Page 63 of My Ex-Fiance's Best Men
You deserve better, Phoebe!
What do Dominic and August think? Are they involved with Georgina, too?
Is this gonna be one of those Team Coates vs. Team Forbes things? I can’t keep up anymore!
Matthew must be laughing his ass off.
If only I could unplug the entire fucking internet forever. We’d all be happier, that’s for sure. I damn near smash the phone against the wall before stopping myself and taking a deep, shaky breath.
Georgina must’ve planned the whole thing. This was calculated, timed, and deliberately played out. I suspected something fishy when I saw her enter the store, but I had no idea how far she would go.
How the hell do I find Phoebe now?
Clearly, she’s not home. She’s hurt and probably thinking the worst of me. Who could blame her? The photographer timedhis shots to perfection. There’s a shot of Georgina laughing. Me smiling politely. Georgina hugging me.
I should’ve pushed her away, dammit.
Georgina holding up the lavender lingerie set. Me, not turning away. There’s nothing in these images that reflect how I honestly feel or what I said. I tried to be civil with Georgina, and this is how I was repaid.
18
PHOEBE
Penny refills my wine glass, a permanent frown tugging at her lips.
“It has to be a mistake,” she says as she takes a seat beside me on her sofa. “I honestly can’t even imagine Theo would do something like this. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, photos don’t lie, do they?”
I’ve taken refuge in her apartment. I couldn’t face Theo after this whole Perle Noire thing exploded online. My phone’s been buzzing like crazy since TMZ published their article. My eyes sting from constantly filling with tears. My heart hurts so deeply, I can barely breathe.
“Have you spoken to Theo at all?” Penny asks.
I show her my phone, a throng of messages and missed calls from all three. “Nope. I’m just so mad, Penny.”
“You have every reason to feel that way. But you guys were building something. At least give him a chance to explain.”
“With everything that’s been going on in my life lately, I don’t think I have the energy to deal with this right now.”
I take another sip of wine, then set the glass down on the coffee table, sinking back into the sofa. I don’t like the taste it leaves on my tongue. The label claims it’s an excellent Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. It must be the bitterness of my emotions messing with my taste buds.
“Great, I can’t even drown my sorrow in alcohol,” I mutter.
“You’re overwhelmed and you’re hurting. It’s normal,” Penny says. “What isn’t normal is if you let this become your habitual state.”
“Can’t I just sulk and sob for a little while?”
“Of course,” she replies and takes me in her arms.
I welcome the hug and the softness of her embrace. We sit like that for a while. I let a few more tears roll down my cheeks as I relive the moment when I opened that TMZ link and saw one of my boyfriends with Georgina at a lingerie store.
“She’s his ex,” I tell Penny. “Theo said he ended it, that he didn’t have any feelings left for her.”
“Lord knows it’s hard to feel anything other than disdain and contempt for that woman.”
“But what if he does feel something romantic for her? Maybe Georgina said something to him, did something to rekindle the flame, I don’t know.”
Penny shakes her head slowly. “Phoebe, I’ve been around you guys enough times to tell that all three are positively head over heels with you. Especially Theo. He worships the ground youwalk on. And more than once, he’s chewed Georgina out over the nasty things she’s said to you. At the risk of repeating myself, none of this makes any sense.”
