My brother starts to laugh, a wild, hysterical cackle.
‘Oh...she doesn’t know.’ He shakes his head. ‘My God, have you been playing us both? Getting Lauren money every which way?’
‘Ash?’
It’s a squeak now. My stomach is turning over. Bile is creeping up my throat and making it hard to breathe, to move, to think.
‘Coco...’
He turns in to me, his hands reaching to cup my upper arms, but I’m stumbling back, breaking away. ‘What does Philip mean?’
My brother sneers. ‘I’ll tell you what it’s about—’
‘Shut the fuck up, Lauren,’ Ash throws at him. ‘This is our business.’
Philip steps towards him. ‘Funny, that. Last time I checked I was paying you to dish the dirt on her.’
His words wash over me like ice and fire all at once. I think of Ash’s job. I think of what he’s paid to do. Then I think of the Ash who has made love to me, protected me. I can’t make them merge and my head starts to spin, my stomach lurches, and I know I’m going to vomit as I double over with a retch.
‘Coco...’
Ash bends to me, his hand gentle on my back, but I thrust him away. His touch burns me with betrayal.
‘Go! Get out of here! I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone.’
I push past them both, fighting through the tears to make out the route to the ladies’ room.
‘Coco, please let me explain—’
He’s hot on my heels but I can’t... I can’t... I can’t deal with this now.
I push through the lavatory door, but Ash doesn’t give up—he’s in there with me.
‘Get out,’ I say, turning to him and backing up against the sinks.
‘Please, Coco, I—’
A toilet flushes and an elderly lady steps out. She takes one look at me and the tall, foreboding man and swipes him with her handbag.
‘The lady said get out! We may be living in the modern age, but the ladies’ room still means it’s for ladies, you brute.’
His eyes look to me pleadingly. He’s barely aware of the woman shoving her little hand at him, her bag making repeated contact with his chest.
‘Please, Coco, you have to hear me out.’
My eyes water with a fresh wave of tears and I can’t even see him properly. He’s just a blurry outline as he relents to the pressure of my impromptu bodyguard and backs out.
I once saw him in that role. A bodyguard. A good man, exposing bad people for the benefit of the weak and vulnerable.
I had been the bad person in his eyes.
Philip was the good.
I turn to the sink as I hear the door open and then swoosh closed. There’s a muttered ‘Good riddance. That showed him, love. Now, are you okay?’
I shake my head. How can I be? I’ve avoided getting seriously involved with anyone because money is always the endgame—my family’s money and status. I fell for Ash because I thought he was different.
Turns out he wasn’t different at all. He was after Lauren money, just as every guy had been before him. And I was fool enough to fall for it.