stole a bottle of bourbon from your dad’s wet bar, and we played strip Truth or Dare until I threw up in the bushes.”
He laughed again. “Yeah, okay, but it was totally worth it.”
“Ass.”
He was still grinning about the memory as he called us a cab. Shockingly one showed up quickly. Must have been because we were leaving before bar close. I gave the guy my address, and we pulled away.
I tipped my head back against the seat. “You didn’t have to come with me.”
“Yes, I did.”
I touched his hand. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, Lila.”
A few minutes later, the cab pulled over in front of my apartment. After I nearly fell out of the car, Ash got an arm around me and steadied me for the walk up a flight of stairs to my door. I rummaged through my small purse for my keys and failed twice to insert it. The keys fell out of my hand and I cursed violently.
“God, you’re a mess.”
He picked up the keys I’d dropped on the ground and got the door unlocked, pushing it open so I could stumble inside first. I didn’t think anything about the lights being on. I must have left them on this morning when Channing and I hurried out for College GameDay.
“Lila,” Ash said softly. He nodded his head into the apartment.
I whirled around, nearly falling again. I reached out for the stair banister to keep me upright. And then I saw what Ash had been gesturing at.
Cole was here.
My stomach hit my feet, and I sobered up in the same split second. I righted myself against the banister. The moment stretched into infinity. Me and Cole and Ash. All in the same place. All together.
“What exactly is going on here?” Cole asked. His voice was tight and controlled. Anger. Very barely suppressed anger.
I knew immediately how this looked. I’d told him that Ash was staying here with his girlfriend. And now, we were here sans girlfriend and I was drunk to boot. It wasn’t how it appeared, but it sure looked bad.
My face flushed red. “Uh, Cole, this is Ash.” I gestured behind me. “Ash, Cole.”
Neither moved. I didn’t know why I’d ever envisioned them coming to a place where they could look at the other as an equal. There was no truce here. No stepping forward and accepting the other’s presence.
“Where’s his girlfriend?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. This was going to hurt.
“We broke up,” Ash said levelly. He arched an eyebrow in challenge and shut the door behind him. Bold. And pathological.
“He’s not staying,” I assured Cole. “And he didn’t stay last night either. He was just making sure I got home okay.”
“I’m sure he was.” He looked like he wanted to put a fist through the wall. Or maybe through Ash’s face.
I needed to wrestle back control of this situation. “What are you doing here?”
A muscle in Cole’s jaw flexed. Apparently, that was the wrong question to ask.
“I thought you were with Jess.”
Ash shifted behind me. I glared at him for a minute, but he just smirked. I hadn’t mentioned what was happening with Cole and his ex-girlfriend. But he’d assumed something was up, and he’d been right.
“I came to apologize,” Cole said. “Maybe we should talk somewhere more … private.”
“Yeah. Sure. Of course.” I turned toward Ash. “We’ll be right back. I don’t know if you want to …”
“I’ll wait,” Ash said.
Fuck, the look he shot Cole. He wanted to goad a fight out of him. He’d always been that way, but it was not helping right now.
“Fine.” I nodded my head toward the stairs. “Come on.”
I didn’t wait to see if Cole followed. I stomped up the stairs. This whole week was a huge pass. I wanted it to be over and never think about it again.
Cole did follow me, closing the bedroom door behind him. “Lila …”
“Nothing was happening with Ash,” I told him before he could say anything else. “I don’t want you to think that you and I were in a fight and so I’d do anything stupid. He was at the same bar as me, and I was hammered, so he was making sure I got home okay. That’s all.”
“Okay,” he said, his arms crossed over his chest. “I believe you.”
“Do you? Because you look skeptical.”
He gritted his teeth. I could see him trying to control the anger burying through him. “Yeah, it sucked to watch you walk in that door with him. And it’s fucking suspicious that he showed up