CHAPTER 16
Ash
Of course, she didn’t even make it home before the texts started rolling. She’d barely thanked Maggie for the six millionth time for the ride home and walked in the door when her brother called.
Jason never called.
It was like he was physically incapable of actually dialing a phone.
“What the hell is going on over there? Ash! Your reunion is all over the internet. It’s gone viral, four hundred thousand views already!”
“Oh my god. Oh no.” Ash sunk down on the couch and put her head in her hands. Her fist still ached from where she’d planted it in Trace’s face.
“Why did you hit him? What the fuck is going on? You told off all those people, but why? What happened? Did someone try something? Say something? No, let me rephrase that. They must have said a lot of something to make you react that way. What did Trace do? You bloodied his face! Do I have to come there and kick his ass? Was he secretly an asshole?”
“No! God, you don’t know? Trace? As in the Trace? He’s a fucking billionaire. He owns some health food shit.”
“Supplements and vitamins,” Jason said dryly.
“Whatever,” Ash moaned. She remembered Trace saying something about it at dinner the night before.
“Ummm, Ash, I hate to break it to you, but we figured out who he was right after you guys left. I thought- I just thought you knew. I mean, you were dating the guy. Mom and dad thought you didn’t tell us because it would be awkward. And it’s not like it matters or anything. Uh- well, maybe we would have been weird. That’s why they thought you kept it to yourself.”
“What? No! I’m so stupid,” she whined. She wanted to facepalm herself at the moment, she was that dense. She couldn’t believe she’d actually hit Trace. He didn’t really deserve it, she’d just reacted blindly. She was completely humiliated. Her worst nightmare had just happened, and he was the one who she punished. “I was the only one on earth who didn’t know who he was.”
“Maybe there was a good reason he didn’t tell you.”
“Yeah, because I was some joke to him. This whole thing was a joke. I started out by asking him if he’d be my fake boyfriend for this reunion. I- I never expected him to say yes. He was on an online dating site for shit sakes and not a good one. Like, I pay ten dollars a month to join. If he has all that money, what the hell was he doing on there? And why would he even respond to me when clearly, he could get any woman he wants? It was a set up. He’s probably some eccentric bastard who gets his rocks off on making people think he’s helping them and then pulling the rug out from underneath them.”
“Uh- judging from the look on his face in that video even before you hit him, I don’t think that’s the case. He looked pretty upset. He was running after you, trying to get you to listen to something. And then, bam, you flattened him!”
“Bam. You know, normally it would be funny. If this was a comic. I can see me decking him with the sound effects and the big BAM bubble and then WHAM and all that, but god, it’s not funny. It’s not some comic. This is my life. He’s probably going to sue me, and I’ll go to jail, since there is evidence that I really did hit him.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s not going to press charges.”
“How would you know?” she snapped. She regretted it right after. Jason, for once in his life, was just trying to help. He was trying to be a good brother and she was making it pretty damn hard on him.
“I- well- he looked- devastated after he picked himself up. I watched the video probably twenty times-”
“Jason!”
“No, really. I watched you a couple times, and damn, you’re impressive. Now when I want to impress a chick, I’ll tell her that my sister is a romance writer and that she’s the one who decked Trace and stood up to her whole class of asshats.”
“Fuck you, Jason. Seriously. Right up the ass.”
“Lord no. Don’t even say that to me. It puts horrible mental images into my head.”
Ash made a growling noise that wasn’t exactly feminine. Hell, it didn’t even sound human. “I’m so not in the mood for the normal perverted banter, in case you didn’t realize. Never mind fuck you. I’ve just fucked myself over big time. I’ve ruined my own life. God, this night couldn’t get any worse, even if Trace did decide to press charges.”
The line went silent for a few seconds, but Ash knew it wouldn’t last. It wasn’t in her brother’s nature to let her get the last word in. “You could always, you know, text him and apologize or something.”