Fallacy (Apprehensive Duet Book 1) (12 page)

Quinn

“YOU WILL BE back to work on Monday, Quinn,” my father says sternly into the phone. “You can’t afford to take any more time. Work needs to be your priority. That girl isn’t even your family.”

God, the man is such a heartless bastard.

“Can you give me just a few more days?” I ask again. “Or I can pick up all my files in the mornings and work from home.”

“You will most definitely not be working from home. You barely manage things here. Think of how much more your work would suffer if you had a distraction like that around you. You’ll be at your desk at nine am Monday morning. End of discussion.” He disconnects the call without me getting in another word.

I hate the man.

I can barely manage things at the office?
Fuck him! I fucking rock at what I do. He’s just a bitter motherfucker because I’m better at this job than he is.

The man has no compassion whatsoever. Ashley’s not a distraction. She’s a woman whose entire world imploded four weeks ago.

I have no idea what I’m going to do. Ashley is in no shape to be home all day by herself. On a typical day, I’m at the office for ten hours without the commute. Even if I leave every day at five, she’s still going to be alone for nine hours a day.

The old man is wrong. I’d work better from home because at work all I’m going to be doing is worrying about Ash. This has become more of a parent-child relationship than a friendship over the last month.

I know I need to have a conversation with her about what to do when I go back to work in three days. The fucking asshole didn’t even give me any time to prepare. I honestly thought he’d give me an extra week.

I have a huge fucking migraine.

The last few days have been a fucking nightmare.

I’m not built to handle all this drama. I don’t have the tolerance for it. But I’m trying to temper down my anger because Ash is hurting.

Our discussion about me having to go back to work didn’t go well, which I expected. But I didn’t expect her to tell me I was overbearing! I’d like to see how that ungrateful twat would handle things if she had to worry about me waking up from a three-day coma.

Then the stubborn bitch insisted on staying home alone claiming she’ll be fine. I spent the weekend rearranging her bedroom to make it more functional for her while she’s on her own.

“What’s wrong, angel?” Alex asks as he walks through my front door to find me drinking a very large glass of wine.

“I’ve had the day from hell,” I sigh, bringing the glass to my mouth.

He drapes his coat over the back of the couch and joins me on it. “I figured as much from your text. What’s going on?” he asks as he pulls my feet into his lap and rubs them.

“I spent the entire day being berated by my father for letting my files slack for the last month. Nothing was lacking. I checked in with all the investors and the CEO’s of my clients today. Not one had anything bad to say,” I divulge, enjoying the way he’s rubbing the tension from my body through my feet. I was surprised by everyone today. Neither my clients nor investors know exactly what happened. Just that I had some personal matters to attend to. Hearing everyone tell me how glad they were to have me back was very rewarding and unexpected. It was nice to hear I’m appreciated by them.

I continue getting everything off my chest. “I wasn’t prepared for the shit show going on when I got home, either. I should’ve known it was too good to be true when everything went all right today. I hadn’t gotten any calls from Ashley, so stupidly I assumed everything went okay.”

“Stop being so hard on yourself. I guess since we’re here and not at the hospital it wasn’t anything too bad,” he says trying to make me feel better.

“I walked in to find a fuming Tanner. Ashley fell coming back from the bathroom and got stuck on the floor for over an hour. She couldn’t get to her phone, and she passed out on her bedroom floor.” I’m thankful as fuck Tanner agreed to check on her, or I would’ve come home to Ashley stuck on the floor in her bedroom for hours. “She somehow wound up falling on her bad knee, and now we’re worried she did more damage. She’s going to the doctor tomorrow, and Tanner has to take her. Guess who’s getting the brunt of her anger?”

“Quinn, you can’t do this all on your own and Ashley isn’t going to ask for help. Let Tanner help you. He needs this as much as you do. He needs to feel like he’s doing something. You’re going to wear yourself thin trying to do everything,” he advises me while applying pressure to the arch of my foot, which right now feels better than getting off.

He continues, “Ashley’s a big girl. She’s grieving, and her body is mangled. Her whole world is upside down. She’s going to lash out at you to express her anger. But don’t let her use you. Don’t let her use your compassion against you. You can still be here for her while standing up for yourself.”

“No matter what I do, it’s wrong. First I was overbearing, now I’m a bitch, and she’s an inconvenience for me. Everything I say lately is being manipulated into something else. I don’t know what the hell to do with her,” I sigh, utterly exhausted. Too much shit in a short period.

“I know you want to do whatever you can to help, and you will, but don’t let this overtake your life, angel,” he says, dropping my feet off his lap and pulling me into his arms. “You’ve given her everything you can over the last month. She needs to start pulling herself from this hole she’s in. You won’t be able to do it for her. I don’t want to see you lose yourself in grief and anger with her.”

I needed to hear that. It’s nice to hear someone give a shit about me and what I’m going through. This month has been extremely hard, and everyone has been so focused on how Ashley’s doing. It’s nice to have someone care about how I’m doing through this. I’ve become her nurse, chef, servant, and for fuck’s sake, I help her shower. I’m glad to do it all because I’m grateful she’s alive, but fuck, it would nice to hear her say thank you. It would be nice to hear her speak without disdain. This is going to be a long few months while she gets herself back on her feet. If she keeps this up, I don’t know how long until I explode.

Quinn

I STOMP BACK into my room and grab my phone off the bed immediately to call Alex. It only takes him a ring to pick up. Almost as if he’s been holding his phone knowing I was going to need him.

“You okay?” he asks immediately.

“I am. I’m upset, but I’m fine,” I tell him.

“Okay. I’m sorry you’re upset. Talk to me,” he urges.

I take another deep breath before I replay my entire tiff with Ashley.

It’s been four months since her accident, and I deserve an award for the amount of patience I’ve used to keep from slapping an injured woman. Until now.

Ashley has been a nightmare. She refused to eat and cried constantly. She has been a stubborn bitch. She’s still a bitch, and she’s still stubborn, but at least now she functions and eats. The crying has diminished as well.

She’s only made those improvements because Tanner and I forced her into seeking help when she finally hit an all-time low. Ashley still holds Tanner responsible for her accident. He finally had enough of her constant abuse and gave up on her. I can’t say I blame the man. I’m about at the end of my rope with her too.

But the fact she has Tanner so convinced that he won’t let his agent talk him out of the shit Melissa put him in is beyond crazy. And Ashley’s letting him. She’s letting the press run with this story Melissa told them about him abandoning Ashley and his child. Melissa told someone Tanner threw Ashley away, and because he refused to acknowledge her and the baby, she had to work a second job, and that job led to the death of his child.

She said some awful things to him, and I’ve tried to get her to see reason, and so has her therapist. Ashley’s convinced herself Tanner’s leaving her led to her car accident, that if he hadn’t left her, she would’ve never been out that night. He’s convinced of it too. Christ, he’s heard enough from her so no wonder he blames himself. And I still get a lot of shit because I’ve allowed Tanner to keep helping her. She has never once thought about how all this is on us.

It’s not what happened at all and Ashley knows it. She knows he wanted everything to do with their baby, but she’s not defending him. She’s letting him be blasted through the media as a piece of shit. I have a problem with it. A big one. No one else can fix this, but Ashley couldn't care less.

I can’t believe I slapped my best friend but fuck if she didn’t deserve it. Someone needed to knock some sense into her. She’s an ungrateful bitch, and I’ve had enough of it.

I put my entire life on hold for her for a month. I didn’t go to work. I didn’t leave her side. I planned her son’s funeral. I was her nurse. I was her shoulder to cry on. She needed round the clock care with all her injuries, and I was there to make sure she got it. But it also meant I was the only one there when the anger set in.

After the first day she was home alone, Tanner and I decided Ashley was in no shape to be making any decisions for herself. Tanner and I rotated, making sure Ashley had someone with her at all times. Well, she didn’t care for that. It brought out this ugly side of her. She was capable of bitchy moments before, but it went from here and there to every waking moment.

She woke up and went to bed a bitch. Now, the anger has faded, but it’s still there more so with Tanner than me. She can finally say something to me that’s not laced with hate. I can have a conversation with her that isn’t all insults. But poor Tanner never got the same luxury.

Alex has been my rock through this whole thing even though he has had every reason to run. This has been an emotional few months while I’ve been consumed with Ashley and her care. My life has practically revolved around it. Alex never complained. Not when I was hurt and needed his shoulder to cry. Not when I had to cancel plans because Ashley needed me. Not when I was too tired to pay attention to him.

He listened to me bitch over and over about how fucked she is. He even went as far as to take over her physical therapy to help her body heal faster and correctly. I know he did it for me more than her. But he has developed a real friendship with her, so he sees a different side of her. He sees the motivated side of her and doesn’t get backlash from her like I do.

“Well, now she knows how you feel. I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself, angel,” he praises me. “This has been brewing inside you for a while. I’ve seen the explosion coming. I just didn’t know what it would be over. Ashley needed to hear your feelings, and if you hadn’t spoken up, she would’ve kept using you as a punching bag. She needs someone to stand up to her and tell her the way she’s been acting is not an acceptable outlet. Honestly, I think you should’ve said something months ago. Do you think you finally got through to her?”

“I have no idea if she even processed any of what I said to her,” I sigh, frustrated. “She didn’t acknowledge a thing I said; she just stared at me.”

“I heard you,” Ashley says behind me, scaring the shit out of me. I guess I didn’t close the door in my rush to get to the phone. “That Alex?” she questions nodding to my phone.

“Yeah, it’s Alex,” I reply, not sure why she’s asking.

“Can I talk to him, please?” she asks extending her hand for the phone.

I hand the phone over and listen as she asks Alex a bunch of questions about the foundation and for Melissa’s address.

She hands me back the phone and says, “Thank you for pulling my head out of my ass.” Then she hugs me and leaves.

“Holy shit,” I gasp as I raise the phone to my ear.

“Whatever you did worked, angel.” I can hear his smile through the phone.

“I can’t believe what just happened,” I admit, still shocked.

“She seemed to wake up and see the light, so it had to be something she needed to hear to give her the final push.”

“Thank you,” I say when I feel the weight lift off my chest. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. I know this hasn’t been easy for you.”

“I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t normally do,” he argues.

I know he’s just trying to make light of his support through this, but it was more than that. He showed me true friendship and commitment. One thing I’ve learned from this shitty experience is that Alex cares about me regardless of sex. He never pushed me for sex when it started to dwindle. He’s never pushed me ever. He still calls. We still talk. We still hang out. He’s showing me he cares about me as a person. I’m not just a warm body for him to fill. And it freaks me the fuck out because I think it’s the shove my brain needed to fully give in to this with Alex.