Chapter 29
Julia
Ifound my things dumped in front of my apartment just as Leonna promised. It wasn’t like I had anything particularly valuable at work. Just a couple of mugs, plus a framed picture of Winona and me at my high school graduation. My fancy Cross fountain pen was notably absent from the collection, but I wasn’t about to go crawling back to the office to ask about it.
A thin layer of dust covered every available surface. My bookshelves, the top of the tv, my small dinner table in the kitchen with only one chair. My houseplants were all dead or dying, so I figured the kid on the fourth floor I paid didn’t keep her promise to come water them.
There was nothing in the fridge except a questionably old container of sour cream and a half-empty jug of orange juice. I was about to reach for my drawer full of takeout menus but decided against it. I wasn’t that hungry, anyway . In fact, I hadn’t been able to keep any food down since this whole ordeal started.
I chalked it up to the stressful last couple of days I’d had. My nerves were shot.
Please don’t run away.
Guilt tore through me.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever break up with someone over the phone. I was the kind of person who judged others for that kind of behavior. It was cowardly, impersonal. But I couldn’t face them after everything that happened.
Every time I was anywhere near Dylan, Cash, or Red, things only seemed to get ten times worse.
I love you, Julia.
I trembled at the memory, doing my best not to think about how broken Cash sounded in my ear. I couldn’t understand how everything went so wrong so fast.
A part of me really wanted to return to Vegas, to be by his bedside when he woke up from his surgery. But the memories of flashing lights, people shoving their cameras in my face, and surrounding me on all sides like I was some rare spectacle made my whole body shake.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go back there no matter how much my heart pleaded with me to do so.
Unable to eat, I decided to go straight to bed. I curled up in my blanket, pulling it over my head. It was quiet in Salt Lake City. As I screwed my eyes shut and prayed for sleep to take me, I couldn’t stop thinking about how cold my bed was. I missed their warmth, the weight of their bodies pressed against mine.
I missed Dylan’s soft caresses, Red’s tender kisses, Cash’s sweet words.
This is for the best, I thought to myself.I’ve already made a huge enough mess.
I must have dozed off at some point because I was rudely awoken by the sound of my phone going off. It continued to blare until I managed to find the strength to answer.
“Julia!” Mom shrieked at me over FaceTime. “Where are you? We’ve been trying to reach you for days!”
“My phone was off,” I lied. The truth of the matter was that I’d been avoiding her calls like the plague. I was already dealing with enough. My overbearing mother was the last person I wanted to talk to right now.
“Come home this instant, young lady,” Dad snapped. “I knew this would happen. I just knew it, Darlene. Ever since she decided to go against becoming a lawyer, she’s been nothing but a handful.”
I frowned. “Me becoming a lawyer was your dream, Dad, not mine.”
“You’re in no position to talk back to us right now,” Mom said. “You’re all over the news!”
“I seriously doubt that. There are more important things happening in the world than my personal life.”
“Fine, you’re all overEntertainment Tonight. Everyone in Sunville knows what you’ve been up to now.” Mom shook her head in dismay. “Three men? And at the same time, no less! Good heavens, where did we go wrong, Hank?”
I sighed, frustrated. “How the hell did you make my problems aboutyou?”
“Come home,” Hank demanded. “I knew we should have kept a better eye on you. Now look at what you’ve become! Everybody knows what a slut you are.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. It was one thing to hear these horrible accusations from the press, but from my own parents?
“You can fuck right off,” I hissed.
“Excuse me?”