Page 54 of Indigo

“That good, huh?” she chuckles out, tossing a tiny stone at me from the ground beside her.

“Mhmmm,” I nod, looking out into the distance. “So good.”

“Still can’t believe it, after all this time…”

My watch alerts me to a new message, grabbing my attention before I can respond.

MICHAEL:You’re a real fucking bitch, ignoring me like this. After everything I’ve done for you, I can’t believe you’d take off and shack up with that overgrown asshole. Don’t make me come up there to make you see sense. Sort it out and get your ass back here before I get really fucking angry, Indigo.

Dread washes over me as I read it, and when I look up, Paisley is watching me, clearly concerned.

Michael’s messages have been relentless the past few days, and I can’t figure out why. I’ve kept them to myself, because I don’t want to worry anyone, but he’s starting to scare me a little with this obsessive behaviour.

I give myself a mental shove and turn my gaze back to the view.

He won't ruin my new life here. I will not let him inside my head.

“Everything okay?” she asks after a moment of silence.

“Just Mum,” I lie, refusing to allow Michael to put a dampener on my time with Paisley.

She nods, accepting it as the truth, and takes another sip of her water before blurting out, “I saw Josh and Renee grocery shopping the other day.”

I feel my eyes widen, and I snap my head toward her. “What?”

She lets out a breath and screws the lid back on the plastic bottle in her hand. “He told me he was going shopping. I offered to come, but he said not to bother considering it was only going to be a quick trip and I was seeing him later that night.”

“Wait,” I cut in. “When was this?”

“Two days ago.” She shrugs.

“Okay, go on.”

“So, I thought, fuck it, I love doing domestic shit with him, so I figured I’d just go down and walk up and down the aisles with him while he picks out all his ridiculously healthy food. I enjoy throwing chocolate and shit in his trolley, and watching him twitch every time he has to fish it out and find the spot on the shelf it’s supposed to go.”

I laugh. That’s such a Paisley thing to do. I remember when we were kids, she took great pleasure in waiting for Jagger to finish separating his M&Ms into colours and then mixing them all back up when he left the room.

“Right, okay,” I reply. “So you went to the grocery store, and he was there with Renee?”

She nods, picking the lint off her tights. “Yep. Just walking along with her, as if they were still married, and it was a totally normal thing to be doing.”

“And you… what?”

She looks back up at me and scowls. “I left. I wasn’t giving that bitch the opportunity to gloat about the fact that she was with him.”

“And you didn’t ask him about it? Did you go to his house as planned?”

She nods. “Yeah. I couldn’t help myself. We didn’t have sex, though. Told him I had a headache, and the bastard was so sweet. Got me Advil and water, made me pancakes in bed the next morning.”

“What an asshole,” I tease, earning me a glare and a huff. “Look, it’s a small town. They probably just ran into each other or something.”

She rolls her eyes, but I can see the tension leave her body. “You think?”

Honestly? I don’t know.

“Sure. You should just ask him. Or I could ask Pax? They’re friends-ly…” I adjust the term because I’m not really sure how to word their relationship. They’re not close, but aside from me and Jagger, Josh was the closest thing Pax had to a friend growing up.

“No. You’re right,” she says, her expression turning to one of determination as she pulls her phone from her pocket and taps her screen a few times. Suddenly, it rings, and I realise she’s put it on speaker. “I’ll handle this right now.”

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