“Do you want to talk about it?” Ash asked.
Kallie’s eyes dimmed and he wanted to take his fist and plow it right through her ex’s face.
“It is what it is,” Kallie said. “My maid of honor went to go find him to see if he was ready for the ceremony, and she found him in a broom closet.”
She shrugged, but I knew there was more to it than that.
“You know he tried to apologize?” she asked.
“Really? For fucking your bridesmaid in a broom closet?” Ash asked.
“Yeah. That was after my father threatened to castrate him, the priest begged everyone to keep their voices down, and his mother called me a gold-digging whore.”
My eyebrows rose all the way to my hairline.
“You. A gold digger.”
“Apparently so,” Kallie said with a sigh. “And to tell you the truth? It’s not the first time I’ve been called that. His friends accused me of it when we were first dating. Because I don’t come from money and he came from very old money.”
Ash nodded, but in the back of his mind he wondered if he knew the family. Old money always knew old money, and his family was old money as well.
“This was supposed to be our honeymoon,” she said. “But it wasn’t refundable. Already bought and paid for by him, with all the bells and whistles. My maid of honor figured ‘why not?’ and the next day I was on a plane alone hurtling in the sky toward what should’ve been my honeymoon. That’s why you saw the bouquet of flowers like you did.”
“I’m sorry,” Ash said.
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s not fine, but it will be fine. I’ve been on the island for only a few days and I’ve experienced so much I never did with him. Beauty and pleasures and experiences and foods.”
Ash watched as Kallie blushed, her gaze fluttering to his before falling back to her bowl. He grinned inside. His chest puffed with pride. Already he was better than her ex. Better than some douchebag that had made this beautiful creature in front of him feel worthless.
“Good. That’s how you deserve to feel,” he said.
“Though I’m debating on going back early.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I’m just ... embarrassed. I’m okay until I spot another happy couple, and it throws me back to reality. It hurts. Not because I still love him, but because...”
Ash watched her gaze grow far off and he knew what she was thinking.
“You saw a future that’s no longer possible,” he said.
“Yeah. We weren’t perfect, but no couple is. He had his faults and I have plenty. But we compromised and made it work. I saw kids, and grandkids, and a house we would all live in and love one another in. I saw my career flourishing and us growing old together. I saw it with him. And I’m mourning that because it’ll never happened. It’s a life I dreamed of. A life I banked on. And it was ripped away from me within the span of minutes.”
“What do you do for work?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“You mentioned your career. What do you do for work?”
“Oh. Um ... I’m sort of a professional organizer.”
“Don’t tell me you buy into that feng shui stuff. I’m going to have to take my soup back if you do.”
Kallie giggled, and it was the sweetest sound to ever grace his ears.
“No. I help frazzled people organize their lives. I help them with bills. Budgets. Their calendars and schedules. Sometimes they’ll invite me into their home and I’ll redecorate and make better use of their space, but not the feng shui-type of stuff. I help people who aren’t good at managing their lives, well, manage their lives.”
“How did you fall into that passion?” Ash asked.