Page 23 of Love Among Vines

This was exactly the type of conversation she had desperately been hoping to avoid. Why were they rehashing all of this when it was old news? And on the day of the wedding, no less?

“I can’t take this guilt anymore. We didn’t tell you the truth,” Ashley said.

The words settled between them like an anvil.

Jade’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”

“He told you it was just an emotional affair, right? That nothing happened between us physically?”

Ice shot through Jade’s veins. She remembered the moment like it was yesterday.

Ashley had fled the apartment, crying. Nate had stayed behind, empty-handed and stone-faced.

“I can’t do this,” he had said. “I’m so sorry. I fell in love with someone else.”

It would have hurt less if he had slapped her. But the only silver lining of the entire interaction was that he had assured her, time after time, that nothing physical had happened between them. It was just emotions that had grown stronger to the point where they couldn’t be ignored.

So what thehellwas Ashley trying to say?

“We lied. We had been hooking up for a month before you were supposed to move in together.”

The champagne glass toppled from Jade’s hand. Liquid splashed her satin heels.

Finally, she found her voice. “So when I signed the lease, he already knew he wasn’t going to move in?”

“No. It happened right after. It was later that night, at my parent’s house,” Ashley confessed. “You had a headache from the champagne and went to bed early. I stayed to watch the Knicks game because my apartment didn’t have cable yet, and Nate decided to stay too. And during the game…he kissed me. And I didn’t stop it. I thought it was a fluke, a onetime thing from the high emotions of watching our team score. But it wasn’t.”

Jade’s entire body was pulsating. Desires warred within her. Should she run? Or should she hurl this cheese platter at the two-faced bride like a Frisbee and bitch-slap both of these lying, sadistic assholes into the lake?

Rage was rising in her, hot and dangerous.

“So you let me believe for two years that you got together honorably. And you asked me to be a fucking bridesmaid. In your wedding. To my ex-boyfriend.”

Ashley sniffled. “I’m so sorry. The guilt has just been?—”

“Stop it.”

Ashley faltered. Her cheeks were pink.

“You could have told me the truth at any point in the last two years. Like maybe before I spent a thousand dollars on a stupid bridesmaid dress I’m not even allowed to sit in.”

Jade had always been a strong proponent of believing the best in people. But this was a different kind of betrayal. Something inside her snapped.

“And now you’re telling me that while I was still in the initial stages of grief from my parents’ untimely death, you were fucking my boyfriend.”

Ashley burst into tears again.

A pang of guilt hit, but Jade quickly shoved it down. There was no way she was going to feel guilty for this shit.

She reached down and picked up a fresh bottle of champagne in one hand and the cheese plate in the other.

“I hope he never does to you what he did to me. I hope you never know what it’s like to have your future planned out, and then be blindsided when everything is ripped away. Good luck.”

With that, she crossed the room and kicked the door open. The storm of emotions was about to hit a fever pitch. Did everyone know? Was that why Kenya was so surprised that Jade had agreed to be a bridesmaid? Were they all just sitting around laughing about how pathetic she was and how she had no idea that her best friend had been fucking her boyfriend while her parents were barely cold in the ground?

That was it. She was leaving. She couldn’t care less if Ashley’s side looked lopsided because she was down a bridesmaid. She didn’t deserve a picture-perfect wedding. And neither did Nate.

She rounded a corner and searched the foyer. The groomsmen were here somewhere. And she had words for them.

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