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her tablet and a cup of coffee. Her eyes widened in surprise to see me dressed and with makeup on as I had hardly left my room all weekend.
    "What's up?" She smiled brightly. I arched an eyebrow at her.
    "What are you doing?" I plopped down next to her. 
    "Just checking emails." Cate smiled. 
    "I tried to call Carter," I blurted. Cate coughed on the sip of coffee she'd just taken. 
    "Why?" Cate's voice was shrill. 
    "What do you mean why? To give him a chance to tell me his side of the story. To apologize for being a passive-aggressive bitch."
    "Right. Did he call or anything?" 
    "No, not since Friday. What's up Cate? You're being weird." I narrowed my eyes at her. 
    "Well..." She tapped her nails on the back of her tablet. "When you started hanging out with Carter, I started doing some research. I set up a Google alert for him, so every day I get an email if he's made the news, and he does, a lot."
    "Kind of stalker-y," I smiled at her. 
    "Well..." she chewed on her bottom lip. 
    "For fuck sakes, Cate. What did you find?" I snatched the tablet from her hands. A picture of Carter with his arm around Nikki was splashed across the screen. She was wearing a low cut dress and a beaming smile. Carter looked dangerously sexy as always. 
    "When is this from?" I glanced up in her eyes. She sat speechless staring at me. "Cate, when is it from?" I scrolled up the page and my eyes landed on the date of the article. 
    Last night.
    Carter had been with Nikki last night. 
    Tears immediately sprung to my eyes. So that's why he hadn't called, because he'd been filling his time with Nikki. I guess I hadn't meant anything more to him.
    I handed the tablet back to Cate and headed back to my room without a word.

    I woke up a few hours later to the sound of my phone screaming in my ear. My eyes were puffy and my throat was raw from crying. I felt like I had a hangover even though I hadn't drank anything. I scrambled with my phone, just wanting the sound to quit. I held it to my ear and croaked out a raspy hello. 
    "Eva," Carter whispered over the speaker. I shot straight up in bed. The picture of him and Nikki together flooded my brain. I did not want to answer this call. I sat silently, my heart thudding in my chest. 
    "Eva?" Carter's voice rose. 
    "I'm here, " I whispered. 
    "You called?" His voice was cold. My breath caught in my throat. He didn't want to talk. He was only calling me because I had called him. 
    "By mistake. I hit your name by mistake." I lied because I didn't know what else to say. 
    "Oh," his voice trailed off. I heard him sigh on the other end. "I wish I would have known you were going to fuck and run, Eva. Could have saved us both a lot of trouble." 
    The air whooshed out of my lungs. My head swirled in confusion. He thought I had used him? Was he joking? "It wasn't like that, Carter."
    "Could have fooled me. You seem to make a habit of fucking and then walking away without looking back." Carter had gone for the low blow. 
    "No," my voice came out in a choked whisper. 
    "Bye, Evangeline." And with that Carter hung up on me. My heart dropped to my stomach. I was profoundly hurt and wildly angry. How could he think that I was the type of girl that would use him? If he wanted to leave, I would survive, but I couldn't let him take the cowardly way out thinking it was my fault; that I'd been the one using him. 
    Before I could think twice I grabbed my purse and stomped out of the apartment and hailed a cab to take me to Beacon Street and Carter Morgan. 

Six

    The cab pulled up in front of his house and I took a deep breath. I hadn't thought this through at all; what if Nikki was still in there with him? What if he wasn't even home? The cab driver arched an eyebrow at me in the rearview mirror. I handed him cash and then stepped out into the cold night. Snowflakes drifted down around the street lamps and I had half a mind to turn around and walk home. I could cut through the garden and be home in ten