Chapter 22

About a week had passed since Jordan and I had ended our relationship. It had become public knowledge now and everyone wanted to ask me about it. Thankfully it hadn’t been a bitter or angry break up so it was more annoying than painful to answer the questions. Seriously, how many times can you reiterate that it was an amicable breakup to people?

I also hadn’t heard anything from Corey about his talk with Ileana. She was supposed to be home the day after Jordan was so I couldn’t figure out what was going on. He’d said he was going to end things with her. Why wasn’t he calling me to tell me that he had? I didn’t have a good feeling about the whole thing.

I was tempted to call him and ask him, but I was scared. What if I called and he hadn’t done it? I decided just to wait until he called me, because then I would know that it was over between them. At least I hoped so. It was another couple of days before he finally did call.

“Are you free for lunch tomorrow?” he asked. I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face.

“I am. What did you have in mind?”

He gave me a place and a time and I couldn’t contain myself for the rest of the night. This was it. We would finally be able to be together without any problems. I put a lot more effort into getting ready than I had in a long time. I wanted to look good for our first day back together. When it was time I got in my car and drove to the restaurant. I got there first and had to wait for Corey to meet me after practice.

“Hey!” I called jumping up from my seat when I saw him. I hugged him and gave him a quick kiss before sitting back down.

“How is everything?” he asked as he sat down across from me.

“Good. Great. Fantastic,” I gushed, grinning ear to ear. He smiled back at me. The waitress came over and took our orders a minute later. “It was much easier with Jordan than I expected it to be.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked as he took a sip of his water.

“Jordan actually was thinking the same thing. He’s the one that brought it up.” Corey looked surprised.

“He wanted to break up with you?” he asked. I nodded.

I told Corey about the conversation that we had. He didn’t talk much, or interject a whole lot while I was talking. I figured it was because I was just so happy that I couldn’t make myself shut up. What I didn’t fail to notice by the time our food got there was that he hadn’t mentioned ending things with Ileana yet. I wondered if he’d had a really bad experience doing that.

“You haven’t told me how it went with Ileana,” I finally pushed when we were almost done with lunch. He sighed and took a drink of his water.

“That’s why I asked you to lunch.” I felt my heart stop for a minute. What the hell was going on? “Things with Ileana are complicated.”

“What do you mean, they’re complicated?” I asked, my voice rising a little.

“Her grandmother’s dying.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. On one hand I felt terrible for her. I knew what it was like to lose a family member and as much as I disliked Ileana, I’d never wish for anyone to go through that. On the other hand I was wondering what the hell that had to do with Corey breaking up with her.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but what does that have to do with this?” I asked.

“Meels, I can’t break up with someone who has a family member dying.” My eyes widened and I sucked in a breath. He hadn’t ended things with her.

“So, what, you’re still dating?” I spat at him.

“What do you want me to do?” I saw a glimmer of something in his eyes. I couldn’t figure out what it was. He looked guilty. Well, he should.

“Corey, it’s been over a week since we agreed to do this and you’re just telling me now?!” I yelled. I noticed a few tables turn their attention to us, but right now I didn’t care. I was angry.

“We had games, and Ileana’s been around a lot and I just didn’t have time.” They were excuses. I struggled to think of something to say when realization hit me. I knew what that look in his eyes was.

“You slept with her!” I screamed out. A hush fell over the restaurant as I saw the look on Corey’s face. He looked busted.

“Amelia, this is not the place,” he started. I didn’t want to hear it.

“Fuck you, Corey! You brought me here.”

I got up from my seat and grabbed my purse. Without another word I turned and walked out of the restaurant. Let him pay the whole bill. It’s not like he couldn’t afford it. I was seething when I got outside. I could see some members of the paparazzi standing outside waiting for me. I handed my ticket to the valet and waited for my car to come around while ignoring the questions being shouted at me.

“Amelia, let’s go somewhere and talk,” I heard Corey say as he walked out next to me. I spun around on him.

“I have nothing to say to you right now.” He sighed as I glared at him.

“Yes, you do. I’ll just follow you home and we’ll talk about this.”

“Right, sounds good. Come on over, Corey. You can pretend that you want to talk to me, but we both know it’ll be about five minutes before you’re trying to get me in bed!” I yelled. Cameras were flashing and video was rolling. Right now I didn’t care.

“Amelia, come on,” Corey said looking nervously at the paparazzi who were recording the whole exchange.

“Don’t tell me to come on! You slept with Ileana!” I screamed.

“She’s my girlfriend!” he yelled back. I saw my car being pulled up.

“One you were supposed to be breaking up with for me! What the hell is wrong with you? You’re a fucking liar. You sat there and told me that you loved me. I left Jordan for you!”

“You said you were ending things with him anyway. You said he wanted to do the same!” Corey yelled incredulously.

“That’s not the point. The point is you lied to me. You’re an asshole. I don’t want to see or talk to you ever again.”

I ripped the car keys out of the valet’s hand and threw some money at him. Then I got in my car and tore away from the restaurant nearly running over a few members of the paparazzi on the way. They would have deserved it.










Fuck. Shit. That was all Corey could think when he’d finally come clean to Amelia. He couldn’t remember her ever being that angry at him before. He was shocked when she started yelling at him. Even so, he knew he deserved it.

Fuck. Shit. That was what he thought when she continued to yell at him outside while those tabloid leeches recorded and snapped photos of them. He was in deep shit with both Amelia and Ileana and it was now public knowledge.

He ignored the questions directed towards him as he got into his car and drove away. He debated whether he should go after Amelia or not. His decision was to just go home. She’d never yelled at him like that before. And to think, he’d been scared of Ileana. Ileana’s anger didn’t even touch the venom coming from Amelia.

He pulled up to his house and groaned when he saw Ileana’s car in the driveway. This was really not the time. He thought about driving right past so he wouldn’t have to deal with her until he saw her getting out of her car and waving at him. Fuck. Shit.

“Hey, Hun!” she called when he got out of the car. He grimaced when she kissed him. “You’re home later than normal. Where’d you go?”

“Lunch,” he replied walking past her and into the house. She followed him in.

“You should have called me. I would have gone with you.”

“Too late.” He sat down on the couch and rubbed at his temple where a headache was forming.

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. Everything.

“I’m not feeling great. I have a headache.”

“Aw, anything I can do for you?”

“Leave.”

“Excuse me?” She sounded shocked, angry, and disappointed. He didn’t care right now. He needed to figure things out.

“I’m going to take a nap. You should probably go.”

She glared at him, but stood up. Without a word he watched her walk out the front door. He got up too and went to his bedroom. He stripped down to his boxers and fell into bed. He wondered how long it would take Hollywood gossip queen Ileana to find out about his lunch.