This didn’t make any sense.
A single tear rolled down her cheek, her chin quivering as a torrent of emotions crashed over her. She couldn’t believe this was happening. She’d tried so hard to be a good girlfriend. This wasn’t right.
Elena backed out of the room and moved down the hall, wiping away the treacherous tear as she made her way to the kitchen.
She opened a cabinet and pulled a trash bag from its box before making her way back down the hallway to the bathroom. She fought the tears down and made quick work of scooping her medications, hygiene products, and makeup into the bag. Only then did she reenter the bedroom, steeling herself against the filth happening in the bed as she approached the closet.
She almost made it to the closet door before they noticed her. The girl squealed. Jack cursed. As Elena began pulling clothes off hangers and stuffing them into the bag, the music stopped.
“Jesus, Elena… What are you doing home?”
“Really, Jack? What am I doing home?” she choked out. “That’s what you’ve got to say?”
She stepped to the left and pulled open the dresser, hastily unloading the contents of the two top drawers into her bag.
Jack sighed. “Can you just… stop for a second?”
“Just let her go, Jack!” the redhead whined. “You said you were tired of her anyway.”
“She could join?” the man suggested. “Come on, why don’t you just join us, hon?”
The sting of the woman’s words made more tears leak down Elena’s cheeks, and she bit her lip to smother a sob as her stomach rolled. She caught sight of Jack shimmying into his jeans as she turned to leave, zipping up on the move as he tried to intercept her. Elena rushed to the door, swinging around the corner and out into the hall before he could catch up.
“Elena! Please, please, just wait! Let me explain.”
She shook her head, hands balling into fists as she marched into the living room. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Elena!”
When he tried to snatch hold of her arm, Elena gave a wounded cry, turning to shove him away. Jack stumbled back so hard his elbow put a hole in the drywall. His expression morphed into one of shock, then hurt. He’d never expected her to put her hands on him.
Neither had she.
Elena tried to stand tall, but she was shaking so badly she knew it wasn’t believable. “You fucked another girl in our home, Jack. Brought another couple into our home like some… some kind of disgusting wannabe swinger. You never even told me you were into that crap! There’s nothing for us to talk about. I’m obviously too boring for you. You got your wish. I’m done.”
She turned her back on him, picking up her phone charger and laptop off the coffee table before she lost her nerve. Elena had never seen herself as that girl—the one who would flip a cheating man the middle finger without listening to his excuses. But here she was, trying to do just that.
It would have been so much easier to let him tell her why it was somehow her fault, to promise him she’d change if he’d just let her stay. Leaving—even if it was justified—was so much harder.
She glanced over her shoulder as she tucked the computer under her arm and headed for the door, tears flowing freely now. “I’ll be back for the rest of my stuff later. Don’t call me.”
The slamming of the door echoed behind her and she jolted to a stop, a wretched sob breaking loose before she could silence it.
She had been wrong. There was no silver lining. This was the worst day ever.
Chapter One
“I just don’t get it.”
“There’s nothing to get, Lena. He’s a worthless, disgusting slut.”
Elena tipped her chin back, looking up at the woman whose lap her head was currently resting in. “It sounds weird to call a man a slut.”
Kat smiled, scooping a spoonful of ice cream out of the container in her hand and aiming it at Elena’s mouth. “And yet that is exactly what he is.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She opened for the spoon, closing her lips tight around the mint chocolate chip offering before Kat could pull the utensil back.
“No ‘I guess,’ ” Kat scolded. “He cheated on you. He’s a slut. He doesn’t deserve you.”
Elena rolled the ice cream around in her mouth, letting its sweetness drown her sorrow. She cast a sidelong glance at the half-empty Chinese food containers on the table and the open bags of chips and cookies they’d already abandoned. She was going to feel like hell tomorrow.
She sighed, folding her arms over her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. Kat returned the spoon to the carton, scraping up a mouthful of ice cream for herself this time.
Elena had called her right after she’d left the apartment. True friend that she was, Kat had immediately dropped what she was doing to come get her.
For the past two hours, Elena had been eating, crying, and raging. Now she was lying on her back on the sofa, her legs propped up on the arm and her head in Kat’s lap.
They’d been friends ever since middle school when Kat’s family had immigrated from Russia. Elena had liked the dark-haired girl with the funny accent right away. She was bold and friendly, and never gave a rat’s ass what anyone thought of her. She was tough too; Elena had always admired that about her.
From the day they’d met, they’d been thick as thieves, spending practically all their free time together. Kat’s English improved with Elena’s help, and in turn, Elena learned Russian. It was almost like having their own code—no one in their circle spoke Russian.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I knew I shouldn’t have moved in with him,” Elena groaned. “I’ll never find an apartment as affordable as that one was.”
“Lena, that apartment was shit. You had cold air coming through the outlets in winter.”
Elena frowned, waving off the next mouthful of ice cream that headed her way. Kat just redirected it to her own mouth.
“I know, but still.”
“Don’t be silly. You’ll stay here till you figure it out.”
The casual way Kat said it—as if it had already been decided—made Elena smile. She didn’t know how she’d gotten so lucky, but she was grateful every day for her little Russian doll. It was a nickname Kat disliked, though she tolerated it because Elena had started calling her that after she’d heard Kat’s papa say it.
“I don’t deserve you,” Elena declared. “Really, you’re the absolute best.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “You would do the same for me, so hush. It’s not so big a thing.”
For a few moments, Elena was quiet. It was hard not to sulk, even with Kat here to lighten her mood. Her whole life had been upended in a single day; every plan changed by circumstances beyond her control.
Sighing, she scrubbed her face with both hands. “This really sucks. I’m so over it already.”
Kat tapped her on the head with the ice-cream carton, a not-so-subtle suggestion to sit up. “You know, this might be the perfect time to take a trip. Take some time to reset, and all that.”
Reluctantly Elena sat up, and Kat stood to gather the bags and boxes from their dinner and cart them to the kitchen. She plopped back against the couch cushions, throwing her hands in the air.