Page 8 of Love Among Vines

“What the hell just happened?” Jade muttered to herself. She had never been dismissed that way in her entire life. Shame filled her.

Spinning, she zeroed in on Blake. She stormed over and pushed the chair until it turned around to face her.

“What do you want?” Blake looked her up and down again like she had just watched a dog throw up.

“Outside. Now.” She pulled Blake out of her chair and tugged her toward the front door.

“Get off of me,” Blake whined, but Jade only tightened her grip.

Her cheeks burned as she passed Rett. The front door slammed shut behind them.

“What’s going on with you?” she asked. “No offense, but you’ve been a bitch since we left.”

“It’s none of your business,” Blake snapped.

“Really? Is Nate your ex-boyfriend too?” Maybe he had secretly dated all the bridesmaids.

Another memory hit her—Nate on a gingham blanket in Central Park. A hot, slow kiss in the July heat. The brush of a wicker picnic basket against her bare arms as he leaned her back.

She sucked her cheeks in. Nate flashbacks were not invited to this cursed weekend.

“No,” Blake snapped. “I don’t—I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Girlfriend? Fiancé? Prison pen pal?”

“I got dumped, okay? A week ago.”

“Oh.” The wind promptly fell out of her sails. No wonder Blake had been such an abominable twat. “I’m so sorry. That’s awful.”

The other woman sniffed. “He was supposed to come to the wedding. But out of nowhere he just decided that ‘this isn’t working.’” She threw her hands up in quotations. “We dated for three years. He didn’t even dump me in person.”

“What an asshole.”

“It’s just hard. I had such a clear picture of what our future was going to look like. Our wedding, our kids, our five-year plan. And he just threw it all away like it was nothing.”

Jade grabbed Blake’s hand. “I’m so sorry he did that to you. If he can’t see what a gorgeous, fierce, badass bitch you are, he never deserved you in the first place. I know how hard it is to be completely blindsided.”

Blake averted her eyes. “I know you do. Kenya told me.”

She shook her head. “It’s been two years. I’m over it. It’s fine.”

It wasn’t, though. If everything was fine, her muse wouldn’t have completely abandoned her after the breakup. But that was not the female empowerment that Blake needed to hear.

“Trust me when I say you are going to be okay,” Jade added. “And if I ever see your ex-boyfriend in person, I will personally slingshot him in the balls.”

Blake laughed—her first laugh the entire trip.

“I’m a mess too, if it makes you feel any better.” She threw her hands up. “I’m attending my ex-boyfriend’s wedding with no date. Does it get more pathetic than that?”

It did. Attending your ex-boyfriend’s wedding with no date and a plummeting career was definitely more pathetic.

“Well,” Blake said, “don’t tell Ashley I said this. But I’ve always thought Nate was kind of a dick.”

“He definitely can be.” Jade probably shouldn’t have been speaking ill of the groom on his wedding week. But he had also completely upended her life.

Not that she was thinking about that. There were more important things to worry about. Making it through this godforsaken weekend and fixing her financial crisis. Those were the only items she’d be entertaining for the remainder of the week.

“So,” Jade said, “knowing that I’m right there with you, do you think we can try to at least pretend to have a good time? For Ashley’s sake?”

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