Oceans Apart Book 1 (Oceans Apart #1)(16)

“Don’t,” I said firmly, taking a step back. “What do you want?”

“Well, you haven’t been returning any of my calls, so I figured I’d come talk to you face to face. Wasn’t sure if you and Kari still came to this place, but I heard you talking about it the other day, so…” He shrugged.

Kari and I traded glances again. “What do you mean you heard us?” Kari demanded, folding her arms and moving to put herself between Brad and me.

“You two were walking back to the office from the Chinese place on Monday, and you were talking about it.”

I was horrified. Brad said it so nonchalantly, but there was no real reason for him to have been anywhere near us when we were having that conversation. “Are you following me?” I asked.

“Maybe. I don’t know what else you expect me to do, Gin. I’ve been trying to talk to you for months now, and you won’t take my calls. Goes straight to voicemail, and you don’t call me back. How else am I supposed to get a hold of you?”

“What do you even want?”

Brad frowned. “You, of course. What else would I want? I told you the bitch from your office didn’t mean anything to me. She wasn’t a replacement for you. She was just…stress relief, yeah. She was fun for the time being, but there’s no way she would be as good as you. So what do you say? You let me buy you a drink, and then we get out of here? We can go get all-you-can-eat pancakes or something.”

“No!” I said it louder than I’d meant to, but the music was deafening, no one else seemed to be paying attention to what was going on. “I don’t want to go anywhere with you. I don’t see why you can’t take the hint. If someone doesn’t answer your phone calls, it means they don’t want to talk to you, Brad.”

“You don’t mean that,” he said, and this time he did grab my hand, trying to pull me closer.

“No, I really, really do. Stop acting like you didn’t cheat on me. You did this. Not me.”

“It didn’t mean anything, babe,” Brad insisted, tugging on my arm. “You know it didn’t. I didn’t even mean for it to happen.”

Tristan’s words flashed across my mind, and I snatched my hand back, moving out of Brad’s reach. “No,” I said firmly. “You don’t get to say that. You knew exactly what you were doing when you let her in and let her suck your dick. It wasn’t an accident. Her mouth didn’t just conveniently fall onto it. If I meant anything to you at all, then it wouldn’t have happened. You would have told Helena to f*ck off and not let her do it…But you didn’t. You let it happen. And now we’re done, do you understand me? Don’t call me, don’t follow me around. I don’t want anything else to do with you.”

I didn’t even pause to see the look on his face before turning on my heels and making my way through the crowd. I couldn’t tell if Kari was following or if she’d stayed behind to give Brad a piece of her mind as well, and at that moment, I didn’t care.

Once I’d made it outside, I sucked in a deep breath, then pulled my phone out and opened up Messenger. The world clock app told me it was about seven in the morning his time. I didn’t want to disturb him, if he was still sleeping, but I needed to talk to him now.

Hey, I typed quickly.

You’re probably asleep since it’s Saturday morning. But I need to talk to you.

There was no reply and I was considering giving up, texting Kari to see if she was ready to leave. Right as I hit send, he replied.


Tristan: Hey. Everything alright?

I sighed in relief.

Ginny :P: Not really. I’m sorry I woke you up.

Tristan: Don’t worry about it. I was getting up in an hour to head to the gym anyway. What’s going on?





It took me a minute to type with the way my fingers were trembling, but I managed to get out a long message about seeing Brad, how he had apparently been following me, and how it creeped me out. Typing it out helped me calm down a little, and I was really hoping I’d gotten worked up for no reason. I didn’t want to think Brad was dangerously psycho.





Tristan: …that’s concerning. Are you going to go to the police or anything?

I bit my lip and thought about it a minute. It wasn’t like Brad had tried to hurt me or anything. He was just…overly persistent. Maybe he would leave me alone after this.

Ginny :P: I don’t think he wants to do anything bad. He just wants me back.

There was another few minutes’ pause before Tristan messaged me back.

Tristan: It’s up to you, but I think you should be on the safe side. Him following you around and you not knowing and then him not seeing the problem with that is kind of worrying.

He had a point, but…

Ginny :P: I think it’ll be okay. I’m mostly just pissed off that he tried to tell me that he didn’t mean to cheat on me.

Tristan: He knew what he was doing.

Ginny :P: I know that now. I’m going to try to find Kari so we can get out of here. Thanks for talking to me.

Tristan: You’re welcome. Just be careful, alright? If he keeps coming around or you see him again, you really should consider calling the cops.

I sighed. That would be such a hassle, but I could admit that he was right.