Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (46 page)

She shrugged. “You have to try on a lot of guys before you find the right one.”

I had the right one.

“
Not tonight.”

Nora smiled and
shrugged. “Then whenever you’re ready.”

I nodded once, gla
d she was being friendly. She seemed to be softening more and more each day.

At The Well, we settled in an L-shaped cou
ch and took in the Saturday night crowd. There weren’t many familiar faces, which was good. I wasn’t in the most social of moods, so hanging out with my friends was just fine with me.

“Hey
guys,” a voice said when we’d been there for thirty minutes. “I didn’t know you were coming here.”

“
Bryan!” Ellie cheered, jumping up to hug her old friend. They’d worked together on her Disney show a few years earlier before she’d ditched acting to pursue a singing career.

Bry
an Heller was an actor and my step-father’s protégé. He’d been at the wedding, but I’d artfully avoided him because he was single and a complete douchebag who was totally full of himself. He’d called me and asked me out a few weeks earlier, and I’d turned him down, which had thoroughly baffled him. He’d tried asking me out again earlier in the night, and again, I’d had to tell him no.

“Logan, you look beautiful.”

He’d already told me that twice that night.

“Thanks, Bryan,” I said passively.

He winked at me, and I wanted to shake off the icky feeling it had produced. Bryan Heller was probably the best looking guy with the worst personality. If he was halfway normal, I might have considered going out with him, but I could barely stomach the idea.

“Who are you here with?” Ellie asked him, since Bryan had come to the wedding alone.

“Oh, just a few people. You know, Bash, Javier, Chloe and some other friends.”

My ears perked up at that. Was he talking about Chloe St. James?

“Oh, my God, Bash
is here! I can’t believe you got him to come out. How is he?”

Bryan laughed. “He’s a little fucked up. It’s his
twenty-first birthday, and he’s been going at it for a few hours, so we came here to regroup.”

“Oh, well, I want to go say hi to everyone and wish Bash happy birthday,” Ellie said and turned back to Garrett. “Come me
et some of my old friends?”

“Sure,” he said, rising to his feet before the three of them walked away, and I was left wondering if the girl I’d come to hate was there that night.

I quietly sipped my drink, feeling like a third wheel as Ethan and Nora talked with their heads together. I checked my phone, looked around the bar and people watched for a few minutes, but when a guy who was sort of cute made eye contact with me, I quickly looked away. I was trying to distract myself out of doing what I really wanted to do.

Finally
, I decided that I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Ever since Jase had told me the week before that he was ninety percent certain that he hadn’t slept with Chloe, I’d had my doubts, and there was only one person who could tell me the truth.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I told Ethan and Nora, because I needed to get my thoughts together and figure out how I was going to confront Chloe.

I’d wanted to talk to her for a week, hell for months even, because something about that night and what I’d walked into just didn’t sit right with me. Jase was so incredibly unaware that she was in his bed, and even if he’d been drunk, he would have remembered going to bed with her. And wouldn’t he have eventually recollected almost everything from that night?

I knew my night with Ethan was fuzzy, but over time, I
’d remembered every stupid thing we did that night – minus a few details – but I knew with certainty that we hadn’t slept together, and Jase still couldn’t remember anything about that one, very important detail. It didn’t make sense.

When I stepped into the bathroom, I jumped back a little because Chloe was standing at the sink washing her hands. She looked
up and caught my gaze in the mirror, and I was completely unprepared to confront her in the calm rational way I wanted to. I didn’t want to go off on her. I didn’t want to hit her again, because those emotions and actions hadn’t gotten me anywhere in the past.

“Well, look who it is,” she said snarkily, and I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean.

“Who is it?” I asked as confrontationally, and I could hear defeat in my tone, not fight, which I wasn’t sure was a good thing or not.

She spun on me. “The bitch who got what she deserved. The one who’s going to get more things she deserves, because no one sucker punches me and gets away with it. I might be all polished and have money now, but I didn’t grow up that way. This won’t be my first fight.”

What she said threw me off for a few seconds, because she was standing in front of me wearing a bright blue strapless dress and five inch open-toed nude heels. She looked as prim and proper as anyone who’d grown up in Beverly Hills. But I’d read the articles about her, about her upbringing in a rough part of Boston and how she broke out of her lot in life by getting cast as the girlfriend of an up-and-coming rap star in a movie when she was barely seventeen.

It was just fortunate that one of the producers was from Boston
and had decided to get a hot dog at a Red Sox game at the counter she was working at. He flew her to L.A., had her audition and gave her the part. She’d told countless interviewers that story and how she’d never looked back after that day.

The producer had taken her under his wing, made her over and taught her how to act and succeed in Hollywood. In his film, s
he’d stolen the show, was nominated for an Oscar, and made a name for herself that would ensure that she always had a place in Hollywood. And I doubted she’d do anything to ruin that, even if her white trash roots dictated it was what felt right in this situation.

My eyebrows rose. “You’re going to fight me? In a bathroom?
Please.” I shook my head, swallowed my pride and used the mom card. “I know you can’t stand me for some bullshit reason, but if you kick my ass tonight, guess who’s going to know about it?”

She glared at me and took a step closer. I had inches on this girl. I could probably take her if had to, but she looked like she’d be scrappy, and she probably was.

“Who are you going to tell? Jase?” she demanded, her Boston accent that she’d worked so hard to mask coming out with her anger.

I shook my head. “No, but earlier today, my mom married Luiz Oliviera, and I’m sure they’d both be very pleased to know that their daughter got attacked by someone in their community. Trust me. It wouldn’t bode well for your career, so I’d think twice about what you’re about to do.”

“You wouldn’t have any proof,” she scoffed, but I could see I’d ruffled her feathers.

“I wouldn’t really need it,” I said, confidence abounding me. “See, you know how easily rumors get started in this town, and I know enough influential people to make some waves. Just think about that, will you?”

She opened her mouth to say something, but the door behind me suddenly burst open. I turned around to see Ellie and Nora stop short behind me.

“Hi guys,” I said nonchalantly. They both seemed out of breath
, but they didn’t say anything. I turned back to Chloe and then gestured to my friends with my thumb. “I also have a lot of friends here tonight who’d never let you lay a hand on me, so if you want to go all white trash on me, go for it, but you’re not getting far.”

Chloe’s face turned bright red as she threw her hands up in the air and screamed. “I am NOT white trash!”

Nora stepped to my side then, as if showing that she’d be my back-up, if needed, but she didn’t say anything.

“Sweetie, no one’s calling you white trash,” Ellie said from behind me, sympathy for her former friend coming out. “But if you
try to beat up Logan, we will.”

Chloe’s glare turned to Ellie. “What the hell? You were my friend f
irst. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Ellie stepped up next to me and shook her head. “Chloe, you’re a bitch, and we haven’t been friends for a long time. You were cool when you first moved out here, even when you first started dating Jase, but then you let your ego go to your head, and you turned in to someone I didn’t want to be around. And you lost Jase in the process, and
you
have to deal with that. It’s not Logan’s fault, it’s yours.”

Chloe shook her head, her lower lip starting to tremble. “No, we were talking again
last summer. He was finally letting me back in, and then
she
came into the picture and ruined everything.” Chloe glared at me. “It wasn’t fair. He was mine!” she said, stomping one of her five inch heels.

“Chloe, you hooked u
p with Samuel Klein on your own,” Ellie said calmly. “Logan had nothing to do with that. You drove Jase away in the first place.”

Chloe shook her head violently, her emotions taking over. “No. No, I didn’t. That’s not true.”

“Yes it is,” Ellie said, handling the situation much more calmly than I could have. “Just like it’s true that you slipped something into Jase’s drink that night in New Orleans, because you were so desperate to get him back that you would have tried anything at that point.”

My jaw dropped open, and I looked at Ellie whose gaze was fixed on Chloe. Was she serious with that
accusation?

“He wouldn’t talk to me. He wouldn’t listen,” Chloe insisted, tears filling her eyes. “I love him, and it was a mistake to let him go, and I just want
ed him back.”

She closed her eyes and tears spilled down her cheeks, but I had very little sympathy for her.

“You slipped him something?” I interjected, and her eyes flew open.

“Yes, I did, because it was the only way I could get him alone!” she cried. “He needed to see that we were right together, that we belonged together, and he kept pushing me away.”

I could see how much pain she was in, and my heart almost went out to her, but I just couldn’t do it. She was a vindictive bitch.

“He doesn’t love you,” Nora interjected, and Chloe turned to her, as if surprised to see her standing there. “Chloe, you treated him like shit for almost a year before you cheated, and we couldn’t have been happier to see you go. His family hates you, and not just because of what you did, but because
of how you treated us all. Do you remember two Christmases ago when we were in Big Bear? My dad and Jase got into a fight, because Dad wanted to tell you to leave, and Jase wouldn’t let him. He saw through your nice girl act, and he knew you weren’t right for his son. Now I’m sorry that you’re upset, but you need to move on, because Jase is
never
going to take you back, and he’s never going to forgive you for breaking up him and Logan, especially since it sounds like you were trying to date rape him.”

“I just needed him to remember what it was like to be with me again,” she insisted. “And I don’t care what you or your parents think, we’re right for each other.”

“Um, obviously you’re not or you’d be with him right now,” Nora said. “But clearly your little plan didn’t work, and my brother is smarter than you think.”

Chloe glared at her. “We’re getting there. We’re talking,” she said, but I don’t think any of us believed her.

I’d bet money Jase hadn’t spoken a word to her since the morning I’d caught them in bed in New Orleans. He despised her. That much I was sure of.

Nora opened her mouth to say something, but I shook my head to stop her. My mind was spinning
, and I had to take control of this conversation.

“Wait, so you actually slipped something in Jase’s drink so he wouldn’t know what was happening, and then what, you slept with him?” I clarified, trying to wrap my head around the picture that had been painted. “That’s sick, Chloe.”

Oh, my God. I had to talk to Jase. I had to let him know what happened, that he hadn’t done anything wrong. It was the sweetest feeling of relief I’d felt in months. I didn’t have to fight with myself about why I shouldn’t take him back, because he had no control over what had happened that night. Chloe had set him up.

“I had to do what I had to do,” she said, shrugging.

This chick was certifiable.

“But it didn’t work, did it?” Ellie interjected, and Chloe’s gaze snapped back to her.

“What? Of course it worked. We had sex.”

Ellie shook her head. “No, you
didn’t, but nice try. I know Jase passed out before you guys did anything.”

Chloe’s eyes narrowed at her. “How do you know that?”

“That’s not important.”

“Okay, hold on,” I said, suddenly realizing what Chloe had just revealed. “So you
didn’t sleep with him?”

She let out a sigh, and I could see the fight go out of her.
“No, we didn’t. Are you happy?”

“Extremely,” Nora chimed in.

That thought made me incredibly happy, but it still didn’t make sense with the scene I’d walked into.

“So, if you didn’t have sex, why were you naked in his
bed the next morning?” I asked, needing to know everything.