“Stupid, macho asshole. He wouldn’t let me speak or explain. He just pronounced judgment. His decision. I shouldn’t turn down a huge role. He wouldn’t stand in my way. What about what I want?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Did you tell him you loved him and wanted to make it work?” Cassidy asked.

Sasha sniffed and grabbed for a tissue on the rolling tray beside the bed. “I reminded him that we’d agreed to discuss things when the movie ended. That I hadn’t made any decision to go right back to LA, no matter what he might think.”

She blew her nose, wincing at the pain in her head. “And when I asked him what about us, he said there was no us. So I wasn’t about to shout I love you as he walked out on me in the hospital,” she muttered, getting angry now at how he’d taken her choices away.

And left her again.

***

A while later, Sasha had been discharged with instructions to rest, drink lots of fluids, and not to drive a car for at least forty-eight hours. Sounded fine to her. All she wanted was a dark room where she could lay her sore head on a pillow and do her best not to cry over Xander. It helped that the more time that passed, the more furious she became.

Dash took Sasha and Cassidy to the hotel where Cassidy had been staying. Sasha refused to go back to Xander’s apartment to get the clothes and other things she’d left there. Though he’d said he was going to the Hamptons and Dash told her his plan had been to pick up Bella and be gone by the time she arrived, she had no desire to walk into a place that smelled so much like him and contained brief but wonderful memories.

Considering they’d showed up the same day asking, the hotel didn’t have any connecting rooms open or suites available for Sasha. But they did have a room on the same floor as Cassidy. Sasha took it, refusing to stay with her friend. She wanted to be alone and Cassidy understood. She did, however, insist on a second key so she could check in on the patient throughout the night. Sasha couldn’t argue when Cassidy was so worried and the discharging doctor had suggested she be looked in on.

The three of them were in Cassidy’s hotel room, one king size bed in the center, Sasha sat on the edge of the bed, Dash leaned against the wall and Cassidy stood by Sasha, a worried look on her face.