"I just wanted you to know." She takes a shaky breath, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "It's your choice if you want to be part of his life or not, but to make that choice, you have to know he exists."
I hear the sharp intake of breath before I see her. Asha.
She's standing ten feet away, frozen in place like she's been struck. In her hands are two drinks, the whiskey and Aperol Spritz I'd ordered what feels like a lifetime ago. Her face has gone pale, her eyes wide and glassy.
She heard. She heard everything.
"Asha—" I start toward her, but she takes a step back.
"Don't." The single word stops me cold. Her voice is barely above a whisper, but it cuts deeper than any scream.
"I'll leave you two alone," Cassidy says, turning on her heel.
"Asha, let me explain?—"
"Explain what?" her voice rises. "Explain that you have a child? That you—" She can't finish, and I watch as the realization crashes over her.
"I didn't know," I say desperately, moving toward her again. "Asha, I swear to God, I didn't know until two minutes ago?—"
"But youdidit." Tears spill over, tracking mascara down her cheeks. "You slept with her." She looks in the direction Cassidy walked. "By the looks of it, maybe five or six months ago." Her eyes swing back to mine. "Is she the reason you carried that ring in your pocket? Am I wearing her ring?"
"What?" The word comes out strangled. "Why would you ask me that? That ring was always meant for you."
"Don't fucking lie to me," she says sharply before tossing the drinks in a bush.
"I'm not." My hands reach for her, but she flinches back. "I told you the ring belonged to my grandmother. That wasn’t a lie. I started carrying it in my pocket a week after I found that lease."
She shakes her head, her bottom lip trembling, and something inside my chest actuallybreaks. I can't watch her fall apart like this.
"You expect me to believe you carried a ring around for almost a year on the off chance I might propose."
"Sweetheart, that ring was going to make it on your finger by the time the lease expired, whether you asked me or not. It was only ever yours."
"If that were true and I was the only person in your heart, you wouldn't have slept with her," she says, right before she takes off.
"Asha, wait!" I lunge after her, but she's already sprinting. "Asha, let me explain! I didn't know."
She rounds the corner and runs smack into London.
"Hey, hey…" He grabs her shoulders, steadying her before she can fall. "What's going on?"
"Let me go." She tries to twist free, but he holds firm.
Laney appears at his side, her eyes cutting to me like knives. "What did you do?"
"He knocked up another woman,” Asha says with an empty tone that cuts deep.
"What?" London and Laney ask in unison, their faces mirrors of shock.
"When?" Laney's hand flies to her throat. "How... how is this evenpossible?"
"It doesn't matter." Asha wrenches herself from London's grip.
I start talking before she can walk away. She may not want to hear it. I know it's not an excuse, but I need her to know I didn't consciously choose someone else over her.
"It was the night we all went to Red Door, to celebrate London and Laney coming home from Texas as a couple. You hated that I was there and proceeded to flirt with the bartenderall night." My throat tightens. "I don't remember talking to Cassidy. I was completely wasted?—"
"That doesn't make it any better." Her eyes blaze.
