I could hear Marie’s voice loud and clear.

“It’s a simple question. I just want to know how long you’ve been fucking my husband, that’s all.”

Oh, shit was right. “Tammy, get your friend out of there.” I heard the girl, Amy, stuttering

in

the

background,

saying

something about not knowing he was married when they met.

“Marie, he never told her he was married—”

“Don’t even fucking talk to me right now, Tammy. You mean to tell me your friend didn’t know he was married? You think I’m that naïve to believe that you didn’t have a hand in this?”

“I didn’t,” Tammy pleaded. “I didn’t know about it until after they’d met.”

“We went to ll.A. together and you didn’t think to tell me that he was screwing around?”

I felt like I was in the middle of a war that was being broadcasted over cell phones. I felt completely incapable of fighting for the cause.

“It wasn’t my place to tell you that.” What? Oh, bullshit.

Marie’s voice got even louder. Good.

“Wasn’t your place? I thought we were friends, Tammy. Friends that have each other’s backs through the good, bad, and ugly.

But I guess I was sadly mistaken.”

“I am your friend! You are blow—”

“Not anymore!” Marie shrieked. “And you . . . You even think about setting foot inside my pub and I will beat you to within an inch of your life. Understood?” I heard the girl mumble something.

“Good. I hope you two are very happy together. He’s a cheap bastard and a lousy lay and he’s all yours.”

And that’s when Tammy hung up on me, leaving me rattled and riled and hanging in the wind three thousand miles away.

“I was afraid of this,” Ryan said, staring at his laptop while waiting on a call of his own.

I was clutching my cell, chewing on the edge of it, wondering when and how everything started falling apart. “Afraid of what?”

He glanced over the opened screen, then went back to doing what he was doing.

“Friends. Fights. Anger. Jealousy. All of that shit.”

I was scratching my head, trying to figure out what he meant.

“I didn’t think that it would happen, though. I mean, one of the reasons I even considered pursuing you and pulling you in-to my crazy life was because I saw how tight you were with your core friends. I didn’t think that they’d break their bonds once we started getting serious. Guess I was wrong.”

Either he was speaking man mumbo-jumbo or I was still dazed from my call and missing the point. I squinted at him. “Um.

Huh?”

“The fighting. It’s started. I used to have a huge group of friends, but once the first movie came out, one by one they started dropping like flies. Things get fucked-up.

Same shit is happening to you.” Ryan squatted down in front of me and leveled his eyes on mine. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? My friends are fighting, Ryan, not us. I don’t know what you caught of that conversation, but I just found out that the new girl that Gary is seeing is one of Tammy’s friends, who just so happens to be in my pub kitchen helping Tammy out right now. Marie went down to open up and ran right into the girl.”

Ryan frowned. “I thought maybe . . .

Friends get weird and shit when all of a sudden you have money and they don’t, you’re traveling and they aren’t. I just know that the petty shit comes to the surface and the next thing you know you’re fighting and at each other’s throats. So many people want fortune and fame but what they don’t realize is that it comes with a ton of heartache.” I rested my taxed brain in my hand. “I still don’t get where you’re going with this. My friends are fighting—”

“And you feel compelled to pick a side.”

“Well, yeah, to a certain extent. Especially when one is purposely causing hurt to the other. I’d take a stand regardless, and whether or not my future husband was über-famous shouldn’t be a factor.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Yeah, but what? You are who I’ve chosen to be with. If my friends have a problem with that—which I don’t think they do, but regardless—if they can’t be on board with my happiness and feel threatened by my choice, then they really aren’t good friends to begin with. And if they are jealous, then I’d hope they’d keep it to themselves, as I am certainly not flaunting anything under their noses. Tammy is under a lot of stress and she’s lashing out. I get that. We girls go crazy every now and then. I can even forgive her for keeping her nose out of other people’s marriage problems. But what I will not excuse is her knowing that her friend is banging another good friend’s husband and bringing that nonsense to my house.” Ryan put his hands on his hips. “I love you.”