Leaving Amy (Amy #2) (28 page)

Ashley switched on the light and set her two bags down on the rug. Wesley just stood there.

“Well, help her,” I said like a robot.

Isn
’
t that what you do when someone is toting bags and looks like they need help? No matter who it is.
My mother would shoot me if I did anything other than be nice. Even though Ashley single-handedly screwed me over by sleeping with Wesley before we were married. So what if she didn’t know we were tying the knot? She knew we were living together.
Who is she, anyway? My sister or my nemesis?

“Thanks, Wes.”

Eww
…
that drove me crazy. Wes? Really? He
’
s not her Wes. He
’
s my Wesley.
She moved on, even moved away. She doesn’t get Wes privileges.
And just what is she doing here? And with all that baggage?

“Ashley, what are you doing?”

“Amy?” She looked up at me as though she’d seen a ghost. “What are you doing here?”

“Umm…I live here.”

With her jaw still swinging in the open position, she looked at Wesley. “What’s going on?”

He rubbed the side of his nose. I hadn’t seen this move in a long time. It was a tell-tale sign he was stuck in a crevice and looking for a way out.
Hmm
…
did he do that often before he split with me? Was I blind to the nose rub before?

“Amy just moved back in.”

“Moved back in?” She looked at him and then back at me. “As in, you two are back together, or she’s living here until…”

“We’re back together.”

I tried to replay exactly how he said that.
We
’
re back together.
Was it like,
Unfortunately, we
’
re back together
, or
Yeah, that
’
s right, you little heartbreaker, we
’
re back together
?

“I didn’t know.”

“So, I give up. I haven’t spoken with you since last spring. How did you know we
weren
’
t
back together? Where have we been if not back together?”

I was no dummy. Ashley didn’t keep ties with anyone here in the city. It was all about her. And she’d been in California, working on catching a break.

She looked at Wesley. As if trying to get a quick lowdown of what she could divulge. It started out slow, as if testing the waters of honesty. “I talked to Wesley about a month ago.”

“It was actually longer ago than that.” He rubbed his nose again.

Liar.

“He told me about how he had to move back here, and that’s about all.” She picked up the smaller bag and walked to the sofa.

“Are these new?” She sat down on one of them.

“Yes. So you say he
had
to move back?” I came down from my perch on the stairs. So much for a Marvin Gaye moment. Wesley would be lucky if it didn’t turn out to be a Tina Turner killing Ike moment.

“I didn’t have to move back. I wanted to,” Wesley almost shouted out.

Yes, sure, it was all coming back to me. How sad and disturbed he looked coming to my apartment that day. Crying about being broke. Just to think he was on the phone with Ashley, probably dreading the moment he had to set foot back in Portland.

“Yes, it seems he saw the errors in his ways. How completely stupid it was for him to ever cheat on me, and he came back. To me.” I held my head up while saying it.
Take that and put it in your pipe and smoke it, Ashley.

“Well sure, I told him he’d be an idiot not to try and cash in on his inheritance. His dad was such a jerk.”

“Huh?” That smoke that was just there, waiting for her, seemed to be getting caught in my airways. Blowing up in my face.
Ashley knew about the inheritance? What did they do, Skype every evening?

“Ashley called me about the time I’d discovered the inheritance clause. Actually, Jeff had told me. I knew nothing about it until then.” He looked at Ashley while he spoke.

“I thought you were here, working, before Jeff told you.”

“He was in Nevada, with that no-good hose bag.”

“What?”

“Ashley, why don’t you go out in the kitchen and get yourself a drink? Pour me one, too. Amy, hon, do you want one?”

Hon?
“No.”

Ashley walked out, her eyes larger than her waistline at this moment.
Skinny turd.

“Wesley, you told me you were working back here when Jeff called you in his office.”

He raked his fingers through his hair. “I was. Ashley doesn’t know anything. Violet had left me and I came back here to get my job back.”

“You never told me Ashley even called you. Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t think I needed to tell you when Ashley called me.”

“You’re right.” I straightened my posture and licked my lips. “You don’t. That’s absurd. But I would’ve liked a heads-up when you went to see her the weekend before we got married, just to ask her to take you back one last time.”

The only noise I could hear at that moment was the heat turning on in the registers. The kitchen area was even silent.

“What? That was so long ago. I was stupid. How did you even know? I didn’t—”

“You know, that’s getting to be a canned response of yours. When are you going to smarten up? I mean, the stupid card is worn out. And Ashley is the one who told me. Right before she told me to leave you.”

I wondered whether his mouth would ever shut; it seemed stuck open. “I’m so sorry you found out about that.”

“Found out? I’m sorry you didn’t tell me. I’m sorry you had to go and ask her. When am I going to be enough for you, Wesley? Will I ever be?”

“You are enough, Amy. We’re making a new start. This is going to be our greatest year yet.”

“We still have this one to finish out.”

I walked toward the stairs. “Why don’t you go out in the kitchen and have that drink? You look like you need it.”

I have to give it to him; he’s a slow learner, but he’s actively learning. Instead of drinking in the kitchen with Ashley, he followed me up the stairs and waited on the bed until I got out of the shower. No words were exchanged as he went in the steamy room where I just exited. I shook my hair out from my towel and went down the hall to grab my things from the guest room. I found Ashley inside it, pulling things from her suitcases.

“I need to get my stuff.”

“It’s none of my business, but were you sleeping in here?”

“You’re right; it is none of your business.”

I took my lotion and book from the nightstand.

“Listen, Amy, if this isn’t a good idea, I can go.”

I looked around at all her cases. “By the looks of it, Ashley, I’m thinking you have nowhere to go.”

She sat on the edge of the bed. “What can I say? I failed. Which probably delights you to no end.”

“Sure, it delights me that my only sister in the world is destitute and giving up on her dream.”

“Giving up? You don’t think I tried? You don’t think I’ve been living in a roach motel the last few months, working as anything I can just to pay the desk clerk so I can stay another week? Amy, you make it sound as though I just walked out of there with two legs and my head held high. I had nothing.”

“You walk out on everything, Ashley. You walked out on college; you walked out on me when I needed you after Mom and Dad died; you walked out on Wesley.”

She took a deep breath. “I know, Amy. I know.”

No fight?
I couldn’t fight with someone not willing to put up their fists.
Was she really broken this time? Who could tell?
She did this all the time and she was a trained actress.

“You can stay as long as you need to.”

“You mean it?”

“Of course. Didn’t you hear me? You’re all I have left. You’re my sister.”

She got up and squeezed the death out of me. “Thank you, Amy! I promise to get my shit together as fast as I can. I’m going to find a job, maybe at Riverside Theatre. I’ll sell tickets if I can’t act there. Whatever it takes. I just want to not have to feel so miserable. And I want a relationship with you again.”

I moved my arms up around her back and gave her a hug.
Second chances, right?
If I was willing to do it with Wesley, I had to do it with Ashley.

When I walked back into the bedroom, Wesley was already out of the shower. He was lying in bed, a look full of guilt mixed with seduction on his face.

“I’m not in the mood, Wesley.”

As if I was earlier.

“That’s fine. I’m just happy to lie close to you all night.”

Oh brother. Who was this man?
Who needed Wonder Woman powers—catching a man in a lie gave a girl all the power she needed. With Wesley, I had a lifetime’s supply.

I came home the next evening to find Wesley and my sister cooking dinner. So much for him not ever being stupid again. The house was smoky and smelled like a Mexican cantina. There were flour tortillas on the counter and salsa with chips by the stove. They were both munching as they worked on whatever creation this was. I’d be picking up stray shreds of lettuce for the next month.

“Hello. I’m home.” I tried to speak louder than the music they had playing on Ashley’s boom box. They both were belting out the lyrics to tunes from the nineties.

“Hey!” Wesley held up a spatula to wave hi.

“Ames, we have tequila and limes. Want a shot?” She held up the bottle.

“No, I’m good.” I looked around at my once-clean kitchen. Grocery bags sat on both the counters and floors. Boxes of Little Debbie’s sat on top of the microwave, sharing space with my rice cakes. Two bottles of liquor sat gleaming next to the blender and tons of bags of chips filled the other spaces: cheese munchies and barbeque rounds. I had entered a frat house.

“So, you hungry?” she blurted.

“Kind of. I was going to make chicken and rice tonight. I set the chicken out to thaw.”

She grabbed her mouth. “Oh my gosh!”

“What?”

“I looked at the date on it and tossed it in the trash.”

“It was thawing, Ashley. It was still good.”

“See, I know little about that whole thawing method. That’s why I go daily for food.”

“Well, I can’t, as I have a job.”

“Okay, let’s just eat what Ashley bought. No need in talking about things that are already done. I’m sure she is sorry for doing that. Everyone makes mistakes.”

Wesley kissed me on the forehead as he waved that stupid spatula around in my face. This was already not working out.
Since when did Wesley know what the knobs on the stove were used for? Where even the pots and pans were kept?

“I thought you had no money, Ashley. How did you pay for these groceries?”

“Wesley loaned me some.”

I looked at Wesley. He darted back to the stove and stirred whatever was in the skillet. Funny how he couldn’t cook for me ever before when I came home from work. I guess it took my sister to be home and sporting around in her little boy shorts and tight shirt. My teeth gritted just looking at her. I wanted to love her like a sister should. But did she have to be so Playboy bunny-like and fun to be around? My living and breathing opposite.

“Babe, you want the first fajita?” he asked me.

“Mexican doesn’t agree with me. I’ll just make myself a sandwich.”
And choke on it because I ate one for lunch, too.

“That’s right. Now that you mention it, I remember you never wanting to go to El Churro’s again because it made you sick.”

Give the man a prize! He does have a brain.

“In fact, I’ll eat it in the living room. The smoke is a bit much in here.” I waved an area clear in front of where I stood.

I grabbed the bread and meat from the fridge and took it to the living room. I chomped on every bite, waiting for the man of my dreams to come and join me. Because how depressing is it that someone eats in the living room—alone.

After I couldn’t take hearing the frolicking any longer, I went back in to the love fest. Should it upset me that my sister is having fun with Wesley? He was still
my
husband, right? My feelings for him would come back, I was sure of it.