PART FIFTY ONE
*Aston’s POV*
“Seriously bruv, what has gotten into you lately?” asked Marvin as we sat around the studio while Reesh recorded. I just shrugged my shoulders at him as I continued to play on my iPad. “It’s that whole Vegas wedding thing isn’t it?” he asked. “Listen you know that the boys and I were just annoyed that you didn’t tell us. We’re brothers, we’re here for each other.”
“I know,” I mumbled.
It had been a week and a half since everything with Jess had gone down. I hadn’t seen her or spoken to her since the divorce hearing. In my mind I wanted to believe that she didn’t sell the story, but I just couldn’t figure out who else it could have been. She’d always been into playing games so I figured that it had to be her. I just wished that I hadn’t been so angry with her, but it was all sprung upon me so fast, I couldn’t help it. I guess it was time to just move on…
“We need to get you out and forgetting about all this drama,” declared Marvin as if he were reading my thoughts. I watched on uneasily as he set up a double date for us, setting me up with a friend of Rochelle’s.
That night I found myself dressed up, waiting for Marvin to pick me up to go out. I wasn’t really feeling it, but he was right, I needed to move on. Jess had hurt me more than she knew, I just needed to let it go and move on.
I slid into the back of the car to be met by a pretty red-head. “Ast this is Annalise,” Rochelle told me from the front seat.
“Hi,” I smiled as I buckled up.
Dinner was awkward. I just didn’t have anything to say, my mind was in another world. When we were done Rochelle insisted we hit the clubs for a bit, have a few dances. I obliged more as an act of habit than anything else, I was running on auto-pilot at this point.
We took a cab from the restaurant so we could drink a bit, and I watched in horror as we pulled up in front of the club. The club that Jess and I had hooked up in the toilets at. It hurt just to look at the place. I couldn’t say anything though, I didn’t want Marv to have a go at me. We took our seats at the same table we’d been at that night, and got in a round of drinks. Before long Marv and Rochelle went off to the dance floor, leaving me and Annalise alone at the table.
Hardly acknowledging Annalise’s presence I stared across the dancefloor, just as I had the night Jess and I had ended up in the toilets together. I looked for her in the crowd, knowing she wasn’t there. No one prowled around the dance floor like she did. No one had that same sexy smirk. No one was Jess.
In that moment I knew that as hard as I tried, there was no way in hell I was going to be able to enjoy the evening out. My head was too messed up over things. I hadn’t moved on. Not even close. I was still stuck in that crazy world that Jess and I had inhabited for a short time.
“I’m sorry,” I said to the pretty red head that sat awkwardly next to me, who I had pretty much neglected the entire night. Checking that my things were in my pockets I got up from my seat and walked into the mass of heaving bodies and out the front door.
When I got outside I took of deep breath of the somewhat smoky air that swirled around the club before hailing a cab and directing the driver back towards my neighborhood.
As we drove through the still bustling streets of London I sat with my eyes shut, thinking about everything that had happened over the last few weeks. It was an emotional whirlwind that had my head banging if I was honest. I’d experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows and come out of it more confused and hurt than ever.
