“First of all, I can’t believe you’ve been home for three days and didn’t tell me that part.” Alexa rolled her eyes. “But I really want to get back to this Blaire thing for a minute. Why didn’t you knock her out?”
“Um, maybe because that’s totally not me. I surprised myself though.” I looked back and forth between the two of them. “I’ve never had a problem sticking up for myself before, but with her, I couldn’t. I just stood there, frozen, and it only egged her on more. When she went on about Brody and her friend Kendall, it made me sick to my stomach.”
“You believe him though, right?” Lauren asked curiously.
I thought back to the things Brody told me when we were sitting on that bench. They made sense. He had no reason to lie to me and I couldn’t be mad at him for his actions before we even met. If anything, I brought more baggage into this relationship than he did.
“I do believe him, he was very honest about all of it.” I told them.
Alexa’s gaze slid to Lauren and then back to me. “You know we have to stalk this girl, right?”
“What? No. No way,” I argued. “I just want to be blissfully unaware about the whole thing. I don’t want to know a thing about her, or her and Brody.”
“Oh yeah, blissfully unaware got you real far last time, didn’t it?”
Alexa’s words stung, but she was right. My relationship with Zach was filled with all shapes and sizes of red flags, but I put my blinders on and pushed through, determined to mold him into the family man I wanted and the dad the girls deserved.
“We just won’t tell you what we find, okay?” Lauren smiled at me, pulling her iPad out of her bag as Alexa scooted around to her side of the table with a wicked grin on her face.
“You’re probably not going to be able to find anything. I know nothing about her but her first name.” I folded my arms on the kitchen table and cradled my head in them. “I’m just going to nap here while you guys waste your time.”
“Found her!” Alexa exclaimed.
My head snapped up, and my pulse took off. “You did??”
She peered at me from the corner of her narrowed eye and smirked. “Nope, but nice to know you’re really interested.”
“Okay, what is Brody’s agent’s name?” Lauren had her game face on.
“Andy … Andy Shaw.”
“Let’s see if we can find his bitchy wife’s Facebook page and go from there.” Her eyes lit up as she typed away.
“Boom!” Alexa threw her hands up in the air in celebration. “There she is—at least I think that’s her. Fake boobs, fake hair and a picture of herself in a bikini as her profile pic. Shocker.”
“Is this her, Kacie?” Lauren turned the screen just enough for me to see Blaire’s obnoxious sneer looking back at me, taunting me. I really wish I had that night to do over again. I would’ve reacted so differently.
“Yep, that’s her.”
“Score!” Alexa said proudly, high-fiving Lauren. I just rolled my eyes. “Now let’s hope her friend’s list isn’t private … crap! It is.”
“Wait,” Lauren said, “she’s too vain to have her profile pics private. Let’s see if anyone named Kendall has commented on any of them.”
“You two need help, you know that?” I teased, secretly excited that they were on the trail of something. I didn’t want to know anything about them being together, but the morbid, overly obsessed girl side of me was dying to know what she looked like. Then I would hate myself for looking and wish that I could unsee it. That’s how my world worked.
“Look, look!” Alexa pointed at the screen and jumped up and down happily. “A Kendall liked that pic of her and … Andy, I’m assuming. He’s cute too! Why is he with her?”
“Gawk at Andy later, let’s check this chick out.” Lauren’s tongue ran along her lips as she concentrated, diving deep into her investigation.
“What are you looking up now?” I tried to sound nonchalant.
“I clicked on her page, but it’s private. I’m gonna Google her name and see what I come up with,” Lauren said. “Kendall Bauer … okay, Google, come to Mama.”
“Whoa.” They both said in unison, their eyes fixated on whatever came up.
“What?” Tension rose in my chest.
Please let her have three eyes … and green teeth … and huge, hairy moles all over her face.
“Nothing, she’s um … okay looking,” Alexa stuttered while Lauren sat wide-eyed, staring at their find.
We had been best friends for almost a decade. I could tell the very second Alexa was lying about something, and if that wasn’t enough, Lauren’s face was a dead giveaway. I jumped up from my chair and scrambled up behind them.
“That’s her?”
On the screen was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my whole, entire life. She was crawling on the sand, her ultra-dark brown hair falling down around her face, strands of it plastered to her perfect cheekbones. Her wild eyes were an exotic shade of blue with a purple hue to them, while her pouty lips seduced the camera. A blue bikini swirled around her amazing body, accentuating every asset.