to you later. Just go.”
“I’m not meeting up with you again.”
“Whitney—”
“You should’ve listened to your friend,” an unfamiliar voice said before it all went black.