Page 44 of Lone King


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My lovely crush.

“Oh, he reminds me of my father,” Ava says. “He’s got kind eyes.”

I study his eyes until he disappears from the screen. They are kind. I like that.

“Kind is good.”

Beside me, Ava says in a quiet voice. “Marius has nice eyes too. They’re that shade of brown all the Kings have. You know, that warm chocolate shade.”

“You’re sweet, but that’s your husband who has the warm chocolate eyes. Mine has more like dark chocolate.”

Ava smiles as I say that. “Your husband. I’m still trying to get used to that.”

“Well, don’t take too long. I hear he got served with divorce papers.”

Even as I try to make a joke, my heart aches when I say those words. I hated that I didn’t have a choice but to do that.

My best friend hugs me tightly to her and says, “I saw a picture of my father when he and my mother first started dating, and he looked a lot like this guy on Air Disasters. My mother used to say my father fell in love first, but she was secretly crazy about him even before they started going out because he was so handsome.”

I look at the TV and can see a hint of similarity in how this guy looks with her father. “That’s nice. Your father is a great guy. Sweet and thoughtful and honest. I like that.”

Just listing all those wonderful qualities makes me break down again, and I begin to sob like a baby. “Your mother was so lucky. She had such a great guy.”

Ava pulls me close and hugs me tightly to her. “Oh, honey. I didn’t mean to make you sad again. Marius is a great guy too. He just made a mistake.”

That has the opposite effect of what I think she’s trying to accomplish here, and I cry even harder. “He is a great guy, but he never wanted anyone to know we were together, so really, how great is he?” I ask all muffled into her shoulder.

“Aww, Eden. Let it out. You’ll feel better.”

“I wanted things to work out so much. He kept saying just a little longer, but when I saw him with that girl at your party, that’s when I knew he wasn’t understanding how much I hated hiding our relationship. Why did he have to do that?”

“Honey, I don’t know, but I can tell you as soon as you left that night, he sent her home and went to his room. I don’t think they were really together.”

Leaning back, I wipe under my eyes. “I know they weren’t, but why couldn’t he understand that because he wanted to keep everything under wraps, I didn’t have a choice but to keep going out with guys you wanted to set me up with? I would have never been at that party with Rob or anyone else if we weren’t hiding that we were together.”

God, how did my life become so messed up?

“Let it out,” she says sweetly. “Get all your crying done so you can start to feel better.”

I don’t want to tell Ava that isn’t going to work this time. I’m never going to feel better. I love Marius. I’ve never been happier with anyone else in my life, and now it’s over. How the hell can I ever feel anything close to okay again?

Even as I think that, I secretly wish something would happen to make me not want to divorce him. But what could that possibly be?

As I watch Air Disasters through teary eyes, Ava asks, “Will you tell me the story of how you guys got together? I’d love to hear it.”

Normally, whenever I meet a new guy, I tell my best friend everything about it. She didn’t get to enjoy the Eden and Marius story when it first happened, though.

I sniffle and sit up against the pillows. Drying my eyes, I smile as that night comes rushing back to me.

“Well, believe it or not, I finally have my story of a white knight coming to my rescue. Didn’t think I was going to say that, now did you?”

Ava smiles and shifts her position so she’s facing me sitting cross-legged. “Tell me everything! I need to know chapter and verse and the whole book!”

Since she asked, I guess I have to give her all the details. At least it’s a great story.

“Well, it all started the first night of the trip to Las Vegas with Justin.”

“Hurry up, Eden! I want to see if we can get into watch that pool tournament,” Justin says in a whiny voice I’m close to hating right now.