Broken Juliet(68)

“Ethan! Get out of the f*cking bathroom! You take longer than a girl!”

Ruby bangs on the door and grunts in frustration. To say she’s not pleased about me and Ethan getting back together would be an understatement.

“Why does your goddamn boyfriend take so f*cking long in the shower?” she asks as she drops down next to me on the sofa. “It’s not like he needs to whack off anymore. You two are constantly f*cking.”

“He just likes long showers, I guess.”

“Fucking prima donna.”

“Ruby, be nice.”

“I am being nice. Being nasty would be going into the kitchen and turning on the hot water.”

Her face lights up with mischief.

“Ruby … no.”

She laughs and runs into the kitchen. I hear the faucet running for about three seconds before there’s a manly bellow from the bathroom.

“Fucking goddamn sonofabitch!”

I sigh.

It’s like living with children.

Ethan appears in the doorway, dripping wet, towel draped around his waist, his expression like a storm cloud.

“Where is she?”

Ruby pokes her head out of the kitchen. “Who? Me?”

He glares at her. She smiles sweetly.

“Stop being a pain in my ass.”

“Okay, as soon as you stop dating my best friend.”

“Hardly the same thing.”

“Wrong. You dating Cassie is a giant pain in my ass.”

“Get used to it.”

“For how long? Until you f*ck up and dump her again? Are we talking weeks or months here?”

I glare at her.

Ethan clenches his jaw and stays silent. Then he stalks into the bedroom and slams the door.

Ruby deflates at the same time my anger flares.

“What the hell, Ruby?”

“I’m sorry, he just … I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Can’t you give him a break?”

“I don’t want him to hurt you again.”

“Neither do I.”

“And I know you think he’s changed, or whatever, but it seems a bit too f*cking convenient. I don’t trust him. Do you?”

Hardest question in the world to answer. I want to say yes, but I swore to never lie to her again.

“I don’t know.”

She nods and comes over to hug me. “That’s what I thought. Let me just say, if he does hurt you again, I’m going to knee his balls so far up into his body, they may never come down.”

I squeeze her. “If he hurts me again, I’ll totally let you.”

“Good.”




Thinking about Ruby makes me long for her. If it wasn’t for her and Tristan, I would have become even more of a basket case than I already am.

“Is Ruby still in your life?” Dr. Kate asks.

“Not as much as I’d like.” And I miss her every day. “Just before graduation, she got pregnant. Her boyfriend was an Australian businessman she met the summer before senior year. He asked her to marry him, and after graduation, they went to live in Sydney. Now they have three kids and are sickeningly happy.”

“Does she know Ethan’s back in your life?”

“Yeah. We talk online every few weeks.”

“How does she feel about it?”

Whooboy.

“When I told her I’d agreed to do a show with him, she thought I was insane and bitched me out for a good half an hour. Then, when I told her he’d apologized and wanted me back, she threatened to jump on the first plane out of Oz to beat the crap out of him. When I told her how hard he’s worked on his issues and how different he is, she went quiet for a long time.”

“And now?”

I take a deep breath. “She’s glad I’m getting therapy, and she’s cautious about Ethan. Very cautious, but she wants me to be happy. She thinks I should make him jump through hoops before even considering taking him back.”

“Does she believe he’s different?”

I shake my head. “She’s dubious.”

“Why?”

“Because he convinced us he’d changed before.”




He walks toward me, looking smug. Well, more smug than usual. Beside me, Zoe and Phoebe have gone mysteriously silent. I turn to see them watching him with their mouths open.

I can hardly blame them. Every time I see Ethan striding toward me, it’s like the world goes into slow motion. I have no doubt he affects other women in the same way.

“Christ, he’s hot,” Zoe mutters under her breath.

It might make me a bad person, but seeing Zoe drool over the man who only has eyes for me makes me all kinds of happy.

“Morning, boyfriend,” I say, a little too loudly.

When he reaches me, he murmurs, “Good morning, girlfriend,” before cupping the back of my head and drawing me in for a kiss.

All thoughts of Zoe and Phoebe are immediately forgotten. Actually, all thoughts that don’t revolve around how amazing his mouth is are also forgotten.

“Oh, for f*ck’s sake, you two,” Avery says beside us. “I just had breakfast, and I don’t need to see that. I think I liked it better when you were broken up and would just passive-aggressively eye-f*ck each other all day. There was definitely less visible tongue. Get a freaking room.”