Ex Games

Eva slid her hand in Aaron’s, smiling despite the uneasiness on his face. I felt it, too. I didn’t know what it was, but I couldn’t help feeling oddly nervous about whatever Eva was about to say.

“Well, I heard it’s a tougher pregnancy when you’re carrying a boy, and I just feel it in my heart that that’s what I’m going to have – a boy,” Eva said dreamily, perching her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand. “And when I do, I already have the name picked out for him.” She turned her big, innocent eyes to me. “It’s going to Nolan.”

The screech of my chair pushing out from under the table deafened me. Everyone else, too – I could tell from the wave of audible cringes. I wanted to apologize but the blood was draining fast from my face and my heart was beating out of my chest as I stormed as far from the table as possible, as fast as my feet could bear to take me. I felt instantly sick to my stomach, disgusted with Eva but than that, loathing Aaron for not only leaving me but telling his new fiancée all about the baby I named after the teacher who helped me get to New York – the baby I had lost to the most horrific pain of my life. God, I mean how did that conversation even go? “By the way, the girl I left you for carried my child for almost three months but then we lost it and it sucked but hey, now I’m with you.” I could barely manage to talk about what happened to even the closest people around me, and yet Aaron blithely told the woman he abandoned me for. And not only was she able to live with taking him from me despite what we went through, she was able to throw it back in my face for the cheap sake of hurting me, forcing me to cry in front of a table of strangers.

There was a lot I could take, but I couldn’t stand that.

And I was done here. I was so incredibly ready to go home.

My heart was pounding out of my chest as I continued away with no direction at all. I had stormed my way to some hallway strewn with flowers when I heard the footsteps behind me. I expected Mason and Aaron, but I suspected I heard even Sofia as well. When I finally spun around I confirmed all three including Noah, who pulled Sofia back to let the brothers rush forward to me.

“I’m sorry,” Aaron blurted hastily, horror in his eyes. “That was disgusting. I didn’t know she would say that. I swear, I didn’t think she could possibly – ”

“I don’t care about her!” I yelled at him, Mason containing my fury with one arm wrapped around me. I tried powering through his grip to scream straight in Aaron’s face but there was no chance of that against his strength, so I simply glared through tears at the man I couldn’t even remember loving anymore. “You did this. You made all these choices. You proposed to me, you left me, you didn’t have the heart to tell me, but you did tell your new girl about our baby boy,” I hissed, watching my words cut like blades through Aaron. “And you know what, I expect her to hate me. Even if I weren’t with Mason, I would expect her to want to cut me down at least a little, so her behavior is of no surprise to me – but you? I would’ve thought that despite all the shit you’ve pulled on me, you’d still be a good enough person to keep at least Nolan between the two of us, but you’re not.” I was breathless, panting. Aaron was already crying, but I cruelly went on. “I don’t know. Maybe we just didn’t deserve him, Aaron. But whatever it is, I’m done so much as looking at you. I’m done letting you hurt me and I’m moving the hell on, so I urge you to do that too. Enjoy your life with Eva – you deserve each other.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Breathe.

Remember. Forget.

Breathe.

It was an odd mantra and it wouldn’t make sense to anyone else, but it made sense to me and it helped my heartbeat return to normalcy within an hour on the plane. I just needed to breathe in, remember what I had now, how it was worlds better than what I had in the past, then breathe out.

After all, nothing had actually changed. Nothing from before the brunch with Aaron and Eva had changed except for the fact that I now knew my ex was actually worse than I imagined. But that didn’t matter. He was my ex. My past. And I was moving on. I only cried because it was a cheap shot. But that was how cheap shots worked, and everyone had one – that weak spot that could break them down no matter how happy or content they might be. That just so happened to describe me now to a tee: perfectly happy and content, but with a bruise in my soul that wouldn’t fail to hurt if you poked it. It was never going to go away, but I was sure that over time, the pain of the bruise would heal and that I could more than live with.

“God, I can’t wait to just be home,” I said tiredly, my head resting against Mason as we sat on the couch across from the leather seats Sofia and Noah lounged in. While Sofia was very much awake, Noah was unsurprisingly asleep, Mason halfway there himself

. But he stayed awake to make sure I was breathing steady again, occasionally burying kisses in my hair.

“Neither can I,” he murmured. “But we still have four days after this.”

“Four days of what?”

“Your time off,” he replied, reminding me that I could very well fit an actual vacation in before returning to work at Vandermark. Across from me, Sofia looked up from her phone to laugh at my look of pleasant astonishment.

“And she’s back,” she snorted. “Quick, Mase. Brainstorm some places to go and maybe she’ll even smile.”

I laughed, prompting her and Mason to cheer and stir Noah with irritation from his sleep. “Goddamnit. What’s happening?” he muttered, pulling the hood of his sweater over his eyes.

“We’re contemplating a real vacation,” Sofia answered. “Like, one where Mason and Taylor aren’t there to stop a wedding and cause brouhaha all over the place.”

Noah rubbed his eyes. “I don’t know, I like brouhaha. In moderation. It’s not bad with mezcal.”

Everyone stopped. Mason stared hard for three seconds then squinted at Noah. “What in the actual hell are you talking about?” he asked with such seriousness I had to snort against his chest.

Sofia lifted Noah’s hood up from his eyes, studying him with a combination of irritation and concern. “We’re talking about how we don’t want drama during our next vacation, you drunk. That’s what brouhaha means. What were you thinking?”

“Oh, I thought it was a liqueur.”

“That’s Kahlua, you idiot.”

I nearly choked from laughing at Sofia’s harshness, and at Noah as he sat up and frowned groggily, searching his own head for reasons why he’d confuse those two words. I was smiling so hard my cheeks actually hurt, but I welcomed this pain because it was the first step toward moving on – to the next chapter of my life where hopefully, I’d see more of Noah’s unintentional comedy because I’d be spending more time with his best friend. Looking up at Mason, I smiled, enjoying the angle of his gorgeous face while leaning against his chest. I stared at those high cheekbones, that square jaw – all the sharply carved lines that composed his striking features. I considered their symmetry was what made his crooked grin so stunningly sexy when he finally glanced down at me again.

“So what do you think?” he asked, pushing my hair behind my ear.

“Of what?”