“You sure you don’t want me to buy you a lap dance? You seem a little tense.”
I wanted to smack the grin off the man’s face.
“Holy hell, Logan. Lighten up. I take it you didn’t find Camilla?”
“No. She said she was working, but I haven’t seen her at all. We’ve been here for two hours and she’s nowhere to be found.”
“Wait a second. Two hours? Man, time flies when you’re staring at titties.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously! I thought we’d only been here for, like, forty-five minutes or something.”
“You need a girlfriend.”
“What I need is to get you out of here before your head pops off and destroys this place. I would like to come back, you know.”
Hunter grabbed my arm and walked me out of the strip club. I looked back one last time. One last chance to see if Camilla was anywhere, but she wasn’t. She had lied to me. She had told me she was working and she wasn’t. She had told me we were going shopping and we hadn’t. She had left me standing outside some girly boutique for almost an hour before I bailed to try to get in touch with her.
“Didn’t you just see her this afternoon anyway?” Hunter asked as we got into my car.
“That’s the thing. She stood me up,” I said.
“She what?”
“Yeah. She gave me a time and a shop to meet her at. Then she just didn’t fucking show up.”
“Oh, Logan. That’s not good.”
“She’s had her nose stuck in her phone for weeks now. I take her out and I barely get two words out of her. The last date we went on, Ava turned up and sat down with us. I ended up talking with her more than I talked with Camilla!”
“Look, what I said back there was a joke, but Camilla is that type of girl.”
“She’s not cheating.”
“I don’t know, man. Always on her phone? Lying about work? Standing you up? That’s classic cheating behavior.”
“That’s classic ‘I don’t want to be with you anymore’ behavior.”
“Which leads free-spirited women like Camilla to cheat.”
He had a point, and it was a point I didn’t like. I white-knuckled my steering wheel before I sighed and pulled out my phone. I couldn’t let her onto my anger. If I did—if she knew I’d been to her work looking for her—she’d pull away even more. At least I figured she would. I pulled up a text message to Camilla and grew angrier when I saw our message history. Ten messages from me, all read, all ignored.
We need to talk.
I sent off the text message, then followed it up with a phone call. I backed out of the parking space in front of the strip club and grew more agitated with every ring that went unanswered. Where the hell was she? She was obviously okay. I had half a mind to call Ava and ask her where her best friend was, but I didn’t want to drag her into anything. This was between Camilla and me.
“At least you aren’t in love with her. Right?” Hunter asked.
I shoved the phone into my pocket and drove my friend back to his place. I didn’t say a word as he got out, and I drove home in silence. I checked my phone as I shoved my key into the door of my brownstone in Manhattan, grimacing at the text message.
It had been read, but I got no reply.
Throwing my phone on my couch, I stripped off my clothes. I left an angry trail of fabric behind me as I made my way up the stairs and into my bathroom. I showered, removing the glitter and smog from the strip club. I shook my head as Hunter’s little comment crept to the forefront of my mind.
Fuck.
Camilla was cheating on me.
I had no proof, but I knew it in my gut. I didn’t want it to be true, but I knew it was. I sighed and got out of the shower, not bothering to dry off. I dropped into bed before I reached for my cell phone, then groaned when I didn’t find it. I pulled myself downstairs, butt naked and dejected. Picking up my phone, I turned on the screen, then snickered when I saw I still didn’t have anything from Camilla.
My girlfriend, the cheater.
While I had no proof, I had my gut, and my gut had never steered me wrong as a lawyer. I had the evidence. I had the argument. I had everything I needed for a judge to rule in my favor. As I flopped into bed clutching my phone, the gavel came down in my mind.
Cheater.
I couldn’t believe I had been cheated on again.
Ava
I walked out of the shopping center with bags of clothes in my hands. I had two of the six things on my list checked off. I had a new outfit that made me look sexy, a pair of heels to match, and my first set of lacy lingerie, which was folded and stuffed into the cutest bag I had ever seen. I tossed everything into my trunk before heaving a heavy sigh. I had an appointment at a spa across town in an hour, and judging by the Sunday traffic, it would take me nearly that long to get there.