Possibly both of us.
All I know is, I’m caught so off guard that I can momentarily only gape at him.
“Is that her ex?” Margot murmurs.
“Yeah. Watch how this is done,” Daphne murmurs back. “The part where an ex wants you back and you don’t take them back because they’re an ex for a reason.”
Margothmphs. “We’re not discussing this.”
“But we should.”
Jake rolls his eyes. “Can we talk out here?”
“No,” all three of us say together.
I shoo the two of them back. Good thing Hudson’s in the shower.
He was supposed to have a full bedroom at Jake’s house all summer.
You know. Before Jake dumped me and stole my parents’ dream.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I tell Jake. “We’re not getting back together.”
His expression turns suspiciously patient. “Go on. Get it all out.”
“Get what out?”
“All of the reasons you want to yell at me.”
I don’t like this.
I don’t like this at all. “I’m not going to yell at you.”
“You’re not?”
“No. I’m going to close this door, and you’re going to leave and never come back.”
He sticks his foot in the doorway. “Come on, Bea. We know this was just our temporary breakup to see how we could handle life without each other. And now it’s time to get back together.”
“What happened?” Daphne asks. “Did your chef quit?”
His cheeks flush. “No.”
“What about—what’s her name? Kim? Aren’t you dating Kim Womack?”
“Yes, but you know that doesn’t mean anything. She’s just a whore who likes to—fuck, Bea.” He leaps back, clutching his foot.
Yes, the foot that I just slammed in the door.
“Don’t call women whores, asshat.” I succeed in shutting the door this time. Then I lean in to it and raise my voice. “And in case you need it said again, I don’t want to get back together with you.”
“Simon Luckwood was using you, you moron,” he yells back. “If you think he wants anything other than in your pants, you’re wrong.”
“He’s really dumb, isn’t he?” Margot murmurs.
“It’s his ego. It squeezes all of the air out of the other parts of his brain.”
Margot looks at me.
