“Whoops,” Eris said.
“Guess we were a little loud,” Kallie said.
“I’m ready for this food. It’ll be enough to sober us up so we can club hop until we can’t feel our ankles.”
“I’m just hungry. I don’t think I’ve eaten all day.”
“No wonder that half a bottle of wine did you in.”
“And the four drinks I had at the bar we just left.”
“Only four?” Eris asked. “Weenie.”
Kallie rolled her eyes as the vibrating of her phone caught her attention. She reached in and pulled it out, watching as James’s name scrolled across the screen. She glanced at Eris, who was too busy looking at a man who had come to stand in the corner with them, so she opened up the text message and read it.
I miss you. I’ve never been lonelier in my life than when you left. I love you, princess. Please come home.
“What the hell is this?” Eris asked.
She ripped the phone from Kallie’s hands and began to read the message.
“Eris, stop it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Give me my phone,” Kallie said.
“Right. Yeah. Well, don’t believe him, princess.”
Kallie frowned as she closed out the message and shoved her phone into her purse. If she didn’t get the phone away from Eris, her friend would surely type some sort of snotty reply back. The guy in the corner was gone and their food was set in front of them, but Kallie no longer felt like eating.
She felt conflicted, and it was clouding her judgment.
“Okay. I know that look. Talk to me,” Eris said.
“Why? So you can judge me for it?”
“No. So I can talk some sense into you and remind you the type of twat your ex-fiancé is.”
“Look, James isn’t perfect, okay? I know that. You know that. He knows that. We all know that. But we were compatible. I wouldn't have agreed to marry him otherwise. Our life paths? They converged well. We had the same goals. The same aspirations. The same passions. We worked, Eris. For years. I wouldn’t have accepted his proposal if we didn’t work.”
“And then he fucked your bridesmaid.”
“Eris.”
“What? It’s true. Thirty minutes before you were supposed to walk down the aisle I opened that damn closet door and saw that bitch on her knees with his cock in her mouth.”
“Stop it,” Kallie said.
“No. I’m not. Because you need to hear this. For every woman you catch, there are at least two you don’t. This isn’t a one-off for James. It never is. They indulge and indulge until they get caught. Then they beg for forgiveness. Like he’s doing right now.”
Kallie didn’t even want to tell Eris about James’s admission of other women. It would only prove her point. Eris slid her arm around Kallie and pulled her close, and Kallie let her head fall onto her friend’s shoulder. Princess. He hadn’t called her that in years. It was his nickname for her when they’d first started dating and she loved it. Hoped it would one day make a comeback when their futures were bright and not so tense, stressed, and pulled to their limits.
“I loved being called his princess,” Kallie said.
“I know you did. And he knows that too. I understand. I know you don’t think I do, but I do. I’ve been in love a couple of times, and I know what women are willing to sacrifice to keep it.”
“What did you sacrifice?” Kallie asked.
She sat up and looked into her friend’s eyes while eating the food set in front of her.
“You remember that guy from my junior year? Dax?”
“The guy with the motorcycle. Right?”
“That’s the one. I was in love with that boy, Kallie.”
“I didn’t know that. Why didn’t I know this?”
“Because I compromised a lot to be with him. We always did what he wanted and always went where he wanted to go. He told me about classes I needed to take and classes I needed to stay away from. I listened to his every whim because I was entranced by his muscles and his steely gray eyes and his free-for-all attitude.”
“Eris. Why don’t I know about this?” Kallie asked.
“Because I did the worst thing of my life because he asked me to.”