“I know, I know. It would just feel weird to go there and …” She trailed off and frowned at something over my shoulder. “Well, it seems like Heather’s bagged herself a new man.”
Ashley tensed. “What? Where? Oh.”
Sure enough, Heather was sitting opposite a guy in the café nearby, oblivious to our presence. As I took in the way they were leaning toward each other, looking somewhat cozy, my stomach twisted.
I drew in a deep breath through my nose. “Fucking unreal,” I ground out. “I don’t know who I want to slap more—her or him.”
“Wait, you know him?” asked Hanna.
I licked my front teeth. “Oh, I know him. Remember the guy I told you about who I was briefly engaged to?”
Hanna’s mouth fell open. “No way.”
Ashley’s brows flew up. “Wait, that’s Owen in the café over there?” She’d heard about my ex but never met him.
I swallowed. “That’s Owen.” I flapped my arm, at a loss. “This doesn’t make any sense. He loathes her. And she detests him because he never fell for her charms.”
“It might not be a date, though they do look mighty friendly,” said Hanna. “I thought he was married.”
“He recently separated from his wife,” I told her. “They filed for divorce.”
Ashley glared at them, shaking her head. “If he’s dating that skank, he’s doing it for one reason only—he thinks you still care for him, and he wants to hit you where it hurts.”
“I thought Heather didn’t date single guys,” said Hanna. “I know he’s still married on paper, but …”
“She’d date him if she thought there was the slightest chance it would upset Vienna,” said Ashley. “God, I want to smack this bitch down so bad.”
Hanna looked at me. “I agree with Ash; they’re doing this to upset you. Is it working?”
I sighed. “It doesn’t feel good to know that they’re both so eager to hurt me. Especially Owen. He was important to me once.” I narrowed my eyes as Heather reached across the table and linked her fingers with his. Owen smiled at her, though it wasn’t a full-on smile.
I turned away from them, grinding my teeth yet again. I wouldn’t have thought he’d ever go this far—dating someone who’d treated me like shit for years—in an attempt to hurt me.
Ashley rested a hand on my shoulder. “At least you know about it now. They can’t sucker punch you with it at an odd moment and take you off-guard, which is probably what they meant to do, or Heather would be crowing about it by now.”
I nodded. “Let’s just keep moving. The last thing I want to do is bump into them. I’d only lose my shit, which they’d both just love to see happen.”
Ashley curled her arm around my waist and guided me forward. “They’re not worth it, hon.”
“Here, fucking, here,” clipped Hanna.
Stepping into the foyer of Dane’s house later that day, I let out a long sigh and felt my shoulders droop. God, I was tired. Tired of the people around me acting like assholes.
I didn’t want to be so pissed by Heather and Owen’s sly little move. I didn’t want to waste that emotional energy on them. But how could I not be pissed that my ex-fiancé —a man who I’d once trusted not to hurt me—was now, at the very least, co-conspiring with the woman he knew hated me as much as I detested her? How could I not be pissed that said woman wouldn’t just concentrate on living her own life instead of always setting out to shit all over mine?
I’d tried shoving the whole thing out of my head as I browsed the stores at the mall. I’d told myself not to give the assholes the power to fuck up my day. But, yeah, it hadn’t worked.
Although I’d assured my friends that I was fine, neither of them bought it. Still, they’d thankfully let me be—likely well-aware that talking more about the matter would only make me angrier.
Not once in my life had I returned from the mall empty handed, but I just hadn’t been interested in shopping; hadn’t been in the mood to buy anything or have fun with my friends.
Questions kept pricking at me. Were they dating? Were they conspiring to cause trouble? Were they—
“Vienna?”
Blinking, I looked up to see Dane on the landing, his expression so carefully blank that my nape tingled.