Page 20
Story: With Love, Alex
“We’ve been over this, and that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. When I was online looking to see if there were any more pictures of you, I came across something else.”
“Taylor,” I laughed because how much longer could she draw this out. “You’re killing me here. Whatever it is I can take it just tell me.”
“There were pictures of Matt with another woman,” she answered, looking down at her sock clad feet.
“That doesn’t surprise me. I haven’t seen or heard from him since I woke up in the hospital.”
“No.” She shook her head, while wearing a frown. “It was after the Halloween party and before your last trip there. At first, I thought it was just gossip. You know how celebrities can’t be seen with anyone or they’re automatically fucking them?” she eyed me from across the counter. “That’s what I thought this was until I looked at a few more sites. He was caught outside a club lip-locked with some woman with his hand up her skirt. I think it was only a few days after you visited.”
Blowing out a breath I didn’t know I was holding; I closed my eyes. “I wish I’d known this before. If I had there’s no way in hell, I would’ve visited there that second time.”
“I know and I’m sorry. If I’d known I would have told you.” Taylor promised.
“I know you would have. Was she at least pretty?” I asked because if he was going to make me look like a fool, I hoped whoever she was, she was pretty.
“She was okay I guess. I can show you if you want.”
I stood from the stool where we’d been sitting across from each other. Whenever we were at Taylor’s house, we were always in the kitchen. Normally we started off by eating or making our kids something to eat and never left. That day was no exception.
“If I don’t look now, I’ll always wonder what she looked like, and I don’t need any more what if’s or doubts in my life.”
Giving me a sideways hug, Taylor and I moved over to the area where she had her laptop set up on her kitchen counter. It didn’t take her long to find the website. She had it bookmarked making me wonder how many times she’d looked at the site. On it, there were multiple pictures of Matt with a tall Victoria’s Secret model. I guess if you were going to get kind of cheated on she was the one you wanted it to be with. There was no competition. Her legs went on for days, and her body was tanned and toned with her hair and makeup perfectly done. We looked nothing alike. Where I was short, blonde with blue eyes. She was tall with black hair and grey eyes. Whoever she was, she was gorgeous. There were pictures of them going into the club together hand in hand and as they left where he’d pushed her up against a building with his tongue down her throat and hand up her skirt.
Below the pictures there was a rundown of when the paparazzi had first sighted me with Matt as we made our way into a restaurant the night before Becca’s Halloween party, to seeing us outside her house as we waited to get into the party, and as we left with Reeves. They even had a shot of when Matt had picked me up at the airport just as Taylor had said. Underneath the time line of pictures and their speculation of when our relationship started and ended was a blurb that reinforced I was stupid to think of giving Matt a shot in my life.
‘We’re not sure what to say about this. We were all hoping here atWeekly Enforcerthat this small-town girl was going to be the one that settled Matt Ryan down. We had hoped, and we hate to say it but, “We told you so.”
“Ouch.” I couldn’t hide my flinch as I reread and looked over the pictures fromWeekly Enforcer’s website. Not only had Matt almost killed me, but he also cheated on me. Why the hell had he wanted me to visit him if he was already fucking someone else? Was that why he had freaked out about me talking to Reeves?
It didn’t matter anymore. I would never see him again. If I did, I was going to punch him in the face.
It was true I’d heard the rumors that Matt had cheated on his wife and that was why they’d gotten a divorce a few years ago, but they were only rumors. When Becca talked about the way Matt had been acting and that she was concerned for him, to me that didn’t scream that he’d cheated. For me, it said that he had wanted the relationship. It wasn’t as if when I met him, I was planning on having any kind of association with him or even sleeping with him. We’d never talked about his marriage only his kids and that he didn’t get to see them as often as he liked. Knowing all this I was happy that I hadn’t opened up about Mason or my marriage. Not that I talked to anyone who I came upon about what an asshole my ex-husband had been.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Taylor rubbed my back as she closed the laptop preventing me from reading the article a third time.
When Ryan walked into the kitchen, I was still in Taylor’s arms with her rubbing my back. I felt like a big baby and stupid for being upset, but that was how I felt, and I was going to have to deal with it. Luckily, I was with my best friends when I found out.
“What’s going on?” Ryan asked looking around to see if he could find a clue as to what could possibly be wrong.
“Taylor showed me an article on theWeekly Enforcerthat was about Matt.” I tried to explain as I pulled away from Taylor.
“And? Did he say he was sorry for being an ass?”
“No, and I doubt he ever will. Instead, it showed him out with another woman while we were together.”
“You know you can’t believe everything you see, and they’re always trying to make it something it’s not.”
Laughing bitterly, I smiled sadly. “There’s no misinterpreting this. He had his hand up her skirt and his tongue in her mouth.”
His eyes widened for a second before he hid his shock. “No, shit?”
Laughing bitterly, I replied. “No, shit.” Shaking my head, I grabbed my cup and poured myself another cup of coffee and doctored it until it was just the way l liked it. It was either that or booze, and it wasn’t even noon yet, so I thought coffee was the safe bet. At least for now.
“What a fucking asshole.” Ryan looked me over with a cautious eye. “Are you okay? I know you were done with him, but it’s still got to be hard to see that shit.”
“It sucks that I look stupid, but I’m not going to dwell on it. I did learn a thing or two from my short time with Matt, but that part of my life is over, and I need to move on.”
Holding up her coffee cup, Taylor clinked it against mine. “To moving on.”
“To moving on.” We cheered.