Page 31 of Merry Mix-Up

"Uh, just more studies. Probably helping Jade with the dress too." She licked her lips and cut a bite of her French toast, but when she brought it to her mouth to take the bite, I saw how uncomfortable she looked.

"Not feeling well still?" I asked, and she nodded. But there was more to it. The emotion in her eyes wasn't sickness or embarrassment. It was fear. Mom had made her feel too uncomfortable.

"You don't have to eat, baby," I told her, but I made sure to say it quietly enough that Mom couldn't hear me over the sound of the popping grease in the pan.

"I just want to go home," Amber whispered, and I nodded. "I can get an Uber." She pulled her phone out, but I shook my head.

"Just let me wolf this down. I’ll take you." I already had a huge bite of food in my mouth as she started searching her phone for the app, but I wasn't about to let her pay to Uber when I could use Dad's truck just fine. I grabbed her phone and swallowed hard before saying, "Let me take you."

Dad was watching and Amber's eyes flicked in his direction. Then she politely smiled and dropped her head. She did manage a few bites of her meal as I devoured mine practically without chewing. I had to leave the room to get shoes, socks, and my coat, and when I came back, Amber looked on the verge of tears, and Mom looked up at me with a sternness in her expression I'd not seen since I was a child, but I didn't ask what had happened.I promptly escorted Amber to the front door where she left her coat last night, and then to the truck.

The drive across town was quiet. I heard her sniffle a few times, but I felt bad for what had happened, and I didn't understand it, so I didn't want to pry. Something might have gone down between Amber and Naomi to make Mom upset with her, but if so, I thought I'd have heard about it by now. I just held Amber's hand and drove with only the sound of Christmas music on the radio to keep us company. The closer we got to the apartment, however, the more flustered she seemed to be until she looked like she couldn’t take it anymore.

"Newt, there's something I have to tell you and I want you to hear it from me." The way she said the words made the hairs on my arm stand on end. This had bad news written all over it, and I got breakup vibes, wondering what she could possibly need to tell me.

"Okay, I'm listening." We were only a block from the apartment and she seemed panicked.

"Newt, I'm not really who you think I am." She looked up the street and I watched her face blanch.

"What?" I asked, feeling confused. Not who I thought she was? She was Amber Lyons, my sister's best friend and maid of honor in her wedding. What else could there be?

I pulled into a spot behind a beat-up black sedan covered in hideous bumper stickers and put the truck in park, letting the engine idle. Amber seemed to freeze up as her eyes traced across the snowy front lawn of the complex toward her door. I looked too, noticing a man standing there banging on her door, and my stomach sank.

"I, uh… You need to go," she spat and jumped out of the car. "I'll call you." Amber practically jumped out of the car and marched through the snow with her head down and her hands in her pockets. Either she was afraid of the man at her door orshe was afraid of me seeing the man at her door, or maybe she was afraid for Jade, who, based on her previous statements, was inside the apartment sick as hell.

Whatever the case, my heart was hammering now, and I couldn't just drive home. I felt like I was losing control again, the way I had when I found my ex cheating on me. My mind raced as I watched her walk up to the man and they started arguing. He looked angry enough to hurt her, and my protective instinct kicked in.

I climbed out of the car and bounded across the lawn too. My strides were twice as long as the footprints left behind where Amber walked. I heard their screaming match and started to piece together a picture of what was happening.

"You have no clue what you're talking about," she shouted, complete with waving hands.

"Oh, give it up, Amber. I can't believe this. You spent the night with him?"

"Whoa, buddy," I said, putting a hand squarely on his chest, which he didn't seem to like at all. His fist balled up and he swung right at my face and connected despite my best effort to dodge the blow. The impact made me see stars, but at least he wasn't unleashing. One punch was all he gave.

"What the hell do you think you're doing with my girlfriend, Phillips?" The man was fuming mad and his words were a kick to the gut. I stood there staring down at the snow where blood from my lip dripped and turned the pure white to red.

"It's not what you think, Newt," Amber pleaded. "Let me explain."

"You fucked him?" the man said, and I got the feeling he was going to hit me again, so I held both hands up in surrender and let the blood run down my chin.

"Hey, man. I didn't know. She never said anything." I backed away a step and saw the tears sluicing down Amber's cheeks. Ifelt sorry for the poor schmuck. Man, she had fucked us both over. My heart was ice cold and I didn't know if it would ever thaw. She was using me to cheat on her boyfriend?

"Newt, please. I promise I can explain everything…" Amber walked toward me, but the man grabbed her arm and pulled her backward, quickly snatching her key out of her hand.

"Just leave," he spat before unlocking the door and yanking her inside.

I slogged to the truck and stood there for a minute listening to the muffled sound of more screaming emanating from inside the apartment. My heart was breaking into a million pieces and I couldn’t stop it. How could I be so unlucky as to have two different women who I thought were perfect both turn out to be lying cheats? How was I this unlucky?

21

JADE

Before Derek even had me into the apartment, I was swatting at him. The way he grabbed my arm was totally unacceptable even if I was his girlfriend cheating on him. I smacked his hand hard, and he let go and then I smacked him square across the face. I didn't care that he thought I was Amber or that he was upset. No man had any right to manhandle me like that.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" I spat, and fuming, I yanked my coat off and threw it at him. Snow was caked to my shoes, but I turned and walked through the living room toward the kitchen for a beer from my fridge so I could calm down. I tore off my hat and gloves and dropped them in my path, and Derek followed me.

"What the hell is going on, Amber? What are you trying to pull here? I came home to visit you and you swore you were sick and couldn't see me, but you were out with that bastard? Did you stay the night with him? Did you sleep with him?" Derek sounded hurt and angry, and as I took the beer from the fridge, I felt a twinge of guilt.

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