The Fling

77

After Reagan stormed off, Abigail turned to me. "I need to call Bert right now."

"Jesus Christ, honey! This is supposed to be our time and once again he's inserting himself into your life and ruining your happiness!" I whisper-yelled.

She threw her hands in the air. "Sorry, but I need to know why the hell he lied to Reagan!" Then she set her half-empty glass on a table and exited the lounge while I stood there seething.

By the time I got to our suite, she was in the bathroom with the door shut. I plopped down on the bed and could hear her talking, but most of the words were unintelligible, however, her tone came through loud and clear. After a bit Abigail emerged looking very defeated and sat down on a chair, putting her face in her hands. She was distraught by the situation, so I needed to act sensitively rather than react angrily.

"You talked to Bert, and I made sure you won't have to see Reagan much, so can we forget about whatever happened and get back to how we were before the happy hour?" I asked as calmly as I could.

She looked at me, tears wet on her cheeks. "I'm surprised you aren't interrogating me about this."

I sighed to release a little of my frustration. "If I start asking questions, I'm probably going to get mad. Unlike you, I refuse to let this impact our trip. I do want to know if you resolved whatever the issue is, because it's important to me that you let this go."

"There's nothing to resolve. He admitted he lied, and I told him that I want him gone before I get back. He can call his father and apologize again, and I'm sure Bertram will finally relent."

Shit. Whatever this lie was must have been pretty serious if she was finally kicking his sorry ass out. My curiosity got the better of me. "What did he lie about?"

"You're sure you want to know?"

"Yes, but you need to promise that after you share whatever it is, you'll take a gummy with me so we can relax until dinner."

She gave me a curt nod. "When you took off to talk to Lorelei, Reagan came back over alone and told me, and this is a quote, 'You need to choose between Bert and Shawn before one of them gets hurt,' which obviously confused the hell out of me."

I could feel my blood pressure rising. "Why would she ever think there was a choice to be made?"

"Because my rat bastard of an ex-husband called her on New Year's Eve and told her that the two of us fooled around on Christmas."

"The two of us...meaning you and Bert?" I asked.

"Mmhm. He said you and I broke up, and that living together reignited old feelings so we had sex."

"But that's what happened with your parents. Not you. Nothing has happened between you and Bert, right?"

She shot me a look that told me I should not have posed that question. "You are not serious, Shawn! On top of Bert lying and Reagan accosting me, you're asking me if I actually hooked up with that asshole? I told you the other day that it would never happen!"

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "I lost my head for a second there. Back to Bert...why would he tell Reagan that?"

"He said he wanted to make her jealous after finding out she has a new boyfriend."

For a guy in his forties, Bert was really skilled at behaving like a teenager. "That's so fucking lame. You should be laughing right now, Abigail, because this is absurdly hilarious, not worthy of you getting upset."

"I'm failing to see the humor in the situation. I know he lied, and hopefully you know that," she gave me another pointed look, "but Reagan isn't sure who she believes and that bugs me. I'm not a cheater, though I guess technically we were on a break so even if it had happened, it wouldn't have been cheating."