I glanced at my own phone, glaringly devoid of any messages or calls from him. But I was the one who’d put us in that situation, not him. And I knew deep down, he was upset. I’d been so worried about the women in his past, and part of me couldn’t let go of the fact that he might leave one day. But he’d told me over and over that he didn’t want anyone else. And I chose to believe him.
“No, I’m not curious about David and Dani. He said they didn’t sleep together, and he wouldn’t lie,” I told Ava, turning to Gretchen. “Nothing happened. You don’t need to text her.”
“Already did.” Gretchen lifted herself to sit on the kitchen counter, and her fingers flew over the screen. “Just a sec. We’re talking. Things are heating up.”
“Heating up?” I asked through a dry throat. “Why? What’s she saying?”
“This is really strange behavior,” Greg said. “I feel like I’m in some kind of alternate universe.”
Ava threw a wine cork at him. “That’s what you get for crashing girls’ night.”
Gretchen slammed her phone on the counter. “Fucking asshole.”
“Who?” I asked, my heart suddenly pounding in my ears. She didn’t mean David. Shecouldn’t. “Who’s an asshole?”
She picked up her phone again, and after a moment of navigating, held it up. On speakerphone, ringing filled the kitchen.
She was calling Dani? I didn’t have a chance to tell her to hang up before Dani answered. “What do you want, Gretchen?” she asked.
“Olivia’s here,” she said. “Tell her what you just told me.”
“David and I never slept together. We kissed once,” she said. A modicum of relief passed over me. I’d been right to trust David. Until she added, “Only becauseyouruined any chance I had with him, Olivia.”
Irritation quickly flooded out my relief. She didn’t know shit about my relationship with David. “I’mthe reason you and David aren’t together?” I asked. “If you think David lets anyone get in the way of what he wants, you don’t know him at all.”
Gretchen snorted. “A guy who’s interested doesn’t go on four dates without making a single move.”
“Like you’ve ever made it to four dates, Gretchen?” Dani asked. “Everyone knows you’re a slut—’”
I gasped. “Hey! That’s totally uncalled for.”
“I feel sorry for you, Olivia,” Dani continued. “You blew up a perfectly good marriage for a guy who’ll throw you out like yesterday’s trash when he’s done with you.”
My face flamed. Who the fuck did she think she was? “I’d rather be trashanda slut than a judgmental bitch. You’re clearly jealous that David’smine, and guess what? He’s not going anywhere. That man loves me in a way Bill never could.”
Everyone in the kitchen turned wide eyes on me.
“Yeah, so go to hell,” Gretchen said into the phone and hung up.
“Holy shit,” Bethany said, looking between the two of us. “That was intense.”
“Whatever,” I said with a shrug, but my heart pounded. I didn’t remember ever speaking to someone with such vitriol, butGod, it felt good to finally stand up for my relationship. “She’s been getting on my nerves for a while.”
“Mine, too.” Gretchen grinned. “I like this side of you. That’s the Liv you need to show David. The one who’s going to fight for him.”
I swallowed down a gulp of wine. Gretchen wasn’t wrong. But how did I show him when there was a sudden gulf between us?
“So who’d you call an asshole earlier?” Bethany asked, her brows furrowed.
“Bill,” Gretchen said. “Someone lied here, and it wasn’t David or Dani.”
That was true. If Dani hadn’t told Bill she’d slept with David, then he’d made it up. I looked into my wineglass. “He’s desperate.”
“That’s not an excuse,” Gretchen said.
“I know.” My stomach churned at the idea of confronting him, too, but with the adrenaline rush of what I’d just done, I knew I had to—for myself and for David. “I’ll talk to him.”
“God, I’m all amped up now,” Gretchen said, hopping down from the counter and pacing the kitchen. She nodded at Ava. “Is dinner ready? Let’s eat and then go out.”
