“Love?” she gasps while finally relinquishing her hold on me.
“Yes, love. Now act like you have a little dignity, and please don’t make me forcefully remove you from me.”
She puffs up, and then she shakes her head before following me out. Just as the door shuts behind us, Ash is standing there, eyes wide, tears glistening. Her lips tighten into a thin, almost nonexistent line as she stares in disbelief.
“Ash, this isn’t what it looks like,” I blurt out like a cliché cheating bastard, even though I technically wouldn’t be cheating.
It sure as hell feels like it would be cheating, and with the way she’s looking at me right now, she feels like I just cheated.
“Um, it’s fine. I was just going to go tell Melanie goodnight, but I think I’ll get another drink and check on my son instead,” she says, suddenly acting as though the shock of me exiting a dark room with a girl just sobered her up.
Camille slips away without clarifying the fact I turned her down, and Ash rushes away before I can defend myself anymore. Bity and Shannon are still holding Trip, and I see Ash kissing his cheek as I walk up.
“Can I please talk to you?”
“Tag, you don’t owe me anything. Just enjoy the party. Go open some presents your friends got you.”
“What’s going on?” Bity chirps.
“Camille Rags pulled me into a room, and I turned her down. Ash thinks something else happened.”
“Camille is here? I thought I saw one of your other trophies here as well,” Bity adds. “I need to start carrying Trip around. Apparently he’s a little chick magnet.”
Shannon elbows him in the ribs, and he laughs hard. Ash doesn’t seem amused though. She seems colder, more distant - even worse than earlier when we arrived.
“Can we please go talk?”
“Actually, I think I’m going to get one of the guys to drive me and Trip back. He feels a little warm. He’s not used to so much socializing,” she says dismissively, now sounding completely sober.
She takes Trip from Shannon’s grip, and then she starts walking toward the door, the broken pieces of her heart barely hanging on to her sleeve. She really does care, but she doesn’t believe me.
“Ash, I have no reason to lie to you. Please don’t run off into the night with my son. I want you here.”
She whirls around and takes a step very close to me as she stares me in the eyes.
“You want me here? Tag, you don’t even want to be in the same damn room with me. Just forget it. You have the right to fuck anyone you want. You’re a father, not a husband.”
She whips back around and walks away, leaving me standing in the middle of a bunch of gaping mouths.
“I guess that means you’re up for grabs,” a girl says, but I don’t even turn to see who it is as I rush out to follow the girl I love.
“Ash,” I yell. “Ash, stop, please.”
She doesn’t stop, instead, her pace quickens as she rushes to escape my grasp. She runs over to one of the guards, and he nods as he walks away, leaving her alone in the courtyard.
Melanie walks up to talk to her, and I prop up against the wall as I stare at her hopeles
sly. I didn’t even mean to fuck up this time.
***
Ashiara
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable!
I’ve been getting shunned for weeks because I tried to keep him from having to be a responsible adult - which I once didn’t think he could ever be. Now, right when I think we’re making ground, he fucks some random girl at our son’s party. I was apparently in that damn bed for longer than I thought.
“We’re almost there, Ms. Branderwood.”