“I’m having a panic attack,” I choke out.
He sticks his foot in the small opening and squeezes his Neanderthal body through until he’s taking up all the space in my tiny bathroom and he’s cupping my face with him hands. “Talk to me, Nash. What’s happening in that gorgeous head of yours.”
“I saw the texts on your phone.” I blurt the words out, stiff and loud. “I wasn’t snooping or anything,” I say, stepping out of his grasp. “When I went inside to get my phone for the contact number to call for pizza, it was buzzing and beeping, and it was just lying right next to mine. And I saw Area Code 203 and it needs you desperately. And my head lifted off my body and exploded.”
Dex sits on the edge of my bathtub and pulls me between his knees. “Come here. How about I show you?” He pulls out his phone and taps onto the conversation.
It’s all a one-sided chat thread. He has never, not even once, replied to any of the texts. “It’s one of my ex-girlfriends. Stephanie.”
“Stephanie lives in New Haven, Stamford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, Norwalk, or some other part of Area Code 203 in southwestern Connecticut I haven’t Googled yet?”
“New Haven,” he says, wrapping his hands around my waist.
“But why is she calling you and texting you—"
“Nash, come on,” he says, pulling me closer. “She probably saw me on TMZ. I bet she knows I’m writing Pippa’s story and thought she’d cash in on an old relationship. I haven’t responded to her at all.”
My body is still trembling. “But it sounded like…well, she needed to see you again, soon. She needed you and something about being desperate.”
He takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly. His hands unclasp and slide down to rest on my hips. “She always did shit like that.‘Call me back right away, I have something urgent to tell you. Text me immediately, it’s an emergency.’And usually it was about someone being rude to her at the mall or one of her friends being jealous. She was one of those women who whined about everything.”
I can’t picture Dex with someone like that.
“Hey, look, I’ll block her. Here,” he says and blocks the number in front of me.
Am I an idiot? A fool? Do I believe him? I want to.
He must notice my hesitation. “How about this,” he says, holding out his phone closer to me. “My passcode is 1018. You can check through my phone any time you want. I’m not hiding anything from you. I’m warning you, though, I have a ton of porn videos on there.” He shoves the phone in my hands and says, “Hey, go ahead, look through it. My phone is your phone.”
I hold the phone in my hand like it’s a rattlesnake.
“Nash, come on. Look,” he pulls up the messages and flips through them. Then taps on the photo icon and almost every picture is of me.
I shake my head. “Stop, Dex. This is…this is really sweet of you. Trying to make me feel better, thank you.” I hold out my hand and pull him up to stand. “I’m probably just over-exhausted and stressed from work and missing you and my five-minute trip to California last night.” We walk out of the bathroom together and I’m feeling better. “Come on, let’s see what these jackasses are up to in my living room.”
Simon and Julia are sitting on the couch, talking in hushed tones. Nate’s in my kitchen opening another bottle of wine. Dex grabs another piece of pizza from the boxes piled on the table and jumps into Simon’s low discussion like a deep-sea diver. Julia makes a face at him, but he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care.
I walk into my kitchen for a wine glass. I think drinking from the bottle is not something I should continue doing tonight. I still feel weirdly shaken and I need a little time to think things through. Dex is a good man. He showed me everything he had on his phone. What other man would do that?
Not many.
“Do you see them in there?” Nate’s voice cuts through my thoughts. He’s leaning against my counter with a bottle of beer clenched in his fist.
I had beer in my refrigerator?
“Take a peek. Look at the way she’s sliding up next to him,” Nate says, pointing his beer bottle toward the vicinity of my living room.
“Who?” I know who, I’m just playing stupid because I really don’t want to have this conversation. I can’t deal with my own issues right now, how am I supposed to deal with his?
“Damian. I bet she’ll sleep with him.” He slaps the beer bottle on my counter. I’m astonished it didn’t break. “You know, Jane. I kick myself in the ass every day for leaving that baseball game.”
“The baseball game?” He has got to be kidding me right now.
“Yeah, the one where you and me kissed and it was the best kiss of my entire fucking life.”
“Uh, well…I…”
“I know. I fucked up.” Nate grabs me by the shoulders and I’m suddenly paralyzed.
