“Goodbye Jesten.”
“Tash, don’t go,” he whispers in a panicked voice. “I think I love you. I can’t stop thinking about you… and about what we could be together. Come back to me.”
My heart drops. Jesten and I did have a connection and the truth is I am sad that we can’t even be friends. “Jes,” I whisper. “Don’t.”
“Please,” he begs.
“Jes, I’m not the girl for you. I’m in love with another man. You and I were just friends. I would like it if we could stay friends.”
He stays silent and I know I have to get off the phone.
“Bye Jes, take care.”
I wait on the phone for a reply but again silence and I slowly hang up.
I put my head in my hands. God, I hate hurting people’s feelings.
“Tough huh?” Adrian asks.
I pick up my drink and drain the glass.
“Who was he again?” Adrian asks.
“You know that prison warden guy who cage-fights with Joshua, the one who told me to think of him while I had sex with Joshua.”
Adrian bubbles up a chuckle. “Oh yeah, the dude with the big balls.”
I smile. “That is pretty tough, hey.”
Adrian widens his eyes. “I thought Joshua was seriously going to kill him that night.”
I nod as I shovel another corn chip into my mouth. “Yeah well, they had another couple of fights after that as well.”
“When?” Adrian frowns.
“At the fight ring and then again one night at my house.”
Adrian frowns. “Your house, what the hell? I didn’t hear about this.”
I shake my head, why did I mention that? “Jes and I became really good friends in that time Joshua and I were apart and he came around one night professing his love and Joshua turned up in the middle of it and Joshua lost his shit”.
Adrian nods as he sips his drink. “So Jesten is your Amelie?”
I smile sadly. “Yeah I suppose he is, I haven’t thought of it before but that’s exactly what he is.”
I frown as I think. “Please explain to me why Joshua hates Amelie so much?” I shake my head. “I thought they were friends and he is just so mean to her.”
Adrian holds my eyes. “She is fatal fucking attraction that’s why.”
I frown and hold up my arm for more drinks. “What do you mean?” I ask.
“She won’t let go. She is trying to make Joshua go back to her.”
I frown, huh? This is news.
“What do you mean?”
“Well when Joshua gave her the money he just wanted her to go away but she just won’t. She has turned up at his polo games and she started going out with the LA clique so she could see him when she was out.”
I frown, money… what money? I need to play along and trick Adrian into thinking I already know this. When would he have given her money? My eyes widen in realisation-when he gave me the money. Joshua paid two divorce settlements, not one. I start to hear my pulse in my ears and fury fills me.
I act uninterested and continue shovelling food into my mouth. “This is when he paid me and her the money?” I murmur with my mouth full.
“Yes,” Adrian replies, thinking I already know this. “The twenty-million guilt money.”
What!
“Fuck off. He gave her twenty million dollars!” I snap furiously.
Adrian’s eyes widen in horror. “You didn’t know this?” he whispers, mortified that he has just opened his mouth.
“No, I didn’t know this.” I look around angrily. “Where’s our fucking drinks?” I snap.
“Oh my god, don’t you say anything,” Adrian whispers as his face falls. “He will kill me.”
I narrow my eyes. “No, of course not,” I snap. “As if. You swapped sides of the friendship fence, remember.”
He drains his glass and rolls his eyes at his predicament.
“Do you mean to tell me that that bitch took twenty million dollars and she can’t afford a fucking horse paddock?” I scoff. What a hide.
Adrian shakes his head. “You don’t know the half of it. She’s trying to buy a farm next to Willowvale.”
I frown. “Why?”
“She’s so deluded that she thinks that if she is around Joshua he will see what he’s missing and go to her with open arms,” he replies. “Joshua gave her that money because he felt guilty taking the life from her that she was used to. The mansion, the horses.” He shakes his head in disgust.
The waitress arrives with the tray of drinks and I take mine gratefully. “Thank you,” I murmur, deep in thought.
“Cameron thinks she’s unstable.”
I frown again. “Why?”
He shakes his head. “She just does weird things.”
“Like what?” I ask.