A Summer to Remember(65)

I screamed bloody murder as I swatted it away and ran to the taxi before I hopped in and was greeted by the cool, refreshing environment only a working air conditioner could provide.

The driver looked over his shoulder and inquired, “Where to, Miss?”

“The Setai, please. I believe it is on Collins Avenue,” I responded in a hurried tone, still freaked out about the bug incident.

Funny, I was more freaked out about the Palmetto bug incident—the pounding of my heart in my chest proved as much—than I was about Paul. Some part of me felt I was being unfair to him and judging him for a situation that was well beyond his control. I knew this in my mind so why couldn’t I communicate this to my stubborn heart that wanted to feel broken and as if he’d shattered it into a million pieces? My heart was a f*cking drama queen I would leave in two shakes of a lamb’s tail if it were possible at all but it was as much a part of me as my mind and neither could seem to find symbiosis with one another.

I needed a second opinion and the person who could give it to me was less than five miles away from where I was staying. It seemed like a no brainer to me I should definitely consult Talia because if anyone knew about heartbreak, it was her.





Chapter Twenty-Three



I should have been a bit shocked when my best friend met me in the lobby of the outrageously expensive Setai Hotel but I wasn’t. I embraced her and clung for dear life as I began to sob as crocodile tears flowed down my cheeks and generally had a nervous breakdown that was a long time coming.

She stroked my hair and told me not to cry as we stood there. Impossibly wealthy people passed us and more than a few second-glanced us but I didn’t care. I felt so broken even though to be honest, I had no reason to feel the way I did.

Paul had kept secrets from me because he thought I couldn’t handle them but he wasn’t a cheater, douchebag or an *. He treated me better than any other lover I’d ever had and for the first time in my life, I could see light at the end of a tunnel that had been bleak and dark for so long, I didn’t think my perspective would ever change.

I knew I was acting like a fool and my hormones were of no help to me so the situation was pretty awful but part of it was of my own making so I had no one to blame but myself.

We separated reluctantly and Talia smiled. “Paul called me and said you might drop by. I take it you’ve read the whole Kendall Lawson and Kool Luc story?”

I nodded my head as a tear slid down my left cheek. “I know it isn’t his fault and she cheated with Kool Luc while they were together. What kind of girlfriend just leaves her boyfriend in a restaurant to lick her own wounds while he is also hurting? I feel like the world’s biggest piece of shit right now.”

My best friend cocked her head. “Please, Jerri, stop being so damn melodramatic and put on your big girl panties! That man loves you with all his heart and if this is how you are going to act every time you find out he isn’t some perfect sex god then how can you expect to make a life with him? We’re human and we make mistakes. He didn’t sleep with her while you two were together and knock her up—they were dating at the time and she specifically waited until he’d moved on to call him up and tell him he was going to be a father to a child he could never claim. She said something to the equivalent of ‘Just lose my number and forget you ever knew me.’ It was really rough and Jude didn’t share it with you because he knew you were in an emotionally fragile state.”

“Great, so now I find out everyone tips on egg shells around me.”

Talia grabbed me by my slender shoulders with both hands and replied coolly, “No, we don’t but why don’t you admit Vassar f*cked you up? You don’t have to be the victim of rape or child molestation to have scars that refuse to heal, you know that, right? You had an abortion—you murdered a human being—and damn near lost everything behind it! Don’t you think that is enough to mess with your head forever?”

I nodded wordlessly.

“Good then come on upstairs and have a few rounds of Jack with Seth and I. His brother, Nil, is in town and he is one of the best tattoo artists in the world. He works at The Black Rose in L.A. and they are finally going to ink me.”

As we began to walk, I said, “They?”

“He brought Loire. She is really good too. You should let her ink you. Something small at the nape of your neck where you can hide it at all the fancy functions your parents have.”

“That won’t do then. It would have to be somewhere on my lower torso that would never show and only Paul would be able to see it.”