Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (29 page)

Yeah right. I was sure that was just about as far from the truth as it got.

“Chloe!” Jase yelled, his glare boring into her as she sat there looking bored but smug at the same time.

She was loving the fact that Jase was freaking out, that I was about to fall apart, and that she’d made good on her threat to take from me the one thing she wanted. Well, she’d gotten it all right.

“What, Jase?” she asked
impatiently, finally looking over at him.

“What
the hell are you doing in my bed?” he asked through gritted teeth.

She rolled her
eyes again, and I seriously considered slapping her again. She deserved it.

“Isn’t it obvious? I stayed here last night.”

“Why?” he demanded, his eyes flashing, but in them I could also see uncertainty.

“Um, because I wasn’t going back to my room after we slept together. I’m not that cheap.”

My stomach heaved as she confirmed my suspicions.

“You slept with her?!” I screeched at Jase, the rage boiling up inside
of me. It was the only thing that prevented me from bursting into tears.

“No,” he said automatically. T
hen he turned to me, his resolve fading when he saw my face. His shoulders slumped. “No, no Logan, I wouldn’t do that.”

“But, you did,” Chloe said
as if it was obvious, and we both turned to see her examining her cuticles.

“No!” Jase said firmly
. “I wouldn’t do that. I
didn’t
do that. You’re lying.”

“Then why am I naked in your bed
?”

“
I have no idea, but it’s not because we did
that
,” Jase insisted. He couldn’t even say the words.

“
Sorry, but we did,” Chloe said, looking over at him as if he was a moron.

“I would never sleep with you,” Jase insisted. “I can’t stand you.”

I could hear the panic in his voice, hidden behind his anger, and I so desperately wanted to believe him, probably as much as he wanted to believe himself, but we both knew he was grasping at straws.

“You sure could stand me last night,” Chloe murmured, and I wanted to slap the smirk right off
of her face.

Jase
let his head fall to his hands. “Shit, I can’t remember anything from last night. What the hell happened?”

“
She
happened, apparently,” I told him, jerking my thumb in Chloe’s direction.

Jase looked up at me with so much pain in his eyes that I was sure
it matched my own.

“Oh, don’t be so quick to point fingers,
Logan
,” Chloe spat. “Your boyfriend was the one who got shitfaced and hit on me, if you really want to know.”

Jase looked
over at her in alarm, and then his gaze flew back to me. “Logan, no. Don’t believe her. It’s not true.”

Chloe sighed. “There’s a used condom in the bathroom trashcan. If you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself.”

Jase started to get up, but I put my hand up to stop him, surprised at how calm I was in the moment. I needed to see the evidence of his infidelity for myself.

I slowly walked into the adjoining bathroom and peered into the trashcan. And sure enough, there it was. One used condom. And before
I could stop myself, I turned and vomited into the toilet, finally giving in to the sick feeling I’d been overwhelmed with since walking in on Jase and Chloe.

From outside the bathroom
, I could hear Chloe laughing and Jase telling her to shut up.

Taking a few seconds to get my bearings and decide what to do next, I stood with my hands on the vanity and took deep breaths but refused to look in the mirror. I didn’t want to see my face and see how torn apart I looked, because it felt like my insides were ripping to shreds. I could only image how that was reflected to the outside world.

Finally I took a deep breath and turned to leave the bathroom, but I was stopped short when I collided with Jase’s hard body. His arms went around me, holding me tight, and I started to cry when I felt his familiar warmth. I wanted to push him away. I was disgusted with him, but I had no strength. All I could do was cry, my arms hanging lifelessly at my sides while he held me and told me he loved me over and over again, only stopping to interject an ‘I’m sorry’ now and then.

But it wasn’t enough. I didn’t care how much he loved me or how sorry he was. It didn’t change the fact that he’d cheated.
And he’d cheated on me with a girl he didn’t even like. It was a complete slap in the face.

“Let go of me,”
I finally said and pulled out of his arms.

Jase stood before me wearing just boxer shorts looking more torn up than I’d ever seen him. It was even worse than the time we’d spent apart at the start of our relationship when I’d believed
something about him that hadn’t been true. But I’d shut him out then, hadn’t talked to him and hadn’t let him explain his side of the story.

Had I done those things, I would have known the truth, and
I would have been saved the heartbreak of being without him for too long. And had I heard about what I’d just witnessed secondhand, I wouldn’t have believed it until I talked to Jase. I’d learned my lesson and that was to go to the source, but when the source was half-naked with the girl at the scene of the crime, I wasn’t sure what else there was to do.

“Don’t leave,” Jase begged. “Please don’t leave.”

“What do you expect me to do?” I croaked, hating the feelings of loss and emptiness and betrayal that were overtaking me. I never thought I’d feel those things because of Jase. Never.

“Stay. Talk to me. Don’t believe her lies.
She wanted to get between us, Logan, you know that. And you promised me you wouldn’t let her do that. You promised. You can’t believe what she’s telling you. It’s a lie. Please.”

He looked so hollow and lost that I couldn’t even look at him, because if I did, I’d just want to hug him and comfort him, and I couldn’t do that.

I closed my eyes for a few beats and took a deep breath, processing his words. When I opened them again, the sorrow in his eyes almost broke me. But I fought to stay strong. Nothing he could say would justify what he’d done. There wasn’t an excuse in the book that would warrant his actions – unless it was a lie.

I looked right into his bright green eyes. “Can you tell me without a shadow of a doubt that you didn’t sleep with her, that nothing happened?” I asked calmly, and Jase’s face fell.

“No,” he said, as a single tear streaked down his cheek. “I can’t do that, but I can tell you if I did sleep with her, it didn’t mean anything. I
love
you, Logan.”

Not if you did that, you don’t.

I took a deep breath, trying to take in enough air. And I just couldn’t get enough.

Even if he couldn’t remember, even if he’d been so drunk out of his mind, he’d somewhere along the line made the decision to sleep with his ex-girlfriend. I couldn’t forgive that. I believed it was a mistake and he regretted it, but it didn’t take back that fact that it had happened.

“I need to get out of here,” I said then, stepping forward to push past him, but he wouldn’t let me go.

“No, Logan, don’t leave. If you walk out that door, I’ll lose you. I know it.”

His arms wrapped around me again, and I was assaulted by his familiar scent.

I closed my eyes for a second and shook my head, hating what I had to say. “Jase, you already lost me. Now
just let me go.”

He hesitated for a few seconds before dropping his arms and falling against the door frame, his gaze
glued to the tiled floor. As soon as there was enough room, I shoved past him toward the door to the bedroom.

“I love you,” he said one last time, but there was so much defeat in his words that I wasn’t sure why he was saying them. He knew I wasn’t sticking around.

“Bye, Logan,” Chloe called from behind me. “It was great to see you again.”

Fresh tears stung my eyes, and as much I wanted to turn around, walk over and punch her, I didn’t. I stared straight ahead, walked with purpose to the front door, grabbed my bags and let myself out of the suite, shutting them both out.

I held the tears at bay as I rode the elevator down to the lobby and put my sunglasses on just in case any photographers were lurking. I didn’t need them to capture me crying and print it for the whole world to see. Keeping my head down, I walked briskly through the lobby toward the front entrance, asked one of the valets to hail me a cab, and only when I was settled into the back of the taxi and we were on our way back to the airport did I let the tears start to fall.

As we streaked through New Orleans, I could see the sun peaking over the horizon, signifying the start of a new day, and all I felt was regret. I never should have dated Jason Brady. And I wished I’d never met him.

Chapter
Twenty

Ethan

“He cheated on me! With her!”

Logan was calling me as I was waiting outside Boulevard3 for the valet to bring my car around, and I wasn’t sure I heard her right. Hunter and TJ were yelling something at a group of girls walking away from us, so I plugged my ear with my finger and asked Logan to repeat what she’d just said. She was supposed to be with Jase, and I really hoped he didn’t do what I think she said he did. If so, I was fully prepared to be on the next flight to New Orleans so I could promptly kick his ass.

“What?”
I asked her.

“He cheated on me!”
she shrieked again, and I could tell she’d been crying.

“What do you mean he cheated?” I asked, then step
ped away from my friends. They were drunk and acting obnoxious.

Logan sniffled
and drew in a ragged breath. “I went to his hotel suite, and I walked in expecting to surprise him, and he was in bed –
with Chloe
,” she growled.

“Jesus,” I cursed, wishing I had something to punch. “Where are you?”

I heard her swallow loudly. “I’m at the airport waiting for the first flight out. I just want to get back to L.A. I don’t want to be here anymore!”

“Lo, calm down, okay,” I pleaded with her, wishing to God I was there with her, but I was two thousand miles away. I kicked the
wall in front of me in frustration.

“I can’t calm down,” she cried
, gasping for air. “He cheated. With
her
. I hate her, and I hate him.”

I hate him too.

But I couldn’t say that to Logan. I knew she didn’t really hate Jase. She loved him. The bastard.

“Are you sure he cheat
ed?” I asked, just because she was hysterical, and if there was any chance she read into something that just looked like cheating, and Jase was really being the stand-up guy I thought he was, that he’d told me he was when we’d gotten a fucking drink together a week earlier, it would make her pain go away.

I just want to make it go away.

“Yes, Ethan,” she spat at me. “He was naked, she was naked, there was a used condom. And Jase didn’t remember shit. He was wasted out of his freaking mind, and he slept with Chloe. Ugh! I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I just wanted to call you and let you know that I’m coming home. Can you pick me up at the airport?”

Her tone was murderous, and I knew she wasn’t alright, but I had to respect the fact that she wanted to let it go for now. I knew she’d want to talk later.

“What time does your flight get in?”

“I’m on the six o’clock flight out of here. It lands a little before noon
, because I have to connect through Atlanta. I’ll text you when we get to L.A., okay?”

I looked down at my watch to see that it was a little after five
-thirty where she was. Her plane probably wasn’t boarding yet, and I didn’t want to let her off the phone.

“E? Are you there?”

“I’m here,” I said, my jaw hurting I was clenching it so badly.

I wanted to kill Jase Brady, put my hands around his neck and squeeze. How dare he do that
to Logan? She was one of the best girls out there, and he’d had her, and he threw her away. Fucking celebrity asshole. I knew he figured he could do better or maybe he just figured he could screw his ex-girlfriend and Logan would never know. Maybe he’d been leading Logan on for months.

“You’re not okay,” she said. “What’s wrong?”

I took a steadying breath. “I’m pissed,” I told her, and she knew me well enough to know why. Of course I was fucking pissed.

I heard her let out a shaky breath. “Me too. And I’m hurt, and in shock a little bit, and,” her voice cracked, and it broke my heart.

“Lo, baby, don’t cry. He’s not worth your time. He doesn’t deserve you.”

Dammit.
I just wanted to hold her, to be with her and make sure she knew that I would never hurt her. I would always be there for her. Even if I couldn’t keep assholes like Jase from hurting her, I would make sure she always had me.