Jealous Storm by Jack Stroke

Author:Jack Stroke [Stroke, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-29T23:00:00+00:00

34

Amber ran along the sand. It was the second half of her run, so she upped the pace. Always move faster on the back end of a run to improve fitness.

She had been lying low, hiding out in her cabin, not wanting to see a soul. Hideous embarrassment tugged at her skin. Humiliation at what had taken place at the Park Inn. Confusion too. She struggled to make any sense of it. It wasn’t Megan’s number on Ellis’ phone. He had definitely been sexting someone else. Someone else that he’d agreed to meet. Amber hadn’t imagined that.

In which case, what was Megan doing there? About the only thing Amber knew with any certainty was that she should have listened to Vaughan. If she had invited him in yesterday and talked it through with him, he would have attempted to talk Amber out of it and possibly prevented her from doing something so incredibly stupid. Why hadn’t she listened to Vaughan?

She was supposed to be the new Amber. Chill Amber. Surely that meant letting others into her life and not being so closed off. Well, time for a change. From this moment she was going to let Vaughan in fully, no matter how difficult she found it. This was important.

Rather than head back to Paradise by the Bay, she detoured via the pier. She had attempted to get straight in her head what she would say, but the words just wouldn’t come. She was going to have to wing it. That hardly mattered. It was Vaughan. No need to practise for that.

Amber heard them before she saw them, and yet she kept approaching. Loud voices, chatting and laughing, having a grand old time. She didn’t fully process what it actually was until she saw them.

There in the deck chairs on Vaughan’s boat was Grubby and Vaughan and Ellis, having a few beers. Not only was Ellis on board, he was sitting in Amber’s chair. It was invasive and stung.

Grubby spotted Amber first. “Oh, look out,” he said, having the time of his life. “Your woman’s here, Vaughan. Now you’re in trouble.”

“Shut up, Grubby,” Vaughan said, standing. He at least had the decency to look sheepish, aware he had been caught out.

“Whoa, can’t keep having a good time then.” Grubby made a sound like a whip cracking.

“Looking good, Amber,” Ellis said. “Been for a run? Meegs was saying you’re some kind of crazy fitness freak these days.”

Meegs. It was like a spike digging into Amber’s eyeball. She hated it when Ellis called her that back then, and she hated it now.

“Good run?”

To his credit, Ellis did a pretty good impression of a polite person, if you didn’t know him. If you weren’t aware of the reality of what he really was like. Amber didn’t trust herself to respond. Instead she simply turned and strode away.

“Amber, you don’t have to go,” Ellis said. “If you want me to, I can leave.”

He may have continued talking. Amber couldn’t hear him anymore.

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