Sonja’s eyes swept over Ash. She looked her up and down and dismissed her just as fast. Ash felt a growl form in her throat when Sonja’s eyes fixed on Trace. Her mouth literally dropped open. Ash nearly whirled to see what Trace was doing. What the hell could surprise Sonja? Maybe the fact that Ash had a man at all, but the way Sonja was breathing said that wasn’t it at all. She looked… excited. Like, really excited. Horribly excited.
Oh fucking no. What the hell is going on?
“You guys!” Sonja practically yelled the gym down. Her voice actually echoed in the confined space. Because Sonja apparently carried that much weight, Devon paused the music. The last notes faded away and silence settled over the gym. At least a hundred sets of eyes turned their way. How the hell had she failed to notice how full the gym really was and how many people entered since she got there?
Maggie let out a gasp beside her and Ash went rigid. The weird thing was, Trace did too. She felt him freeze beside her, straighten like someone shoved a rod up his spine.
“Oh my god! It’s- it’s Trace Russell. What the heck are you doing here?” Sonja’s eyes flicked back to Ash. “And with Ash Johnson of all people?” Sonja’s lips curled up in distaste when she said Ash’s name, like it left a disgusting taste in her mouth.
Ash wished it did. She searched her mind for something witty and snappy to say, for some kind of comeback, but she came up short. She totally blanked out. “Do you- do you know each other?” she asked carefully.
Sonja scoffed, because why not? She was Sonja and she’d always acted like she owned the whole world. “Who doesn’t know Trace Russell?” She waved the crowds over and by then, a circle had formed around them. People were practically climbing over each other to get a better look.
What the actual fuck?
Trace’s hand tightened around her arm and when she chanced a glance at him, she was shocked to see he’d gone completely pale. He looked far worse than he had the day before at her parent’s house when he was ill. He looked like he might actually puke. Good, that would serve them right, but what the hell was going on?
“It is Trace! Oh my god!” Lia Farthing said from a foot away. She pressed in and produced her cell out of the pocket of her black pants. “Can I get a selfie?”
“Trace! Oh my god, man, I go to your stores all the time. You’re a huge inspiration. You’re part of the whole reason I decided to ditch the way I was living and get in shape.” That came from Shane Hindle, a guy who had been probably fifty pounds heavier in high school. He was much leaner and did indeed look fit.
His comment started an entire firestorm around them.
“Is that really the Trace Russell”
“The guy who owns the health food stores?”
“No, not health food. They sell supplements and vitamins and stuff.”
“Like Trace, Trace? The billionaire Trace?’
“Oh my god, I need to get a picture. He was voted most eligible bachelor in Minnesota two years ago.”
“He’s so dreamy. Look at those eyes. And that hair. Oh my god!”
“Who did he come with? Ashton? It can’t be her…”
“Trace? What’s he doing here? Is he the speaker for this evening?”
“How did they hire him?”
“Why’s he talking to Ash Bash and Saggy Maggie?’
Ash had been plagued by nightmares about this damn reunion, but she never imagined that her entire world could implode so easily or so quickly. She stood there with the world’s dumbest look on a face that always could be read like an open book. She had no idea what was happening. Sonja must have got it wrong. But… but why would another person have the same first name?
Sonja’s eyes went wide, and her lips curled into that horrible smile that Ash knew and remembered so well. Her hope for humanity drained away as Sonja lifted one terrible blood red nail and pointed at her.
“She doesn’t know. Oh my god, she doesn’t even know who she’s with!”
It took a matter of seconds before the whole gym erupted in gales of laughter. People pointed at her and exclaimed how stupid she was, the girl who was dating a billionaire and didn’t even know it. It was like high school all over again, but worse. Because she’d never, ever, been the brunt of a joke that her entire fucking class was in on.
Ash gasped for breath. She felt like a fish that had been tossed out of water and was slowly dying because it couldn’t get the air it needed to survive. She did the first thing she could think of. She ran.
She tore through the throng of people gathered around, through those already taking photos of Trace and of her horrified, stunned expression. She raced out of the gym, and down the hall. Even in her heels, she ran like the devil was chasing her.