Ashton Scott

“Jessica.”

“Ah,” he murmurs, leaning back. “She told you I called her last night?”

“Yes. And I’m telling you now that you need to leave the past in the past. It’s been five years since you two broke up. Why all of a sudden do you wa

nt to bring it back up with her?”

“We never did get closure. I thought it was time to try.”

“Closure? Fuck, do you think she needs that now? If she ever needed it, five years ago would have been good. But you didn’t stop and think back then. You just moved on to the next woman, never looking back to see how broken Jessica was. She worked through all of that and got the closure she needed. So if you need it now, you find it on your own without her.”

Annoyance flashes across his face and he reaches for his glass of whisky. After he drains it, he says, “It’s this new shrink you’ve got me going to. She’s forcing me to face the shit in my past that still haunts me.”

“Jesus, Jack, leave Jessica out of it. You’ve got a lot of other shit in your past, focus on that instead.”

He takes that in like he always does. Jack’s a good listener, but he doesn’t always process things the way I imagine he will. This time, however, he nods and says, “Okay, Ashton, we’ll play this your way. I’ll leave Jessica out of it.”

I scrub my hand over my face.

Thank fuck.

“When are you seeing the psych again?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Have you told her you’re drinking heavily?”

“I told her I was working on cutting back.”

“You need to work harder at that.” My patience with him is wearing thin.

He scowls at me. “Perhaps I should cancel my appointments with her and book in with you?”

“What you should do is start taking this seriously. Mixing alcohol with your medication is a fucked-up move and you know it.”

“I do, but I’m getting a little sick of hearing what I should be doing from everyone. I’m quite capable of living my own life and making my own decisions.”

I stand to leave. Being with him while he’s in this mood is only making me angry. “Are you? Because it doesn’t seem like it to me.”

As I stalk out of the bar, I dig deep not to lose my cool. I don’t understand Jack’s behaviour. This isn’t something new in our friendship, but it’s something I’m growing tired of. Watching my best friend unravel like this is hard. I thought getting him to Australia and finding him the psychological help he needed would be enough. It seems this time it isn’t. And not knowing how to fix a situation isn’t something I’m good at. I always know how to fix problems.

25

Lorelei

“I’ve decided I like Ashton Scott,” Sienna says to me over drinks at the bar down the road from the Willow Street building late Thursday afternoon.

“What’s he done to earn your approval?” Images of him from last night flash through my mind as I wait for her answer. Him sitting in my kitchen in his pinstripe suit; him passing me a cupcake; him telling me how it was going to go down between the two of us. I hardly slept after he left. Instead, I tossed and turned, replaying our conversation over and over in my head, wondering how to proceed. In the end, I decided to play along with him. He can have my body, because I want that as much as he does. My heart, though, will just wait and see.

She sips her daiquiri. “I dropped my nephew off at soccer and Ashton was there coaching again. In my opinion, any man who gives up his time to help kids is a man worth knowing.”

My heart melts at the mention of Ashton coaching kids.

When I don’t say anything, she nudges me. “Well? Don’t you agree?”

I sigh. “He came to see me last night.”

Her eyes widen. “You’ve gone all day without telling me this news? You better start talking and spill everything. Do not leave any detail out.”