Okay. That’s awkward. Did she assume every female around Malcolm was someone he is sleeping with?
I turned my attention to the other girl. “Hey, I’m Ashley. Malcolm’s recent fuck buddy.”
My smiled dropped and Autumn jerked her head to look at her. “Ashley!”
She shrugged and said, “Well I am, I mean we’ve know each other for a while, but then we . . .” She looked back at me and smiled. “I mean we’re not anymore! I met someone and we started
dating.” She frowned as if regretting her loose lips. “Anyway, my brother is also Emmit Lewis.”
“The driver who retired,” I absentmindedly said while I tried to process everything that just came out of her mouth.
She pointed to me and said, “Yep! You know your NASCAR.”
A part of me instantly didn’t like Ashley. I wasn’t sure if it was because she made it very clear from the get-go she’d slept with Malcolm, or if it was because she was so amazingly beautiful. Why wouldn’t Malcolm be attracted to her? From the sounds of it she was more than a one-night stand. How much did this Ashley mean to Malcolm? Did he have feelings for her?
I shook my head. “No, I know nothing about NASCAR. Malcolm told me about him.”
“Oh.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss my lack of racing knowledge. “Don’t worry if you don’t know anything. Malcolm won’t care about that. I mean, even though it’s a huge part of his life, you can pick it up easily.”
My lack of NASCAR knowledge hadn’t even fazed me until she pointed it out. Autumn cleared her throat as my attention fell back on her. “So, this is kind of exciting. Malcolm hasn’t really had a friend since Cas . . . well I mean since high school he hasn’t really been with the same girl. Oh gosh.”
The air quotes around friend made me smile. It was obvious Autumn was younger than Malcolm. I wanted to ask her how old she was. She must have had her daughter young and most likely missed out on a lot of things girls her age did. My heart hurt for her knowing her husband up and left her and her daughter.
Ashley turned to Autumn and said, “Well besides me, but we weren’t dating.”
My eyes snapped back over to Ashley. This time I think it clicked to her what she had said because her face turned red. “Right. Because you were just fuck buddies,” I sneered.
“Um, I wasn’t meaning anything when I said that. I’m not used to someone being in his life seriously or at all really, and oh my God. I’m making this so much worse.”
I plastered on a fake smile. “No worries at all. Like I said, we’re just friends.” I reached down for my purse and placed it over my shoulder. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to take off.”
Autumn reached out and gently touched my arm. “You’re not staying for the race? We usually hang out in here and watch it.”
I looked between both girls. As much as I wanted to pretend like I didn’t want anything serious with Malcolm, the idea of sitting next to the girl he had been recently fucking didn’t seem like a good time to me.
“Thanks, but I don’t think so.”
Both girls stepped out of my way as I made my way to the door; opening it, I ran into Malcolm. “Hey. Where are you going?”
I felt like an idiot for how I was acting, but I couldn’t help it. For once in my life I felt something stronger than just a sexual attraction for a man, and I wasn’t sure I could do this. At least not right now. “I’m going to take off.”
Malcolm’s eyes immediately went to his sister and Ashley. “What happened?”
I placed my hands on his chest and quickly pulled them back when I felt the jolt of energy. He turned back to me and gave me a confused look. “Good luck on the race, Malcolm.”
Pushing my way past him, I quickly walked to where I had parked my car.
Ugh! I can’t believe I’m letting this bother me! What, am I sixteen again?
I picked up my pace, angry that I was letting something like this get to me. I didn’t even know Malcolm when he and Ashley were together. And what did it matter?
I shook my head to clear my thoughts.
“Paislie!”
The sound of Malcolm’s voice caused me to stop on a dime.
I plastered on my famously-practiced smile and turned to face him. He was jogging up and stopped right in front of me. “I’m sorry about Ashley. I have no idea what in the hell she said to you, but I can see it made you feel uneasy.”