I headed out of the apartment, smiling but with a thousand butterflies in my stomach. I told myself that whatever happened tonight, I just needed to have an honest and sincere conversation with Ash. Last time in the grocery store, perhaps caught off guard by it actually happening, I hadn’t done anything but seemingly recoiled when he got angry. Understandable for the moment, but not something I wanted to carry forward.
I was excited, but I wasn’t going to be a pushover.
When I arrived at the shop—Corner Coffee Shop, I double-checked in my notes—I took a breath after I’d parked the car. It was five minutes until six. I didn’t like showing up late to anything, let alone a…date, I suppose? I didn’t know what to call today. I mean, for goodness’ sakes, we were still legally married.
But I couldn’t pretend that we were anything other than confused at best, separated at worst.
I took a breath in, stepped out of the car, and walked into the coffee shop. And…Ash was nowhere to be seen.
Well, what did I expect? It was early. He wasn’t ever the type of person to show up on time, though he wasn’t extraordinarily late. He usually got there five to ten minutes after something was supposed to start.
But after ten minutes had passed, I still hadn’t seen any sign of Ash, and I started to fear that I’d been played. Maybe he was trying to hurt me to push me away for good. Maybe he figured if I hated him, I wouldn’t want to see him again.
I mean, I wasn’t going to be pushed over and abused, but…
Fifteen minutes past the hour, I stood up and walked back to my car, looking for a motorcycle nearby. Maybe I’d missed—
“You came.”
I looked behind me, jumping as I did so. It was Ash, all right, but he had on sunglasses, a baseball cap of the Boston Red Sox—which made no sense since he didn’t even like baseball, nor was he anywhere near Boston—and a blue t-shirt that I’d never seen him wear before.
“Of course I came, what are you—”
“Let’s get in your car and drive off; I don’t want to stay in one spot.”
I nodded. I didn’t think asking more questions, judging by what I sensed was his distrust of the situation, made any sense. I hurried to the car, unlocked it, and let Ash in. I turned it on to silence, pulled out, and just started driving.
“I saw you walk up, but I had to make sure no one else was with you.”
“You thought I was being followed?”
“The Reapers got to you and made you give our apartment up.”
Our apartment. He sees it as ours. That’s…something. Hopeful, maybe?
“I was trapped in an awkward moment, Ash. He told me that if I helped him, he’d help me, and—”
“He’d help you?” Ash said, raising an eyebrow. “What the hell does that mean?”
There was distrust in his voice, a suspicion that told me maybe he suspected I was interested in Sonny. I decided to lean on what I’d always depended upon in such situations—the truth.
“He said he would help us spend time together to see if we could make this work,” I said. “And in return, I agreed to let him have access to our place in Vegas.”
Ash drew in a deep breath but didn’t exhale for several moments. I turned my eyes to the road, almost nervous to see what he was thinking. The lack of an extreme outburst was promising in one regard, but it wasn’t exactly reassuring that he still hadn’t eased up.
Would he ever?
A minute passed and he didn’t say a word. I began to feel nervous. Then I began to wonder if he’d forgotten what was actually said or had just let it go and was waiting for me to say something. But every time that I looked over, he still had that look of deep thinking, of trying to perhaps even combat a certain train of thought.
“He really said that, huh?”
Those were not the words I expected from Ash. And most certainly, it was not thetoneI expected from Ash.
I expected anger. Sarcasm. Bitterness. Annoyance. At best, mildly unamused. But…hopeful?
“Yes, he did,” I said.
Remember, you wanted real. You wanted honest. He’s in the car with you. He did this on purpose.
