Page 61 of Holly Jolly July

“Fine,” Matt grits out through clenched teeth, leaning forward so close their noses almost touch. “I have multiple women on

the go at all times. I do and say whatever I need to, to get them in my bed and keep them there. Women who are committed fuck

different; they got skin in the game, and it shows.”

Ellie and I share a disgusted grimace.

“And when I get sick of them,” Jax continues, a sardonic smile on his face, “I ghost them. But you know what, that’s nothing

compared to what I’ve been through. You think I’m the bad guy? Please. Women have done a thousand worse things to me over

the years.”

Ellie takes a step back, shaking her head.

“That’s no excuse,” I say. “Relationships are about honesty.”

He rolls his eyes. “Come on. Like you’ve been one hundred percent honest with every person you’ve been with.”

I think for a moment, deflating. He’s right. I haven’t been my most honest self, either. I glance at Ellie, who seems to be

feeling the same way. We turn our attention back to him.

“That’s different,” Ellie says.

“How is it different?” He tuts at her. “You looked at me and saw what you wanted to see, didn’t you? And it took me all of

about five seconds for me to realize you wouldn’t like the real me at all, and then five more seconds to mould myself into

the guy you wished I was. You had no interest in knowing who I really was. I was a fantasy to you, and that’s it.”

“That’s not true, I—”

“And you,” Jax says, turning his attention to me. “I had you figured out even faster. You were insecure in high school, and

you’re insecure now. All you wanted was to prove you were hot enough to bang the guy you always wanted but could never have.

You had no problems with me being a quick lay when it was convenient for you, but suddenly you have morals against it? You’re

both such fucking hypocrites.”

I glare. “Hooking up? Fine. Exaggerating your best qualities on a date? Okay. But you were a completely different person with

her than you were with me. Ellie deserved better than that. And I did, too. We would have been fine with an arrangement of

casual sex if you’d been honest and up front, but you had to raise the bar, didn’t you? Get us invested, keep us coming back.

I never wanted to be ‘the other woman.’ You’d planned a whole life with Ellie, for fuck’s sake. And when I specifically asked

you if you were seeing anyone else so I could make an informed decision, you dodged the question, lying by omission because

you knew I wouldn’t be okay with it. You didn’t care about us as people at all, as human beings. You just saw us as something

for you to conquer. Tell me that’s not true.”

Jax bites his lip, not denying anything. “Fine. You’re right. You happy?”

“That’s what I thought.” I step back, my chest rising and falling rapidly with anger. “Ellie? Show him the footage.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She passes his phone to me and leaves her post, walking to the Christmas tree where we’d hidden my phone. She taps the screen

and replays his confession.

His face freezes. “You recorded all this?”

“Yup,” I say, tilting my chin in pride.

“Perfect. I’ll use the evidence in court when I sue you for attacking me,” he snarls.

Ellie trims the video, leaving only his confession left. “No, you won’t.”

“Aren’t you curious why we recorded you?” I tilt my head to the side.

His face shifts from anger to fear. “No.”

My lips twitch into a cruel smile. “Liar. Ellie, do it.”

She presses a few buttons, and Matt’s phone dings with a notification. I open the newly trimmed confession on his phone, then

show it to Jax as I select Send All from his contacts list.

“You wouldn’t,” Matt warns.

“Oh, we will.” I take my turn as the villain, inching closer like Ellie had. “To every. Single. Person. All the women you’ve

been playing, all the women you’ve courted past and present. To your whole family.”

“Including your grandma, whose death you fabricated!” Ellie adds.

He glares at her. “I didn’t lie about that.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Ellie softens for a moment, then turns serious again. “Then we’ll send it to your mom!”

His eyes widen in fear. “No! Not my mom!”

My finger hovers over the Send button, getting closer, and closer, and—

“Stop!” Jax shouts. His breathing is fast and ragged, eyes wild. “You want money? I’ll give you money! Just please, don’t send that to my mom.”

Despite myself, my heart twinges for him. “We don’t want money,” I say.

“And we don’t necessarily want you to stop sleeping around,” Ellie adds. “All we want is for you to stop lying.”

“You want to have lots of partners at the same time, fine. There’s nothing wrong with that,” I explain. “But be honest. Not

just with them, but with yourself, about who you are and what you want.”

“You might get laid less,” Ellie concedes, “but it’s the right thing to do.”

Jax looks back and forth from Ellie to me. “Seriously? That’s it?” Jax scoffs. “Okay. Fine. I promise I’ll be honest from

now on. Now please, can you let me go?”

I look over at Ellie, and she looks back at me, annoyed that he’s not taking us seriously. “There’s nothing we can do to make

sure he holds himself to that,” I realize aloud.

Ellie shakes her head. “Not really.”

I sigh, coming to terms with reality. “We can’t save everyone. Not the women in his phone, not the people he’s going to hurt,

and we especially can’t save him.” I jut my chin toward Jax.

“I don’t need saving.”

I look back at Jax, feeling a bit sorry for him. “Someday he’s going to be old and all alone with no one to love him and he’s

going to regret playing with people’s hearts.”

Ellie nods. “I’d say that’s punishment enough.”

I delete the video, lock the phone, and hand it back to Jax. Then Ellie helps me untie the lights and unlock the handcuffs.

Jax stands, rubbing his sore wrist.

We both take a step back, giving him some space. He glances around at the cabin, totally dishevelled, a look of disbelief

on his face. Then, he looks back at us. “This whole time. You knew?”

“Well,” Ellie admits, “not the whole time.”

“How?”

“We work together,” I state. “I’m her makeup artist on set.”

His face darkens. “So you lied to me too, then. You told me you didn’t want to go near the movie set downtown and you hate

Christmas.”

“All true,” I say, then I look to Ellie with a soft smile. “Well. Used to be true.”

Ellie grins back, cheeks flushing.

“Wait a second...” Jax trails off, looking back and forth between us. “Are you two...?”

Ellie and I admit to nothing, but he can immediately tell his hunch is correct. A wolfish grin lights up his face. “Hot. Are

you two together because of me?”

Again, we say nothing, but he can clearly read our expressions.

“Nice.” He bites his lip. “You know, since we’ve all already seen each other naked, and we’ve all sort of had sex together

in a way, we could—”

“Nope.”

“Out of the question.” We cut him off at the same time.

Then, I add, “Have you learned nothing?”

He shrugs. “I told you I’d stop lying, not that I’d stop trying to have sex with you both. And threesomes happen rarely, even

for a guy like myself.”

I roll my eyes. “It seems your ego has not been affected.”

“Okay, enough’s enough.” Ellie ushers him toward the door.

Jax steps over the slippery puddles of lube and sidesteps the dangling string of lotioned condoms. “Fine. And tomorrow this

place better be spotless or my uncle’s gonna kill me.”

“It will be,” Ellie assures him.

He pauses at the door, looking at us one last time. “You sure I can’t stay?”

“Go!” We shout.

“Fine! Fine.” With that, he turns and closes the door behind him.

Ellie and I release a long, slow exhale.

“You think he learned his lesson?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “Probably not. But we did our best.”

I nod, then look around at the disarrayed cabin. “We put in the effort, that’s for sure. And now to clean all this up.”

“But first...” She takes my hand in hers and pulls me close, locking her lips on mine.