Argh!
I fought the urge to throw my phone through the window but instead I called Ally.
“Hey,” she answered.
“Yo,” I said.
“You okay after last night?” Ally asked.
“I’m officially Luke’s woman after last night.”
“Yep, that’s the way since the dawn of time. Two men want the same thing, they fight over it and winner takes all.”
“What with struggling with Iron Man Mace, I wasn’t keeping close track but it didn’t seem like anyone was winning.”
“Luke won when he behaved like a Neanderthal, elbowed you in the head and still, without a peep from you, you got in his car with him.”
Yikes.
I had to admit, that was true.
“What was that about Luke thinking about someone else when he was with you?” Ally asked.
Shit.
I knew I’d have to get into that.
“Luke explained I had the wrong end of the stick,” I told her.
“Well, chickie, just to warn you, the girls have been chewing over that all night and all morning. Roxie thinks you think it’s her. Jules is pretty certain you think it’s her. Who was it?”
“Jules,” I answered. “I saw them together and got the wrong impression.”
“That’s what I figured. Listen, Jules and Luke had a thing. It was brief, she thought Vance had broken up with her. Once she found out that Vance –”
My stomach plummeted. “What?” I whispered, interrupting her.
Silence for a beat then, “Oh shit.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“Ava –”
“What kind of ‘thing’ did Jules and Luke have?”
“It was nothing.”
Oh… my… God.
“What kind of thing?” I repeated.
“It only lasted a couple of days.”
My heart was racing and I was pretty certain I was going to throw up.
“Ava? You there?”
“I have to go.”
“Ava.”
“Later.”
I disconnected then I punched in Luke’s cell number.
“Babe,” he answered, sounding amused. “I want you to call in but you don’t have to do it every five minutes.”
I didn’t dilly dally. “You had a thing with Jules when she thought Vance broke up with her.”
Silence, then he hissed, “Fuck.”
He didn’t deny it.
Shit!
I felt an ugly feeling slide through my body, a feeling I’d felt once before in my life. It was the day my Mom sat Marilyn, Sofia and I down and, while crying and carrying on, she informed us Dad had left us.
I pulled myself together and said, “You forgot to mention that last night.”
“Ava –”
I heard a knock at my front door. “My car’s here. I have to go.”
“Leave it, we have to talk.”
“Life’s too short, Luke. I’m through talking.”
Then I disconnected.
I ran to the front door and got the keys to my car from a black guy wearing greasy, blue coveralls. My phone rang while I did this but I ignored it and it stopped when the answering machine kicked in. No one left a message.
Then I ran upstairs, got dressed and shoved clothes in my workout bag. My phone rang again while I did this but I continued to ignore it.
Then I ran out to my Range Rover, tossed my bag in and took off.
*
I had a feeling Luke would come looking for me so I went to a different gym and paid for a day pass.
While working out I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
However, there was no denying that we’d had several hot and heavy discussions about a variety of things and not once did he mention he had a “thing” with Jules, no matter how short.
Furthermore, not only was Roxie Luke’s first guess about who I thought he had feelings for, Roxie also thought that and I wanted to know why.
After my workout I showered, dressed, went and sat in the Range Rover and opened my phone.
I had seven missed calls. Two were from Luke, three from Ally, one from Shirleen and the last one from Jules.
So, of course, I called Daisy.
“Sugar, everyone is lookin’ for you. Where are you?” she answered.
“In my car, listen Daisy –”
She interrupted me. “Ally is freakin’ out. She let the cat out of the bag but, girl, it sounds a lot worse than what it was. Jules is upset. She wants you to understand what happened –”
I interrupted right back. “I want to know about Roxie.”
“Roxie is freakin’ out too! She likes you with Luke, we all do. This could get weird, like it was weird for awhile when Vance and Luke both were –”
I didn’t want to hear about Vance and Luke and Jules, I wanted to know about Roxie. “No, I want to know why Roxie thought it was her that I thought Luke had a thing for.”
“Pardon?” Daisy asked.
“Last night, when Luke and I were arguing about it, his first guess as to who Ren meant was Roxie. Ally told me Roxie thought I thought it was her. Why would both of them think that?”
Silence.
“Daisy, please, tell me,” I begged.