22. Lily
Lily
“ W as your boss okay with you extending your leave for another week?” Sasha asks curiously as we walk through the park to one of our favorite lunch spots.
I hum thoughtfully. “I explained some of what happened.” She winces in sympathy when I grimace.
“He was shocked, obviously, and rushed to tell me I could take longer if I needed. The idea of walking back in there and explaining to everyone what happened…” I shudder dramatically at the idea of facing everyone and announcing, ‘Oh, I’m actually not married, so…
” is still horrifying, even weeks later.
“It’s not a reflection of you, what’s happened,” Sasha says fiercely. “It just says what a douchewaffle he is.”
“Maybe,” I murmur. “But it won’t stop people wondering how I couldn’t see it. They’ll think how could she be with him for a year and not know him at all? People will look at me like there’s something wrong with me, like I’m damaged goods.”
She makes a noise in her throat that drags me out of the chasm of self-pity I’m stuck in.
“What was that?”
She shoots me a bemused smile, but it doesn’t fool me. “What was what?”
“That noise,” I demand pointedly. “You made a noise. ”
“It’s called breathing,” she says snootily. “Look, sometimes I have problems with my sinuses and it’s rude of you to point it out.”
I stare at her, but then switch gears. “You know what, I saw a post on Instagram the other day. From Lucas.”
Her eyes flare briefly, but she smooshes her expression into something disinterested. “Oh?”
“Yep, he was at a paint and sip night, which I thought was weird for him. He doesn’t seem the type.”
“I wouldn’t know,” she says airily. “And not sure why you’re telling me this. I don’t follow Luke, and I don’t particularly care where he was.”
I ignore her. “Well, there was an arm in the photo. A feminine arm.” She purses her lips, carefully averting her gaze.
“And that arm had a bracelet on it.” I reach out and grip her wrist before she can twist away, yanking her arm up until we’re both looking at the delicate silver chain, a small daisy charm dangling off it. “And it looked suspiciously like this.”
Her mouth twitches. “I’m sure it’s a very common bracelet.” I stare back at her, waiting, until she finally looks away with a grumbled, “Goddamn Luke and social media. What kind of lawyer is he, anyway? Doesn’t he know that social media is the first place they look for evidence?”
I don’t let her derail me. “Are you and he…?” I mimic the move she made at Lolita’s, making a circle with my thumb and forefinger, and poking a finger through it vigorously.
She scowls darkly. “No. No. I’m not fucking Luke.” She makes a grunting kind of snort that has me biting back a smile. “He’s a total tool that thinks he’s god’s gift to women.” She lifts her nose in the air, yanking her arm away from me. “And have you heard from Voldemort?”
I’m the one looking away now. “Still not supposed to say his name.”
“Well, have you?”
I admit, “I haven’t seen him since he came by after the she-bitch’s visit.”
“I still can’t get over her audacity.” She shakes her head. “She knows it was fake, right? So, why the attempt to chase you off?” I lift a shoulder, but Sasha doesn’t seem to need my input. “And how come she didn’t know you’d filed for an annulment?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“It’s weird he hasn’t contacted you, especially after what he did.”
I’d tried to avoid any mention of Declan, his family or her in the last two weeks, but it’d been near-impossible to miss the fallout after Declan had suddenly resigned as CEO of Nexus.
Was I mildly surprised he’d basically blown a crater-sized hole in his father’s company and then walked away, the world still smoking behind him?
Yes.
Did it change anything?
No.
Everything I said to him that day still stands.
He didn’t have to agree to his father’s unhinged plan, and he could’ve done literally anything else but marry me under false pretenses, pretending like I would never find out the truth.
And there’s no way I wouldn’t have found out, eventually; secret phone calls aside… which just leads into my other problem.
Sweetheart .
The sound of it still echoes through my brain, eerily similar to one of those kid’s toys where you know you shouldn’t but you push the button anyway, and an eternity passes before it stops.
That’s one reason I don’t tell Sasha the truth.
I’m not lying. I haven’t heard from him in terms of messages or calls.
He hasn’t turned up on my doorstep. But he has sent flowers—pink roses and lilies.
Another day, there were chocolates waiting for me, and another, a limited-edition hardback book I’d been desperately waiting for.
It’s not every day that something arrives, but it’s often enough that he’s always lingering on the edges of my mind, clawing at me with a year’s worth of memories—even when every single one has been tainted with his lies.
“Lily?” There’s concern in her voice and we stop in the middle of the path, our eyes locked as she stares at me. “What?—”
“I need a date,” I blurt out, my voice overly loud. Too bright, too enthusiastic. Her head jerks back like I’ve just announced I want to join a nudist cult, her eyebrows twitching together .
She opens her mouth. Closes it. Squints at me, and then politely asks, “Can you repeat that? I must’ve misheard.”
“I need a date.”
“See, that’s what I thought you said, but I didn’t believe my own ears!
” By the end, she’s practically shrieking at me and I surreptitiously glance around, flushing when I catch the eye of an elderly woman sitting on a nearby park bench.
I grimace apologetically, grabbing Sasha’s elbow and dragging her away.
“You’re so embarrassing,” I hiss, while she laughs. Loudly. “I don’t want a date, so much as?—”
“Getting your boots knocked? Jamming your clam? Fornicating?” A pause for a breath, and then slyly, “A good ol’ dicking?”
“I don’t know why I’m friends with you.”
“Because your life would be dull and incomplete without me.” She sucks in a breath, asking, “Are you sure?” But she doesn’t wait for an answer before she’s rushing to add, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the get under to get over philosophy, but that’s…
it’s not really you. Lily, you feel…you feel everything so deep and hard.
” A breathless pause and then she’s snorting, and I roll my eyes.
When she’s regained her composure, she carries on like nothing happened.
“What I mean to say is, I’m not sure if inching open that door to someone else is really what you need. ”
Before I can argue the logistics of wanting an orgasm versus opening doors, my name is being called behind us. We turn and find Declan’s mother and sister approaching fast, a sour-faced Elena Huntington behind them.
“Lily,” Abigail chirps brightly, looking more fresh-faced and casual than I’ve ever seen her, in a flowing blouse and silky wide-legged pants.
A gleaming necklace encircles her throat, and her hair is swept back in a loose chignon.
“I’m so thrilled to run into you, and here of all places!
I’ve been wanting to catch up for weeks, but Declan said you had to cancel the other week because you weren’t feeling up to scratch.
I was going to send a care package, but he ordered me to leave you be.
” Her expression says she regrets listening to him.
“You’ve bounced back, though! You look stunning.
Have you heard from the photographer yet?
I’d love to see the wedding pictures. I know it was over a month ago, but it was such a beautiful day.
” Her eyes go a little misty, while I share a stupefied look with Sasha.
“I don’t know when we’ll get to have another wedding?—”
“Mom,” Darcy hisses out a quick protest. She’s dressed even more casually in jeans and her shirt with a stack of books on it and the words I’d rather be reading.
“Our reservation is in ten minutes,” Elena inserts stiffly, looking like she’s sucking on a lemon. “I really think we should?—”
“Oh! Fabulous idea. Lily, why don’t you join us for lunch?”
Darcy steps closer, her eyes remorseful. “Have you spoken to Declan, Lily?”
Abigail frowns. “What a silly question, Darcy. Of course she has. They’re married.”
Desperately needing to get off this train wreck, I smile politely. “I can’t do lunch today,” I say regretfully. “We’ve got a…”
“An appointment,” Sasha blurts. “A prior appointment.”
His mom deflates. “Oh, that’s too bad. Let’s organize something soon, okay? And you’ll tell me when the photos come back?” She brightens again. “We could do a family viewing! It’ll be such fun.”
“Sure, Abigail.” Everyone can watch as I set each photographic reminder on fire.
Darcy locks eyes with me, hers amused and knowing, but then she turns back to her mother. “Come on, Mom. Elena. We’d better get going if we don’t want them to give away our table.”
There’s a flurry of cheek kisses, and then they’re gone, leaving Sasha and I standing there, shell-shocked. Sasha asks, “Why does his family think you’re still together?”
“I don’t know.” I’m still staring in the direction they disappeared, confused as hell.
I look back at Sasha just as she hooks an arm into mine and pulls me forward. “So… about that date? I think I know a guy.”
She sets the date up for that night, not wanting to give me wriggle room to try and get out of it.
She played middleman, organizing for the guy, Glen, to meet me in the bar of Astoria Hotel, but it left me wondering why a guy was available for a blind-date on such short notice.
I’d tried to demand more information about him, but Sasha had been cagey as hell, so I was going in with extremely low expectations.