Frost (Frost and Nectar #1)(2)

Andrew swallowed hard, his whole body rigid with tension. “Ashley and I…we just have things in common, Ava. We have a future.”

I couldn’t breathe. How had I not seen this coming? My thoughts went silent, and there was only the feeling of my heart splitting open.

I hurled the vindaloo at him, and the plastic container hit the bedspread and instantly exploded.

Piping hot chicken and chilies sprayed all over them. Andrew and the girl screamed, and I wondered if I’d done something illegal. Could you be arrested for throwing hot curry at someone?

“What are you doing?” shouted Andrew.

“I don’t know! What are you doing?” I screamed back at him.

My gaze roamed over the room, taking in the laundry bin where our clothes lay mingled together.

For some reason, the thought of separating my laundry from his was more depressing than anything else. I always did the laundry and neatly folded it for him…would I be pulling my clothes out of the hamper and doing them at a laundromat?

Holy shit, where was I going to live now?

Andrew was wiping off the curry with the sheet. “You said I had a hall pass when I went on vacation. And the more Ashley and I got to know each other, the more I realized it was meant to be.”

“A hall pass?” I stared at him, the two of them hazy through the tears in my eyes. “I said I knew what a hall pass was. I didn’t say you had one. And you’re not on vacation.”

“I met Ashley on vacation. And I couldn’t help it. Her beauty called to me.”

I blinked and felt a tear running down my cheek. “The last time you went on vacation was nearly three years ago.”

Andrew shook his head. “No, Ava. You and I went to Costa Rica last winter, and you stayed in the room the whole time with a UTI. Remember?”

“You met her when we were on vacation?”

Andrew swallowed again. “Well, you weren’t exactly the most fun on that trip.”

Next to him, Ashley was frantically trying to wipe the hot curry off herself with one of my towels.

“This is really irritating my skin.”

Andrew blinked at me with puppy dog eyes. “Ava. I’m sorry. Obviously, this is just a miscommunication. I never meant to hurt you. But the heart wants what it wants.”

My throat felt tight, my chest aching. “What is wrong with you?”

“I-I was going to tell you…” he stammered. “We fell in love. And love is beautiful, isn’t it? Love should always be celebrated. Honestly, Ava, you should be happy for me. I’ve found my soulmate.”

He sighed dramatically. “Can you stop being selfish for a minute and think about this from my perspective?”

The whole world was tilting on its axis. “You said I was your soulmate. I suppose you write her poetry, too?” I spun around and had crossed into the hall when it clicked in my head. “Was the poem about the poplar tree for her or me?”

“It was for me,” Ashley snapped.

A horrific thought struck me. This wasn’t just the end of my relationship. This was the end of my future plans. “Andrew, what about the bar? You were going to help finance it.”

He shrugged, giving me a little smile. “Oh, Ava. You’ll figure something out. Go to college or something. You’d be a brilliant student.”

Panicked thoughts tumbled wildly through my mind like autumn leaves in a storm. I’d made Andrew my whole life, and now it was gone.

Tears stung my eyes. “You were waiting until you graduated, weren’t you?” I said. “Because Ashley’s not paying your bills. I was.”

She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m an actress. It takes time to build a career.”

“And talent. And considering how fake that orgasm sounded, I don’t have a lot of hope for you,” I retorted.

Ashley yanked the vindaloo off the bed and threw it at me. Red curry splattered over my shirt.

I was already the bitter woman. The spurned. The wicked witch plotting to take down the young beauty.

“Get out!” she yelled.

“He’s all yours!” I shouted back. “You two really do seem perfectly matched.”

I had to leave before I did something that put me in jail for twenty years. I snatched my gym bag off the floor and bounded down the stairs.

And there it was—the moment I decided I would never love again.

Fairy tales? They weren’t real.





2





A VA


A n hour later, I was resting my elbows on the sticky wooden bar of the Golden Shamrock.

Sipping a Guinness while the TV blared, I watched Hitched and Stitched, a reality TV show about women competing to win a groom and plastic surgery for their Big Day. Horrific, yes, but that didn’t stop me from tuning in every week.

Maybe that heralded the decline of civilization or something, but none of that really bothered me right now. I was twenty-six years old, with…

What did I have? Nothing, really. Nothing to my name.

Tonight, I just wanted a place where no one would give a shit about the curry stains on my shirt, a place where I could drink a lot on a weeknight and no one would judge me.

The Golden Shamrock was the perfect spot.

It wasn’t just the heartbreak, although that did make me want to curl into the fetal position. This had ruined another of my dreams, at least temporarily—Chloe’s. I’d been working day and night on my plans, trying to get permits.