Chad stood at a deserted beach in a tuxedo. "What's with the tux?" He felt his shoulders shrug. The beach was dazzling, yet dark foreboding clouds hung above the waters, about to unloose any minute.

"Chad, this way!" He heard Setal call from somewhere up the dunes. He turned, eyeing the edges of the sand and the beginning of grass. There she was, standing in a peculiar shade of white that almost glowed. He narrowed his eyes as she gestured him over. Was that a wedding dress? Had she finally said yes?

Despite his queries, he followed up the dune where a small gathering of family and friends huddled. His dad and his sister Jo were there too. Jo was pregnant. He hadn't known Jo was pregnant. Not that he'd talked to his family much since the breakup. Why hadn't she said anything? Jo smiled and mouthed, 'It's a boy.' Chad felt his lips curl into a smile. He looked around and noticed some of Setal's family too. And Terry, busy as always on her phone. As he passed her, he heard 'What do you mean you don't have a story yet, Chad?'

"Terry, I'm right here," he said, but Terry continued, angry, demanding a story over the phone, pronto.

"Chad, come on!" Setal coaxed again and when he looked in her direction, she was standing beneath an arch of red roses with a priest. He joined her.

The priest began whatever was going on. Chad assumed it was a wedding. His wedding. Not that he understood any of the words garbling out.

"Does anyone object to these two getting married?"

Chad stared at the man in cloth. That was a blunt question. But the man was too busy scanning the crowd, which caused Chad to scan the crowd too. What were they waiting for? Someone to object to the marriage? Really? How clichéd.

Someone from the back row rose to their feet, causing his heart to leap to his mouth. What is she doing here?

June eyed the pair and turned away, towards the dunes, to a floating door that had appeared then. She closed the door behind her. Chad wanted to stop her, at least that's what he thought he wanted, but the door was closed, and she was gone. The vision blurred and morphed into darkness.

"Who are you?" He heard Setal's voice from a distance.

"June," the unmistakable husky undertone of June's voice floated in through the darkness.

Chad's eyes flew open. He was under the covers in his bed, stark naked. There was a sickly sweet scent lingering in the pillows and he jumped up like a cat thrown to water, lunging for his clothes. He had to put a stop to it. Stop to Setal interrogating June. He could hear the two talking curtly somewhere near the stairs. What the hell was he thinking, sleeping with his ex? He scrambled for the floor, almost tripping on his shoebox-turned-med-box. That's when he remembered he was dosed up with sleeping pills when Setal had arrived. His last memory was of falling asleep with Setal wrapped around him. No good. Not good at all.

Shit, shit, shit! He didn't know why, but he felt embarrassed. It's not like this was the first time someone had interrupted his post-coital, albeit sleeping pill-induced nap. Something about June abruptly meeting Setal unsettled him, especially after his morning misadventure with her. Chad tore down the corridor as fast as he could and only slowed when he got to the top of the stairs. He could see Setal, few steps up on the stairs. A bottle of wine and two glasses tucked in her hands.

"You live here?" she asked incredulously. "Since when?"

Chad could only but see June's legs standing a distance from the stairs. Awkwardly, she replied. "Couple of months."

Chad thought, What now? He needed to make a breezy entry, something that told June it was only a momentary lapse of judgment on his part for their history. But how could he barge in between the girls without seeming to be there purposefully, to break up their conversation?

"And you are?" June cautiously asked as Chad's feet came into view.

"Chad didn't tell you?" Setal's brows rose, scandalous. Chad froze where he was and she eyed him, then threw laser darts at June. The look may as well have said, You're dead! At least that's what he supposed she could be thinking. It was Setal, and she was slightly possessive as far as he knew.

"I guess you're the heartless ex!" June said matter-of-factly, which Chad could see ticked off his 'ex'. Setal recoiled slightly from the statement.

Chad couldn't let this odd territorial stunt from Setal go on any longer, at least not with June. There was no threat from June! Wait, what? He thought suddenly. Were you considering June? No? Okay then. He needed to break up the scene.

"I see you two have met!" he finally stepped closer to the pair. I see you two have met? Nice one, Chad. He cleared his suddenly lumped up throat. His gaze floated to June as Setal began climbing the stairs, moving closer to him. She leaned her body against his, making him go rigid with anxiety.

"You left without a word this morning," he stated, his gaze locked on June's face till she turned away ever-so-slightly. Setal cradled the bottle and flutes in one hand and slid the other around his hip and into the back of his pants, making more a display that Chad was hers.

He cleared his throat again and quickly scuttled down the stairs, away from her touch. "I was worried," he continued trying to connect with June. He needed to know what she was thinking about him specifically. She was obviously the only sane person in the house at that given moment.

"I had classes," she flatly said, making a beeline for the stairs. She gladly stared at Setal in her half-dressed form, from head to toe, and then scurried up the stairs, past the woman as if there was nothing more to it.

"Coffee, June?" Chad yelled from the kitchen soon after. He needed to get away from Setal's out of character clinginess. Please say yes, he thought, hoping that allowing him to take coffee to June, alone, might help him feel less awkward.

"No, thanks!" she yelled back. "You two have at it. I'm going out."

Where? The thought barged in, making him wonder why it mattered if she was going out, and with whom?

"I'll have coffee." Setal walked into the kitchen as Chad hovered at the counter indecisively. "Or we could have this." She invited with a smile and a wink, holding up the wine. "I found it in the study."

"What were you doing in my study?" there was annoyance in his voice. Setal had always snooped. A habit he despised. He didn't want her anywhere near his new work. He didn't want her discovering it, or worse yet, reading it, and her tongue wagging again about Zachery Eve's next book.

Setal shrugged. "You were asleep, and I was bored. Thought maybe I could get a head start on your new book."

Any other time, he would be flattered. His last two books were perhaps the fastest he'd delivered because Setal's eagerness to read every word as he wrote them had him writing faster. It had given him instant gratification and drive, but that was then, before she broke his heart. "I don't like you snooping."

"I wasn't." She dismissed it with a wave of her hands. "It's not like I found it, anyway. What's it about?"

"None of your business."

"Odd title." She glared at him. "All this is because of her, isn't it?

Chad turned his back to her and busied himself setting a fresh brew. He could feel her gaze drilling a hole in the back of his neck, but he didn't care to look. He felt a strange giddiness, that perhaps somewhere deep inside, she was jealous. Chad often never had people get jealous, except writers who were starting out and desperate for a deal. Good. Very good.

"Are you two sleeping together?" the question was fired, filled with poison. It made him smile involuntarily.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He felt bold. He did at that moment. June's dismissal of Setal had somehow given him power for once. Power to torture Setal, even if it was her own doing, overthinking things... fantasizing.

He poured himself a mug of coffee and calmly strode past her and into the lounge. "Besides, I hardly think this," he said, pointing to the two of them, "was anything more than a booty call."

"I object."

"Not your courtroom hun, just the facts." He dropped on the sofa and sipped his brew. "You broke up with me, remember, not the other way around."

Setal was about to say something when June clambered down in a cute little dress and a long coat. "I'm off." She grabbed an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen and hurried for the door. "Don't wait up!"

"Looks like somebody has a date tonight." Setal slithered across the room and dropped herself on the single-seat sofa, one leg dangling off the armrest, provocative.

"You don't know that." His gaze fixed on the front door, hoping June would come back. With her gone, his power, his swagger was fading. He felt every bit as vulnerable as when Setal had stood in the doorway that afternoon, like a pile of Playdough, easily manipulated.

"There's no way she'd be sleeping with you." Setal laughed carelessly. "I mean look at her, a young thing like that. She barely even looked at you on her way out."

He felt the heat rise up his neck. He would not engage her in this futile argument. She was doing something she always did when she felt hurt, or challenged. She was trying to belittle him the only way she could. She was essentially saying to him, 'Why can't you be a lit bit more like Zachary Eve for once, or like the yummy heroes in your books?'

Chad stewed, knowing that June may have run away to avoid Setal. He couldn't help but wonder what they'd be doing if she wasn't here. "It's not like you will, so say yes to the question I asked months ago. So why do you care?"

"Oh." Setal pouted of her lips, looking ridiculous as always whenever she did it, but he had never dared to tell her. "You weren't going to ask again, were you, Chaddy?" she taunted, opening her legs wider, so he had a view.

What an audacious woman! Chad smirked bitterly. "I sold the ring and helped June move in with the money." He paid careful attention to her changing facial expression. The pout deflated into a contemptuous frown, giving him some power back. "Spent it on a worthier cause, rather than letting it gather dust, wouldn't you say?"

He watched her wither uncomfortably. It was outstanding. Her legs slunk back to being demure and closed. So this was what it feels like to be desired? He shook his head. He knew better. Setal, for whatever reason, hadn't come to take him back. He knew that for sure. She'd told him they had no future together from the beginning, and he was only now certain he didn't want her back, even if she begged, and held out incentives. The chemistry they had once had fizzled away. Vanished. And good riddance too. As he looked at her from across the room, slinking into her jealous shell, he couldn't figure out what had attracted him to her. It definitely wasn't her arrogance, or her obnoxiousness.

What he couldn't figure out, however, was why she was back and why now? He took a sip of his already cold coffee and wondered how much he stood to lose this time. The entire day had been inappropriately unhealthy as far as he could tell, and it had all started with a text from her at three in the morning, making him miss being a 'couple'. Well, no more. He didn't want to be a 'couple' with her again. She was toxic. It was oozing out of her in waves.

Setal rose to her feet. "Mind if I take a shower?"

"Knock yourself out." He shrugged and stared at the space where the TV had once been, the TV she'd taken when she'd moved out. He should get one for exactly these sorts of moments, not that he was planning on making a habit out of banging his ex.

(Image by S. Herman & F. Richter on Pixabay)