Shit. I’ve been truly ghosted, and it drives me up the wall and makes me want to scream. What the hell? It’s been the best three months I’ve had in a long time, and I thought she felt the same way, but obviously not.
As I pace the floor of the living room, my emotions get worked up again and I literally break into a sweat. I deserve to know what’s going on right? Behavior like this is immature and childish.
With that, I grab my jacket and bolt out the door. My sports car is downstairs, and within minutes, I’m in the low-slung vehicle and on my way to New Jersey.
An hour later, I pull into a somewhat dilapidated neighborhood with grey, saggy buildings and cracked concrete. I’ve actually never been to Monroe Township and for good reason too. There are potholes in the asphalt, and the grass outside is all either dead or overgrown. This is definitely not where my girlfriend belongs, and I’m going to move her out of her asap.
But right now, there are more important things to address than the landscape. With angry bounds, I leap up the stairs to the third floor and knock angrily on the door to her apartment. There’s no answer and I pound even louder a second time.
“Carolyn!” I growl. “Open up!”
For a moment, there’s no noise but then the door cracks open just a sliver. God, she’s gorgeous standing there in her sweats with no make-up on. Her hair is in a loose, messy bun, and I can tell my sweet woman wasn’t planning on having anyone over today. For an infinitesimal moment, I forget about my anger completely and just want to kiss her until she sighs. But then I remember.
No, I growl to myself. You came here for a reason. Focus.
“Preston?” Carolyn frowns. “What are you doing here?”
I step past her into her apartment without being invited in, and she gasps.
“I want to know what’s going on,” I demand. “You’ve been ignoring me all week and who the fuck does that? I thought we were a couple.”
She won’t meet my eyes, instead staring at the floor. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
I glare at her.
“Sorry? Is that all I get? What did I do that made you so upset you had to ghost me? Seriously, who even does that? Are you fifteen or something?”
Carolyn’s still avoiding my eyes as she gestures to the couch.
“Please sit,” she says in a wooden voice. “I’m happy to explain, Preston.”
Still glaring, I take a seat on the mud-colored loveseat, which is small and uncomfortable. She sits beside me, staring straight ahead and says, “I talked to Zora.”
I shake my head.
“So? My daughter’s been on vacation and then she moved apartments, so she’s been busy. But I swear, Carolyn, I didn’t tell her anything about us,” I insist. “As far as I know, she’s still in the dark.”
Carolyn takes a deep breath to calm herself before shaking her head. “No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
Carolyn stares straight ahead for a moment before jerking her chin around to meet my eyes. “She told me about the other women, Preston.”
“Other women?” I ask, confused. “There are no other women, Carolyn. I’m only seeing you. Why would you even think that?”
My girlfriend cuts me off, her gaze steely.
“No, it’s not that I think you’re cheating. It’s something else entirely. Zora told me you’ve dated young women in the past, and that you got them pregnant. But even worse, when you found out they were pregnant, you forced them to terminate their pregnancies. Is that true?”
Oh shit, I knew this was going to come back to bite me some day. Goddamn that stupid Scarlet! I’m never getting involved with an actress again.
“It’s not like that,” I say in a low, urgent voice. “Let me explain.” Carolyn gives one small nod and I press forward. “You know I’ve been divorced from Renee for about ten years now, right?”
Carolyn nods.
“Zora’s mom, right?”
I nod.
“Yes, and after the divorce, I was having a rough time. I’d never planned on being single again, and I was angry at Renee for walking out on me and her daughter like we meant nothing to her. I made some bad decisions, and yeah, I started hitting up strip clubs and massage parlors. I’m not proud of this, but I knocked up a stripper who swore up and down that she’d been using birth control. She said that if she had the baby, she wouldn’t be able to work, so we decided together that it would be best to terminate.”
Carolyn looks confused.
“Holy shit. So this was the first woman? Scarlet Linklater was the second?”
I shake my head slowly.
“No, Scarlet was that stripper. She cleaned up her act and was able to get into the movie business later, but when she started out, she was a stripper. That’s why I never refuted any of her claims. I don’t want to blow her cover even though it’s been years, and I don’t want to embarrass her either.”