“I want to talk to you and was politely waiting until you were done,” I said.
“Oh, is that what you were doing? Or were you spying on me like Logan always did?”
“I’m not here to fight, though I’ve got plenty of ammunition. I want to talk. And since you didn’t meet me at the restaurant, I figured I’d bring the talk to you.”
“I got caught up in something.”
“Drop the lies, Camilla. I know you intentionally stood me up, just like you intentionally stood Logan up when the two of you were supposed to go shopping. And now that your boss has walked away from the back room, why don’t you take an actual break and come sit with someone you claimed as a friend at one point?”
She looked behind her as her boss stalked off to the other side of the club. He was clearly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten laid, and I didn’t give a shit. Camilla panned her glaring gaze back to me, and I grinned at her as I sipped on my drink. She wasn’t wiggling out of this conversation. We were going to say what we needed to say, and then whatever happened would happen.
“Fine. You want to talk? We’ll talk. Yes, you were my friend, Ava, my best friend. But best friends don’t sleep with their best friend’s exes,” Camilla said.
“You spent the last two months of your relationship cheating on him with your boss, Cam. Do you really expect me to believe you still have feelings for Logan?”
“Feelings don’t matter. It’s the principal of the thing. You broke girl code. That’s sacred shit.”
“So you don’t want to be a decent person, but at least you have the girl code right?”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You fucked your boss for a raise, Cam. You cheated on a good man because you wanted more money. And then you left Logan because your boss could give you more money than he could.”
“Are you calling me a gold digger?”
“Yes, I am, and I still love you. You’re still my lifelong friend. But you’re a gold digger, and I’m not going to allow you to dance all over me, stand me up, and run me through the ringer on the premise of a girl code violation. Not when you’re out here switching men whenever someone with more money comes along and catches your attention.”
I drew in a deep breath as Camilla gritted her teeth.
“For your information, I was only with Logan for his money,” she said.
I narrowed my eyes at her as she leaned closer.
“I’m with my boss because I enjoy him, and not just his wallet—though it’s a pretty nice one he doesn’t mind using, unlike Logan by the way. He was tight as a tick throughout our entire relationship.”
“So you got pissed off at me for sleeping with him when you were really only using him for his money.”
“I got angry at you because you didn’t even wait a week before diving into my sloppy ass seconds,” she said.
I didn’t even wait two days, Camilla.
I shook the thought from my head. The last thing I needed was to make this situation worse than it already was. I was astounded by the things she was saying, and the more we talked, the more my heart ached for Logan. I had no pity for her, no sympathy, no respect. But him? I had all of that for him.
“He cared about you, you know,” I said.
“He only cared about the sex,” she said.
“No, he didn’t. We’d run into one another for lunches sometimes, and the entire time he’d gush about you, talk about how you were the best thing to ever come into his life, how you made him happy. And, yes, how good the sex was. But he never openly talked about that. He never spilled his sex life like you did.”
Camilla wavered slightly, pulling away from the bar.
“Logan is a good man. He was a good man for you, Cam.”
“Then I only have one question to ask you,” she said. Her eyes hardened on me, and I braced myself. “How does it feel to be nothing but the rebound girl?”
Her words were like knives to my heart. I’d been shocked to learn of her gold-digging ways, stunned by her blatant use of men for money and trinkets. But watching how much pleasure she got from making me speechless due to pain, seeing how proud she was of her words, I realized I was staring at a stranger.
“A nice little thought for you to ponder while you drink. I’ve got work to do. Nice chat, Ava. Hope you’ll stick around for the show. It’s one my boyfriend put together. It’s supposed to be a doozy.”
I felt as if I had been slapped and deprived of air as Camilla walked away. Her hips sashayed in that proud way they always did when she thought she had won a fight. I used to admire her for that walk, for the pride she took in standing up for herself, in beating other people down. I used to think they deserved it, that if they had incurred Camilla’s wrath, they must have done something to deserve it.