The Happy Ever After Playlist - Abby Jimenez Page 0,77
and stay faithful to each other and wait.” She scoffed. “But I can’t live like this. I don’t even know what you’re doing here and you wanted me to stay behind and wait for you while you do God knows what out there? You want trust? You don’t even talk to me.” Her chin started to quiver. “Jason, I think you need to leave.”
My heart plummeted. “Sloan—” I took a step toward her and put out a hand. She smacked it away from her.
“I need you to leave before I say something to you that I’m going to regret.” She hugged her elbows to her stomach and her eyes filled with tears.
Alarm bells went off inside me, all systems responding. I swallowed. “Sloan, let’s just talk. Please. No fighting, let’s talk.”
“Jason, I want you to listen to me. I do not want to see you right now. I do not want to talk to you. I want you to leave this house. And you should know that if I’d understood how little respect you were going to have for this relationship, I would never have dated you.”
Chapter 28
Sloan
♪ A Moment of Silence | The Neighbourhood
Jason: Sloan, can we please talk?
I stared at the vertical blinking line in the empty text box. I set my phone facedown on Kristen’s kitchen island and put my forehead in my hand.
“Was that him?” Kristen asked, leaning on the counter.
Josh stood by the sink, giving Oliver a bath. He’d sculpted the baby’s hair into a Mohawk and Oliver was giggling.
I had Stuntman Mike in my lap wearing his EMOTIONAL SUPPORT LUNATIC shirt. Tucker lay curled at my feet. Jason had called his dog to him before he left my house two days ago, but Tucker hadn’t budged from the bed, so Jason had left him.
“Yes, that was him.”
“What did he say?”
“What he’s been saying.”
“He wants to talk?”
I nodded. My eyes filled up again and she ripped off a paper towel and handed it to me. “Sloan, why don’t you just talk to him?”
“About what? He doesn’t get this, Kristen. He seriously thinks there’s nothing wrong with any of this. He lied to me. He let my mom—my mom—be the one to tell me about Lola. He just stood there shrugging like, ‘Well, nothing I could have done to prevent this. Sometimes famous recording artists show up to fuck me, I didn’t want to bother you with the details.’” I pressed the towel to my eyes.
“Well, he is a rock star…”
I did a laugh-cry.
Josh rinsed the baby’s hair with a cup. “Nah, he’s not a rock star. I didn’t get that vibe from him. That guy’s pretty grounded.”
Kristen peered at me. “Do you think he cheated on you with her?”
I sniffled. “No. I believe him. But he should have at least told me about her.”
Josh lifted Oliver into a towel and handed him to Kristen for a diaper. Then he kissed the side of his wife’s head on his way to the fridge. “Look, I’m gonna be honest. I like him, and I think you need to cut him some slack.” He grabbed a beer and pulled up a stool at the counter. “Did he handle the situation badly? Yes. But no guy wants to tell his girlfriend about the women he’s slept with, believe me.”
I shook my head at him. “So he should just get a pass for this? He was about to go on a year-long tour with his old hookup and I didn’t even know about it.”
Josh opened his beer. “I know what a man looks like when he’s in love with you, Sloan. I saw the same look on Brandon’s face once, and I’m telling you, this guy’s serious about you. Give him a break. He fucked up and he knows it. He’s probably losing his mind right now.”
He’s losing his mind? Jason felt like a stranger to me with some torrid past and secret double life. Like the Jason I’d known was a different person from the man who’d lied to me and hooked up with Lola Simone.
Maybe the bad guy was Jaxon.
“Did you even listen to that song?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Did you?” How many times had I heard that nasty Lola Simone song and not realized it was about Jason? It was like I’d just found out my boyfriend had starred in a lyrical porno that everyone had seen. The whole situation was so cringy.
Kristen shrugged while she fastened Oliver’s diaper.