Page 1 of Just Between Us

PART ONE

The spoon,piled high with Neapolitan ice cream, is halfway to my mouth when I’m rudely interrupted for the umpteenth time.

Buzz, buzz.

There’s no point looking at my phone. I know good and well who it is. The calls just keep coming. Dozens of texts, all demanding the same thing:Fix the website. Now.

I choke down my bite, the frozen sweetness now sour at the back of my throat, and drop the spoon in the sink. The metal clatters against a stack of dirty bowls and mugs with a note of finality, and I shove the empty ice cream carton into my overflowing trash. My phone goes silent, but immediately starts again.

Sighing, I snatch it up.

“What, Alan.”

“You need to stop ignoring me.” His voice drips with a familiar note of authority—the kind that used to make me flinch. Now it proves to only piss me off further. “Do you know how many times I’ve called?”

“Too many,” I clap back, a spark of my old self flaring to life. Assertive and confident, willing to stand up to my cheating ex-boyfriend.

“When I call, you answer.”

I release a humorless laugh. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m not yours to control anymore. You cheated on me.”

“That’s not what happened.” Gaslighting is Alan’s favorite pastime, so it’s no surprise he wants to rewrite the narrative.

“What happened then? Did she trip and her mouth just so happened to land around your dick? You thought to yourself,hmm, this feels nice. I think I’ll let her keep it there.”

Alan sighs, like I’m exasperating him. “I told you. It was a one-time thing.”

“And one time is all it takes. I don’t give free passes on the first betrayal, even if that was the truth. But you can save your breath. I saw the DM’s that same night. While you were in the shower.”

At this, Alan falls silent.

My fists clench involuntarily at my sides while wave after wave of emotion washes over me. Anger, embarrassment, but the one that weighs heaviest is the disappointment I feel in myself.

In retrospect, red flags waved right in my damn face throughout our two years together. Three, if you count the year we spent dating in secret. Why that wasn’t red flag numero uno is beyond me. “I like to keep things private, Cassie. It’s more fun when only we know, Cassie.”But my blinders were screwed on so tightly I refused to see it.

“How do you know my password?”

My scoff is automatic. Of course that’s what he chooses to focus on. Me snooping, rather than his betrayal.

“It’s the same one you use for everything, you idiot.”

“Cassie, you had no right going through my messages.” There’s a dangerous edge to his voice now. A warning. Good. I need kindling for that spark burning in my chest.

“And you had no right to fuck a client, but here we are, Alan. Here we are.” My stomach churns at the thought. All the nightshe had towork latetraining someone at the gym, and I believed him. Clearly Alan and I have a different definition of personal training.

“I’ve had enough. If that website isn’t changed by?—”

But it’s actually me who’s had enough. “Goodbye, Alan,” I cut him off and end the call. With shaking hands, I set my phone down, heart hammering a mile a minute. But underneath the adrenaline now coursing through my veins there’s something else.

Relief.

I’m done with him, and it’s time for my fresh start. That’s what my brother brought me here for, after all. Austin despised Alan from day one. He calls him Alan the Attention Whore. And as it turns out, hindsight really is 20/20. I now see just how right my brother was. Alan is arrogant, self-absorbed, and wants everything to be about him.

For far too long, I allowed my brother to think things were peachy keen. I wanted so desperately to believe that myself. But he saw right past it to the heart of the matter, recognizing Alan for what he truly was. Austin once told me Alan snuffed out my light, stripping me of all the things that made me shine.

Prior to Alan, I was a totally different woman, proud to be my own person. It happened with astonishing speed, too. He chipped away at the things that made meme, until there was little left of the woman I once was. The very few friends I had before him—chip.My clothing choices—chip. Even my own opinions—chip. Somewhere along the way, I lost my confidence, I lost my agency, I lost myself.

Austin was the first person I called when I left Dallas. It didn’t take much for him and his new girlfriend, Penny, to convince me I should come back to Singing River with them. This is Penny’s hometown, and Austin swore up and down I’d like it. He’s been here less than a month, but already seems to love the place. They had it all figured out in a matter of minutes.I’d stay in the studio apartment above Penny’s detached garage, which was previously where Austin was staying. And he’d move into Penny’s house.