Live For Me (Blurred Lines #2)(49)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“I’ll drink to that.” I was in a completely different place than I had been twelve months before. My life was totally turned upside down, and while the night before I thought I had it all figured out and was ecstatic, now I was completely confused.

What was truth and what was fiction?

I remembered Devin telling me if I were honest with him, he would lie to me. It was a joke, a tease. But now it suddenly seemed like I didn’t know the man I had agreed to marry.

Who was still married.

To a woman who seemed anything but crazy.

“Do you have any heroin?” I asked her, after draining half my glass of wine.

She started and looked at me like I was insane. “Excuse me? Uh, no. And I’ll be honest with you, if you’re a smack addict I feel like I need to warn Devin. Dating a junkie is an emotional roller coaster, not to mention expensive.”

Okay, now I was really unsure what was what and who was who. “No, no, I don’t do drugs either. Someone just told me that you have them.”

Kadence frowned. “You know, people need to just shut their f**king mouths for a change. I swear, are we all still in middle school?”

I had to agree with her there. “It seems to be a hobby for some people.”

“I’ve got better shit to do than talk about people. Don’t you?”

“Uh, yes.” I had my opinions but I’d never really been in any position to trash talk anyone else.

“Okay, so I just made fun of Brooke. But that was different. I think your ex-husband’s twit of a girlfriend is open season.”

The wine was already going to my head. I hadn’t slept enough the night before because I was well, losing my virginity to this woman’s still-husband. Who in between her and me had dated a twit. The anxiety of Cassandra’s overdose, dealing with Lizzie, getting on a plane for the first time, and finding myself in Manhattan and out of Maine for the first time had me physically and emotionally drained. I had eaten very little on top of all that, so after only one glass, I had a pretty strong buzz going.

“I’m pretty sure that Brooke is talking about you, so I think you’re well within your rights.”

“What until she hears about you.” Kadence raised her eyebrows. “Are you ready to deal with haters?”

“I’ve been dealing with haters my whole life.” I smiled because I was getting drunk faster than I would have thought possible. “Fuck ‘em.”

She laughed. “A toast. To our haters.” She raised her glass. “Fuck ‘em.”

“My glass is empty.”

“Well, shit.” She refilled it.

Which is how I wound up drunk with my fiancé’s wife.

Kadence left an hour later but by then I was basically wasted. I lay down on the couch, face down, still clothed, shoes on, no blanket over me.

She had taken a rolling suitcase full of sweaters.

I had taken to heart the message that not everything was quite as black and white as I had thought.

Before she left, she showed me the doll of herself. The very same doll I had seen at Richfield. It danced in front of my eyes, the whole room spinning behind the blond hair, the plastic smile. For a second I thought I was going to throw up but I swallowed my bile and kept it all in.

“Isn’t this so creepy?” she asked. “But Michael had it designed for me as a Christmas gift three years ago and I couldn’t tell him I thought it was hideous.”

“That was nice of him,” I said, yawning, my head resting on the arm of the couch. It didn’t make any sense to me that the doll was at the apartment. I could have sworn I saw it at Richfield just a couple of weeks before. On Devin’s bed. Then in his garage.

“I wonder why Devin keeps this thing.” She shrugged. “Oh, well. I’m taking it with me. It is me after all. I don’t imagine you want it here.”

“No,” I said honestly. “Not really.” But then I felt guilty that I didn’t want her doll so I amended, “It’s a very beautiful doll. I just don’t think I’m a doll person.”

“I don’t think you are either.” She made the arm of the doll wave at me. “Bye. Maybe we can do lunch sometime if you’re going to be in the city for awhile. It’s been really nice to hang out with you.”

“It’s been nice to meet you, too.” Kadence was surprisingly a hell of a lot easier to be around than Lizzie.

Then I passed out.

When I woke up, I had drool on my face and a raging headache. “Oh, my God,” I moaned to the empty apartment. I had to pee so bad I thought I was going to wet my pants, but sitting up and walking seemed impossible. I didn’t even know where the bathroom was. I gagged when I raised my head. So I gave up and just lay there, swallowing repeatedly.

When the need to throw up passed, I carefully slid my phone out of my pocket with trembling fingers. There was a text from Devin twenty minutes earlier saying he was on his way to the apartment. Fabulous. It was eleven already. I’d been sleeping for twelve plus hours. Or passed out, however you wanted to label it.

The door to the apartment opened. “Tiffany, baby? I’m home.”

“Hey,” I said weakly, when he came down the hallway, his bag over his shoulder. Amelia ran over to me and licked my face.

I turned my head to escape her slobbering kiss, though I did stretch my hand out and attempt to pet her.

“Tiff? What’s the matter?” Devin came over to me and felt my forehead like I might have a fever.

“I’m hungover,” I admitted. My voice sounded hoarse and foreign to my ears.

“Hungover from what?” He sounded shocked.

“Wine. Kadence and I shared two bottles.”

He had been bent over me and now he stood straight up again, raking his hair back out of his face. “Excuse me? You got drunk with my wife?”

Funny how suddenly she was his wife, not his ex-wife. When had that happened? “I thought she was your ex-wife.”

“You know what I mean. Why were you with Kadence?”

“She was here, in the apartment, when I got here. She was packing up sweaters.”

“So you just got drunk together?” He sounded horrified.

“She was playing hostess. I didn’t know what else to do but talk to her. I didn’t have any right to kick her out. She clearly had a key or whatever and she did have clothes still here.” And why did I have to defend myself? That seriously annoyed me.

I managed to sit up, though the room spun and bile crawled up my throat.