7. Ellie

7

Ellie

How dare he?

Slapping him probably wasn’t the best idea, but it felt really good, so there’s that.

“Elena,” I hear Daniel call after me.

I turn around and glare at him.

This isn’t his fault. I’m upset about allowing Ethan to see my pain, Daniel is innocent.

I’m pissed because I had this fairy tale illusion that all of the same feelings and emotions would be there. I thought it would be like we forgot all the bad things and that he’d grab me in a hot kiss and we’d walk off into the sunset together.

Instead, he was only hitting on me because he thought I was Savannah.

Savannah Garbo of all people.

Why not dig that knife in my heart and back even deeper by calling me Dakota next?

Grrrrr. I should have punched him, not smacked him.

Take a breather, Elena.

You had an expectation and it didn’t get met, it’s okay.

“I’m sorry about that.”“No apology necessary, you didn’t do anything.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize my own sister.”

I shrug my shoulders.

It’s weird that both of them thought I was Savannah. Last time I saw her she was a blonde.

“Why didn’t you ask me about Savannah before reaching out to her?”

“I don’t know. She’s been messaging me off and on ever since you introduced us.”

What?

“Jeez,” I sigh. “I didn’t realize that. Please steer clear of her. Not only is she a con artist, but she’s psycho as well. She stole money from me by pretending to be a business coach on top of being my PR manager. She didn’t have the credentials to be any of those things, but told me she was and I believed her. She also started threatening me and reaching out to guys I was dating pretending to be me.”

“How did she do that?”

“As my PR manager, she was also my social media manager. She was sending messages to people pretending to be me. She would even show up in their inbox hitting on them and if they called her out on it, she told them that I asked her to do it, to test them.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I was dealing with it.”

“I think you should take the job with Ethan. I don’t think you two should date ever again, but I don’t think that’s a problem.”

Did Ethan say something?

“I want nothing to do with him.”

“I understand that. The boutique is in a lot of financial trouble. It’s hard to compete with the online world. I tried to help, but Grams didn’t want the assistance and it’s also too much risk for me to take on. Did Grams disclose that?”

No.

“Yes, of course, do you think I didn’t ask for the full details?”

“I thought maybe you took it out of duty and nostalgia,” he shrugs.

I hate him for knowing me so well.

“No. I did my research. I’m set financially and I made sure I could cover everything.”

More lies.

Why are you lying?

You’re in over your head.

The truth is, Grams’s offer couldn’t have come at a better time.

Savannah and I met at a literary event. She had her own booth and handed me her card. We ran into each other at the bar afterward and began chatting. We hit it off. At the end of the night she offered to be my PR manager pro bono, saying that it’s a Beta program she runs to give back to others.

A short time later, she also offered to become my business coach in the same program. She was constantly telling me that she’s a millionaire, that she’s very successful, and that she did things like this because she once was me and liked to help others.

I believed every word out of her mouth.

We became incredibly close. I’ve never had a great relationship with money, which I mentioned often to her.

“Tell me how she stole from you,” Daniel says.

Shit, I was so caught up in the memory that I forgot he was still standing here.

“She guided me to where I was making a decent income off my writing and then asked if I wanted to level up. Of course, I did. She then offered to help me save money for this writing retreat I had my heart set on. She told me to send the money to her via Venmo with the #goals. And that’s what I did, while also keeping a running document of what I was sending. Every week, we would have a Zoom call to discuss my wins and failures for the week. It always started off with my finances: how much I made, what was outgoing, what was projected, and so on. She would text me at random to remind me to put my money in my savings account and I almost always did. The writing retreat opened up and I asked her for the money that she was holding in her Venmo account for me so that I could sign up for it.”

“And she told you she didn’t have it?” he groans.

“Not exactly. I told her the retreat was opening up in a week and that I would need my savings money for it. She immediately replied asking how it felt to have the money on the ready to do it. A few days before it was opening, I texted her asking her to transfer the money back to me via Venmo. She didn’t respond, but would ask questions or send me memes. I asked if she saw it, sent it again and again to where I was beginning to panic. Finally at almost midnight on Sunday I called her out on it.”

“And?”

“She played it off that she missed all the requests and then told me she was exhausted and would transfer the money in the morning.”

“Where were you sending the money to?”

“Venmo.”

“So she could have done the transfer right then.”

“Yup. The next morning, she told me that she wasn’t feeling well and was behind for the day. Then an hour later told me that she had hit her transfer limit for the month. I googled it and it’s an astronomical amount for most people and it didn’t make sense how she would hit that. She sent me a small amount in Cash App and said she was working with Venmo to get the amount raised. I kept checking in about it. She then told me her identity had been stolen as well as all of her money out of her account.”

“Is that true?”

“Nope.”

“She got pissed at me sometime later because I was pretty distraught. She told me that we had learned to manifest and get out and make that money instead of tapping into savings and that’s what I should be doing. She told me that my sense of urgency was gross and that she had too much going on to deal with my rudeness. She then blocked me on everything.”

“How did you find out she was lying?”

“I originally ignored my instincts about transferring money to her because I explained it away that she was a millionaire and didn’t need my money so she wouldn’t steal it from me, right? She’s not. She tells people she is, but she’s nowhere near that. I started doing research on the internet looking into court cases against her and then I began reaching out to people who were once friends or business associates with her.”“How much did you lose?”

“About twenty grand.”

“Holy shit. What did you do?”

“I gave her the opportunity to do the right thing and when she didn’t I filed a police report, then pressed charges against her, which is what I needed to do for Venmo to look into her account to see how many other people she had done this to. I took her to court for fraud and they did charge her with fraudulent misrepresentation. I also reported her to the Better Business Bureau. It turns out that I wasn’t the only person she’d scammed. She was saving money for a lot of her clients, but none of them had asked for any cash from it and if they did she would gaslight them into believing they didn’t need said money. People started coming out of the woodwork.”

“Did you get your money back?”

“Not yet.”

My brother blows out a breath and shakes his head.

If the boutique is in trouble, there’s no way that I can pull it out of that on my own. I’m barely making ends meet as it is.

“I can’t believe you would…”

“I don’t need a lecture, I’ve beaten myself up enough over all of it. Save your breath.”

He nods.

“I’m really glad to have you home,” he sighs. “Let’s take a selfie together and send it to mom and dad. They’ll love it.”

“Fine,” I giggle as I roll my eyes at him, but I am also grateful that he’s listening to me. We take the picture and then he gets called away by someone. I stand there by myself for a few minutes.

Standing here in the ballroom surrounded by people I’ve known all of my life isn’t giving me the nostalgic feelings I had hoped for.

Bringing up Savannah and running into Ethan isn’t helping matters.

I should go home, get into my pajamas, eat some ice cream and binge watch Netflix.

I nod to myself before I start toward the exit. My phone vibrates and I glance down to see a text message from Jaclyn.

Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to the ball? I wanted to go. I would have gone with you.

I roll my eyes inwardly.

I haven’t spoken to you in six years, Jaclyn, after I saw that you sent nudes to my boyfriend. Take the hint that I’m not your friend. How did you know I was here if you’re not here?

Ethan texted me earlier.

You and Ethan text now?

You’ve been gone for a while and we’ve become friends.

Is that so? You could have come on your own. We’re adults. You don’t need me to hold your hand.

She doesn’t reply and I walk out of the building and toward my car. Part of me wants to go back in and hug Ethan because I miss him. The other part of me wants to go home, get my things, drive out of town and never look back.

I can’t keep running from the uncomfortable things.

I make my way home, undress, and slip on a pair of comfy sweats. I climb on the worn out leather couch, grab a blanket off the back, and then flip through Netflix for something to watch.

I don’t want to disassociate myself into movies. I need a book. I need to disappear into a book.

I walk over to my bookshelf and pick out “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Call me weird, but this book is like coming home to an old friend, it’s my comfort book.

An hour later, there’s a knock on the door. I grab my phone to look at the time and see that Daniel had texted to check on me.

Who in the Hell is knocking on the door at midnight?

I open the door, fully prepared to see my overprotective brother on the other side and instead am face to face with Ethan.

“What are you doing here?”

He walks right in the house and envelops me in a hug. He pulls away and covers my mouth with his. I dissolve right into him.

It’s like no time has ever passed between us. I forget everything; all the pain and tears I’ve cried because of this man and just get lost in the moment.

He pulls away, putting his forehead to mine.

“I’ve wanted to do that for six years, El,” he breathes with a cocky grin.

I pull back and slap him across the face again. Tears stream down my face.

“You have a lot of nerve coming here and…”

“I don’t like that you keep slapping me across the face.”

“Maybe you should understand that you can’t just kiss your ex-girlfriend whenever you want. You can’t say or do whatever you want, Ethan. You’re still such an entitled, arrogant, asshole.”

“Don’t hold back, Elena, tell me how you really feel.”

“I want you to leave.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Ethan,” I hiss. “I am not…”

“I meant what I said earlier.”

“Oh you mean, when you thought I was Savannah? Save your bullshit lines for someone else. I am not the woman to believe any of it.”

“They weren’t bullshit lines. I really felt those things. For the first time in six years, I forgot about heartache and…”

“Says the guy who texts my ex-best friend on the regular.”

“What are you talking about?” he groans as he runs his hands through his hair roughly..

“You texted Jaclyn to tell her I was at the ball. Save your breath, Ethan. You can spout all the lies that work on other women,, but you’re forgetting that I know when you’re lying.”

“I haven’t talked to Jaclyn in five years. I’ve never texted her either. She threw herself at me one night at a party and I’ve steered clear of her ever since.”

“That’s not what she says.”

“She’s a liar and you know that. She’s always wanted what you had.”

“The only person I know for certain that is a liar, is you.”

“I never lied to you.”

“You never told me that Dakota was texting you, sending you nudes. You never told me any girl was doing those things which means that you were approving of it.”

“I didn’t tell you because you were so self-conscious as it was that it would have made things worse. You couldn’t see that I loved you for who you were and that would have pushed you over the edge. I asked them to stop and I had blocked all of them, but Dakota.”

“Oh yeah, there it is. Ethan is never to blame for anything, is he? It’s always my fault or someone else’s.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s my fault for not wanting to go to parties and for being boring. It’s never your fault when you get into a bar fight or a fight on the ice. Losses can’t be because you’re a puck hog, but always because your teammates aren’t putting in enough work. You had a bad game because your teammates suck, not because you got an hour of sleep because you were out all night partying. Should I go on?”

“I’ve never said those things.”

“I’m sure they’re all over the internet right now,” I snap rolling my eyes. “Ethan ‘Ice’ Anderson is perfect and does nothing wrong.”

He stands there staring at me and I have to bite my tongue so that I don’t take back everything I said.

Why does my stomach still do flip flops when I look into those gorgeous blue eyes?

Why is my whole body on fire from that damn kiss?