Page 66 of Revenge Cake

Frantic because he wanted her so badly he didn’t care to look.

Why don’t I feel like crying again? Why hasn’t this sent me into another wave of despair?

My body feels tight and alert, electricity buzzing through my limbs. It feels like a high, and not from the Ativan that has now long worn off.

It’s a high of fury. A high of injustice. My boyfriend left my house only to go straight to hers, and I’ve been forced to listen to him fuck her for the last five minutes.

At the murmured sound of their voices, my back straightens in alertness. I smash the phone to my ear, straining to listen closely. I hear Logan’s deep voice murmuring something, but I can’t make out the words, though I think I might have caught the word “sorry.”

Sorry, you motherfucker? You’re saying sorry to the wrong person.

I’m filled with the desire to confront them. To speak up into the microphone and admit that I’ve been listening the whole time.

But something holds me back.

Maybe it’s the epic humiliation that was the last eight hours with Logan. Maybe it’s the bedraggled state of my appearance, as if they could see my sweat-dampened hair and smell the vomit on my breath as I speak through the phone. Maybe it’s that even though it’s my right to listen—my right as the betrayed party—I still feel like a bit of a voyeur lurking in the corners as they finally express their growing love.

My chest grows tight. Oh god, why does this have to hurt so much? I take a deep, unsteady breath in an effort to keep my mind sharp.

No, I can’t do it. Not yet.

My body grows alert again at the sound of Keira’s high, whispery voice. It’s an intimate voice, and it makes me want to claw her pretty blue eyes out of their sockets. “Understandable,” she said. I know that’s what she said. It was the only clear word in her string of murmurs.

“Understandable,” you conniving cunt? Is it understandable that my boyfriend put his dick in you because he’s disgusted with me?

Emotion grips me so suddenly, I’m unsure if it’s rage or sorrow. All I know is that I can’t listen anymore. I can’t bear to hear another word or noise. Another heavy breath. Another whimper. I click the hang-up button just before throwing my phone on the floor and rushing to the bathroom.

Within a split second of hunching over the toilet, red vomit scatters my vision for the second time tonight.

CHAPTER 27

Present Day

Logan

A cold shiver runs down my spine. Dread fills my stomach like lead. I think I might be sick. I shut my eyes and breathe in slowly to fight the building nausea.

Who would have told her? My scattered mind frantically searches for answers.

Not Keira. There’s no way Keira would betray me, but who else knew about it?

A humorless smile rises to Lani’s lips. She lowers her chin to give me a hard stare. “You pocket-dialed me,” she says, her smile growing as she takes a step closer. Bile rises at the back of my throat as her meaning registers. Oh god. How could that have happened? How could I have been that unlucky?

“That night,” she clarifies, as if I needed it. “It must have happened as soon as you walked into her apartment. It was perfect timing, because you started fucking her shortly after.” Her eyes grow wide and angry, her smile now a sneer. “I heard everything.”

The panic seizing my chest starts to ease a little when I realize her misinterpretation. I nearly sway in relief. “No!” I shake my head frantically. “That’s not what happened. We didn’t have sex. We…” I swallow, hating that this is my defense. “We kissed.”

She starts to laugh, and my growing hope is squashed in an instant, leaving me empty. She’s never felt this far away before, this unreachable, like if I tried to touch her my hand would sink through. When her laughter subsides, she fixes me with an accusing look. “Do you know what a moan sounds like through a phone speaker?”

Unable to speak, I shake my head.

“It’s loud. Very loud.”

I shut my eyes in agony, wondering how in the world I’m going to convince her of the truth. “We made out,” I say, hating how paltry my defense sounds. “We kissed for…for a while. But I promise you that was all.” I grabbed her tits too, I add inwardly, but I shouldn’t have to admit that. Not when the universe is obviously so highly stacked against me. I’ve paid for my sins.

“It must have been a pretty good kiss for there to have been that much moaning.”

I shut my eyes in shame. “It was wrong. I felt terrible for it, but Keira and I had an intense conversation about it and we—”