“What?” he asked.
“She called me a prude and accused me of always judging her for the life she led. She said I would have turned my nose up at her for sleeping with her boss behind your back, which I would have.”
“Anyone would have.”
“Not the point. The point is that I would have. She said the only thing I would have seen was her cheating and not the happiness her boss brought into her life. I said it was because she was cheating, and she yelled that I had no right to judge her on that.”
“Ava, you can’t listen to stuff like that.”
“But I can. She had points, Logan. She wasn’t just rattling off stupid stuff to make me upset. She brought up another good point. When she told me she got the job at the strip club a few years back, I ended up lecturing her on how she was better than that type of job, that she could bartend anywhere. It didn’t have to be at a strip club. It never once occurred to me that she wanted to bartend at a strip club, Logan.”
“Ava, that’s miniscule stuff.”
“But it credits her reason for not telling me about all this stuff that was going on. She said—” Tears crested my eyes, and I hung my head. “She said you were the only man she’d ever dated that I didn’t have a negative opinion about, so she partially kept you around to keep me off her back.”
The table fell silent, and I swore I felt my heart breaking.
“She said a lot of other things, but that’s what sticks in my head the most. The argument wrapped up after she called me a few more things that don’t matter in the long run. Then I left to go find you, and I got to the bar just in time to hear Hunter giving you a pep talk.”
“Oh, shit,” he said.
“Yeah. That’s one way to put it.”
“But if you heard us, you heard me tell him that he was full of shit.”
“I did.”
“And you still left?”
“Logan, maybe they have a point—Hunter and Camilla.”
“Maybe my player best friend and my bitter ex have a point?” he asked.
“Yeah. I mean, that wasn’t the only point Camilla made that stuck with me. It was just the one that hurt the most.”
“What else did she say?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said.
“It does to me.”
“Logan, please don’t—”
“What else did she say to you, Ava?”
“She said that she and I were alike, because in the beginning, I kept going back to you because of how good you were in bed.”
I finally opened my eyes and found Logan’s stare, but all I saw was hurt and apprehension.
“She said what?” he asked.
“She said she and I weren’t so different because, in the end, there was at least one small window of time when I went back to you because of what we shared physically and not what we shared, you know, at any other point in time.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t know what to say, Logan, because she had a point. In the very beginning, I think both of us gravitated toward one another simply because the sex was good.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” he asked.
“When I’m accusing Camilla of using you for sex and nothing else? Yes, Logan, it is.”
Logan fell back in his chair as he rubbed his hands down his thighs.
“I don’t look down on you for something like that, if you’re wondering,” he said.
“My point with all this is that Camilla made some apt observations.”
“She didn’t do anything of the sort, Ava.”
“Yes, she did, and that’s what sucks about admitting it. We want to think she’s saying all this in some jealousy-fueled rage, but just because it’s angry doesn’t mean it’s not true. And I can only wonder if what Hunter said to you has any merit.”
“Which part?” he asked curtly.
“The part about me being nothing but a rebound and you needing to be single and focus on yourself.”
“Well, that’s easy to answer. No. Hell no!”
“Logan, don’t be so quick to write off your friend. He knows you really well, just like Camilla knows me well, even though I don’t like it.”
“Camilla will say anything to get under your skin, and Hunter’s the same way. He just wants a wingman back for Friday and Saturday nights. He doesn’t care about how I feel in this situation.”
“Well, I do, and I think he’s right,” I said.
Logan’s jaw dropped in shock as I stood up.
“Ava, where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, Logan, but Camilla and Hunter are right. I’m a hypocrite and a rebound, and you need to focus on you.”
“No, you’re not. You’re not going anywhere right now. Ava!”
I turned to leave, and his hand come down on my arm. So commanding, so warm, so controlling, but in all the ways I craved from a man like him.