Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Just for good measure, though…
“Nessa,” I said as I met her at the bottom of the stairs. “Do you or Sebastian know much about social status in the Dick and Jane world?”
“Obviously. Mages make a habit of dominating Dick and Jane social tiers so they have access to rich and influential people. That leads to an in with politics, and that leads to the creation of laws and bills and legislation that will help their organizations prosper. We don’t dabble much in that arena but we certainly know the players and the rules. Why do you ask?”
“My ex just got engaged, and I—”
“Oh man. That’s annoying. How are you coping?”
I paused, then shrugged. “I had a minor freak out yesterday, but I’m good. It was just weird seeing his fiancée out of the blue like that.” I explained what had happened.
“Who left who?” she asked as we stepped out onto the porch.
“He technically left me, but I was ready for a change. More than ready.”
“And he left you for this current woman?”
“Yeah. Apparently he met her through work.”
She scowled. ”That’s so lame. He found a replacement before he even broke it off? I’d want to stab him, I think. That’d piss me off.”
“Honestly, I didn’t care. I don’t care,” I amended. “His news was just a shock, that’s all. I’m over it.”
“I bet she’s younger, too,” Nessa mused.
I hesitated. “Uh…yeah. Yes, she is. Pretty, as well.”
“That’s so cliché. With big boobs?”
“I…don’t recall.”
She nodded solemnly. “He left first, he moved on first, and now he’s doing forever…”
“Technically I did ‘forever’ first, though,” I hastened to say. “It just doesn’t translate to the Dick and Jane world because shifters do things differently. I didn’t rub it in his face, though.” I hesitated again and then braced my hands on my hips. “Which…fine, he hasn’t rubbed it in my face. I happened upon a picture. But I also didn’t splash my happiness all over social media for him to find. He never posts, but he posted a couple pics of them together.”
I’d broken down and checked last night out of curiosity. Then I’d gotten annoyed again since he’d never done that with any of our stuff. He never posted about Jimmy ever. Yet here he was, posting about her.
“This is dumb,” I said quickly. “I don’t care about this. Forget I mentioned it.”
“Why didn’t you post your happiness on social media?” Nessa asked me, ignoring what I’d just said.
I watched Edgar shove Jasper into a haphazard sort of line with the others.
“Honestly, because Matt never allowed me to put our personal stuff on social media, and I got in the habit of looking but never posting. He always used to say it was an invasion of privacy and invited gossip.”
“Yet he’s now posting, and so is she?”
“He only posted those couple of pictures. Maybe he hasn’t put the foot down with her, I don’t know. Or maybe…” I felt the twinge of an old pain. “Maybe he’s not embarrassed by her the way he sometimes was about me. I didn’t fit into his world as well as I probably should’ve.”
“Ew.” She made a sour face at me. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that last bit while simultaneously planning his destruction. Does the fiancée post about just their happiness…or their happiness and their life?”
I frowned at her. “What?”
“Does she post about mundane stuff? Here, lemme see.” She grabbed the phone out of my back pocket, shoved it in front of my face to unlock it, and started peppering me with questions on how to find his fiancée’s account. In a moment, she was biting her lip and nodding thoughtfully. “Yeah. Oh yeah. Hmm.”
“What? What is it?” I asked, drawn in despite myself.
“He never allowed you to post, huh? He called the shots?”
“Kinda. I mean…” I winced. “He just got—”
She put up a hand. “No, no. I gotcha.” She surveyed me with narrowed eyes, and I got the feeling my entire existence was being picked apart and studied. In a moment she nodded to herself, resuming her perusal of the photos. “I don’t think I fully understood your history. Yeah, this woman is almost solely posting about what a wonderfully happy couple they are and how their life is so great. It’s like her world revolves around him.”
“That’s kinda how it goes with him. I can’t even explain how he does it, but before you know it, he’s your whole world and you don’t have any friends or anyone who’s close to you anymore but him.”
She lowered the phone slightly, sliding a glance my way.
“Anyway.” I reached for the phone, but not before Nessa took a snapshot of the screen and sent it to herself in a text. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve got an amazing life here. I’m good. I need to let it go.”