Page 13 of Cold Foot Komodo

“I was sentenced to six years, but I was in there for ten years total.”

Her eyes burned, but she didn’t understand why. “What did you do to get in there?”

He shook his head slowly, denying her the answer, and that was okay. It really was. He had already shared a shocking amount.

“Did you hurt anyone?” she asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Am I safe?” she asked.

“You are safe,” he told her. “I have never hurt a woman.”

And she believed him. Truly, she did. He was looking right into her soul as he told her that.

“I didn’t like what you said earlier,” he murmured.

“About you being awesome? Sorry, friend. Sometimes you need to hear compliments. It’s good for you. Like carrots, or spa days.”

“What’s a spa day?”

“Oh, it’s where you get facials and massages, and get pampered. I have one every year on my birthday. I treat myself.”

“Your man doesn’t treat you?”

“My man vamoosed probably around the time you were supposed to be released from prison.”

“Mmm,” he said, and took another drink of grape soda.

“It wasn’t his fault,” she said softly, remembering. “I am a lot.”

“You cheated or something?”

“What? Hell no. Never. I am loyal in relationships. Cheating is not my style at all. I just…” She shrugged. “I put up walls, and I keep distance. My head is really loud with insecurities sometimes. I kept getting feelings that he was interested in other people, and he couldn’t take my constant questioning. I feel like I go crazy in relationships. I’m better single, you know?”

“Was he interested in other people?” Reed asked.

She pursed her lips. “He would never say. He did marry a girl that I suspected within the first year of our split though. He said I pushed him into it. I accused him of it so much that his head went there, and then he fell for the person I suspected. She worked with him. So…his leaving was my fault.”

Reed narrowed his eyes. “You don’t actually believe that, do you?”

Sasha shrugged. “I don’t know. Yes? I think? He was very convincing.”

“I would bet my only pair of boots he was engaging in the fantasy with that woman. You weren’t crazy. You had instincts, and you were right to call him on it.”

“My mom blamed me for ruining my relationship with Sam. She called him ‘the only ten I would ever convince to settle for me.’ She even sent him a wedding present when he married the woman I suspected. He texted me a picture of the card my mom sent with the gift. She wrote,The biggest mistake my daughter ever made was letting you go. You deserve happiness, and she couldn’t give you that. You chose well.I’ve repeated her wordsover and over in my head over the last few years. It’s burned into my memory.”

“Ahh, so it was your mother who helped you believe his bullshit.”

Her world felt like it was turning upside down. Wait was he cheating? Did he gaslight her? Did he trick her? There were so many red flags. She’d caught them texting. She’d opened his phone on one of her texts one night, and it felt too comfortable—the way they were talking to each other. But he’d said it was strictly a work relationship, and that Sasha was becoming unattractive because she was questioning him all the time. And then he stopped sleeping with her. And then he stopped complimenting her. And then he was staying at work later and later, and she was losing herself in work to escape how awful she felt about herself in that relationship. “It’s all done now. In the past. It doesn’t help to dwell on it.”

“It does if you learn that your instincts are credible. He married the exact girl you suspected.” He arched his eyebrows. “He married,” he said slower, “the exact woman you suspected, and quickly, and he had you convinced you were the problem.”

Her ears were getting hot. “I’m getting a little mad.”

“Good. Fuck that dude.”

“Fuck that dude,” she whispered. “I’ve felt so stupid this whole time.”

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