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Ashley was watching people vogue at each other very aggressively. ‘I’m gonna kill you,’ she muttered to Hallie.
Hallie laughed. ‘Sorry. I truly thought we’d seen the last of this after the worm incident.’
Ashley narrowed her eyes at her friend.
‘Oh my god, Jade’s here! Haven’t seen her in forever. I’ll be back.’
‘Of course,’ Ashley muttered as she watched her friend fuck off.
Left alone, Ashley drifted around the perimeter of the party.
The venue was a converted warehouse filled with exposed brick and fairy lights. Music thumped through the floor. Everyone pretended they were too cool to notice her. Ashley was grateful—she wanted to be ignored. God knows her album had been.
She checked the time. Forty-three minutes. A respectable appearance. Long enough that Hallie couldn’t accuse her of not trying.
She was already scanning the room for the nearest exit when she heard something nearby, something terrifyingly familiar. A laugh.
For a moment, Ashley thought she was imagining it. But she turned to it, and there she was.
Molly Sullivan.
The breath left Ashley’s lungs.
Molly stood by the drinks table in the middle of a small crowd. She looked completely different, yet somehow the same.
She was still effortlessly sexy, with the unbothered air of someone who’d stumbled into the party by accident. She still wore her dark hair in thick waves with that trademark blunt-cut fringe. Dressed in a simple yet flawless denim dress, she carried that same easy warmth and electric charm that had made people instantly gravitate toward her. Molly could always walk into a room full of strangers and leave with ten new friends and three invitations to dinner. Ashley, by contrast, could walk into a room full of friends and not speak more than ten words.
Leaving suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. She’d almost made it three steps when she felt it. That sensation of being watched.
Against her better judgement, she glanced back. Molly was looking directly at her. Their eyes met.
Molly’s smile faded into surprise. Ashley immediately looked away. But it was too late to play pretend.
When she looked back again, Molly was already making her way through the crowd.
‘Brilliant,’ Ashley muttered.
A minute later, Molly stopped in front of her. For a second, neither of them spoke.
The last time Ashley had seen her had been on a devastating FaceTime call five years ago. Now they stood beneath fairy lights with plastic cups in their hands, pretending they were warm acquaintances.
‘Ashley. Shit. You’re here.’
‘That’s correct,’ Ashley said. No devastatingly witty second sentence presented itself.
Molly gave a small, nervous smile. ‘It’s been a while.’
‘Yeah.’
Wow, Ashley really was killing this.
‘How have you been?’ Molly asked.
Ashley nearly laughed at the idea of an honest answer to that. As if she could say: ‘Not brilliant, actually. My album underperformed, my ex developed a meth habit, and I’m starting to wonder if I’m a hack.’
Instead, she settled for, ‘Good.’
Molly’s expression suggested she didn’t believe her. She probably knew everything. That was the worst part of fame. Exes knowing when your life blew up. Particularly this ex.
