Evan
I knocked back the strong drink in my hand and tilted the empty tumbler to look at as I winced, contemplating ordering another, but I knew it wasn’t the right time or place to get drunk.
Especially not when Ally was there. I wanted to show her what she’d given up and what she’d been stupid enough to let go of all those years ago.
I put the heavy-bottomed glass down onto the stone patio floor and stood up from the garden bench, doing my suit button up.
“Lovely service don’t you think?” a voice asked me as I made my way back inside. I turned to see Mia, an old friend from before, standing in the doorway looking at me sadly.
I nodded.
“It was nice; he’s had a good send off.”
She left the house and approached me slowly.
“I don’t know if you turning up like this was the best idea though,” she said quietly. “Don’t you think she’s been through enough?”
I sighed and looked behind her into the house. Part of me had wanted to turn up and throw her world upside down. I’d wanted to let her know what she’d done and make her understand that even though I barely had any ties to Seaview Heights, I could come and go as I pleased.
“That wasn’t quite the ‘hello, it’s been ages since we last saw each other’ greeting I was expecting,” I answered, staring at her, but her disappointed expression didn’t flinch and she folded her arms firmly.
“Oh come on!” I snapped defensively. “What about what she did to me? What about what they both did? Shouldn’t I be the victim in all of this?”
“It’s not as simple as you think,” she said, looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being listened to. “I don’t think anyone meant to hurt you at all.”
I laughed sarcastically.
“Right. So Ally didn’t cut all contact with me for no apparent reason and then marry my best friend a couple of years after I left?”
She sighed.
“It looks that way, yes, but…”
“Thank you, so if you’ll excuse me,” I interrupted, leaning in close to her ear—so close that I could smell the moisturizer on her skin. “For what it’s worth… It was nice seeing you again, Mia.”
“Ev…”
I walked past her before she had a chance to finish, anger making me unable to stay around any longer, because really, deep down I didn’t know why I’d left my busy life and dropped everything to come back.
I didn’t really understand what had driven me to return when the email had arrived in my inbox that Michael had died. My first thought was karma and then my second was Ally. She was the one that got away, the one that had dropped me without any explanation twelve years ago, and in some way I had her to thank for everything I had now. The money, the houses, the cars… they were all because she’d pushed me out of Seaview and forced me to become something.
I nodded hello at several people I passed on my way to the door, wishing I’d called a cab and had it waiting, but getting out of the house was my main priority. I’d think about the rest later.
“Wait.”
I heard her voice from behind me, and my first instinct was to keep walking and put as much distance between the both of us as fast as I could, but I heard her heels on the wooden floor behind, following me closely.
I stopped once I got into the hall of Michael’s parent’s house and turned to her.
“Ally?”
“Why did you come?” she demanded, her eyebrows furrowed angrily at me. She’d changed a lot since the last time I’d seen her. Of course I’d seen photos over social media over the years, but it was nothing like seeing her in person.
She still had the same light brown eyes and flushed red cheeks that she always did, but her body had smoothed out from her previously athletic figure into womanly curves. In my eyes, she’d never looked better, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. No way in hell did I want to give her that parting satisfaction.
“I’ve got every right to be here, Ally,” I said, turning back around toward the door, but she hurried in front of me, the anger obvious in her eyes and across her face.
“Where were you when he was ill? When he was suffering? He said he told you, and you never once came down!”
“Can you blame me?” I asked. “He wasn’t exactly acting like a best friend to me.”
“But he needed you!” she snapped. “You’re a big shot over in the city, I hear, but when it comes to us pawns, you’re gonna be the guy to hold grudges even when someone is dying?”
I thought of all the things I wanted to say to her and all the anger that I could unleash, but I was better than that. I didn’t get to the status I had by arguing with women.
“I don’t have time for this,” I said backing away from her. “You made your choice all those years ago, so you don’t have any right to tell me what I should have done now.”
The words hit her—I could see it from the look in her eyes—and she stared at me, silenced by her own guilt.
“What about you?” I continued, fired up. “I heard quite a while back that you and Michael were divorced. So where were you, huh? Where were you when he needed you?”
“We had our problems,” she said, keeping her voice low and looking around her. “We had issues, but I’m here aren’t I? I’m here when it matters. I’ve been here for him, and you’re the last person I need to prove that to!”
I took a step toward her, breathing in her perfume as I lowered my lips to her ear.
She remained still, inhaling deeply as I crossed her personal space.
“Well then I’m sure you’ll understand when I say that this conversation is well and truly over.”
I didn’t give her a chance to respond as I stood upright, turned, and walked out the front door without looking back at her.
I didn’t expect her to follow, and as I neared the end of the drive, I took a few breaths to calm down and regain my composure before I hit the sidewalk.
Since she was the one that had let me go, and she was the one who’d discarded our relationship, I’d expected her to have been more upset than anything. I’d assumed that she would have taken me to the side and begged for my forgiveness or apologized profusely for what she’d done. It was the least she could have done for destroying my life back when we were only teenagers. Instead, I’d been made to feel like the bully and the one who’d been in the wrong.
I wanted to know and understand why she’d forced me away from Seaview, and I wanted to understand what exactly the hold was that she had over me.
Why couldn’t I bury myself in the endless stream of women I seemed to attract in the city, and why, no matter who I met or who I tried to forget her with, did it always came back to her?