Chapter 23

Ashton ... Not My Chelsea

After, I sent Chelsea that email, I just knew I’d get a phone call. I mean, not right away but at least after twenty-four hours of thinking about what we shared. After days of not hearing from her, I finally realized that I missed out on the best thing that I had ever had.

I was at the barber shop getting myself right. I needed to go hang out. I had started hanging with another one of my friends because Mick had gotten caught up with Elise. I couldn’t believe he was actually into that chick even after I told him about what she had done.

Now the barbershop wasn’t too packed on a Tuesday afternoon. So, a lot of the barbers were sitting in their workstations scrolling through social media waiting on clients to walk through the door. This one guy in particular that had his chair next to my barber named Armando was on the phone. Normally, I don’t listen to people’s conversations especially if they’re speaking another language.

The dude spoke fast in Spanish to somebody on the phone, “Ay primo, miraste tu fotos en Facebook, quien es esa chica? Tu novia. Come se llama? Chelsea.”

As soon as I heard that name, my ears perked up. I didn’t speak Spanish fluently but I knew enough to figure out this dude was dating a girl named Chelsea that lived in Tampa. That had my neck on fire. Who the fuck is this dude? And was this my Chelsea? It couldn’t have been.

I looked over at the dude’s barber license and saw his full name. I found him on Facebook. He didn’t have a lot of friends on there and his page wasn’t set to private. I went through all the dudes on his friend’s list and checked out as many pages as I could as I got my hair cut.

After I paid, I went to my car and sat for another hour until I came upon this dude named Christian Munoz. A pretty boy with light eyes, “fuck,” I said to myself. I scrolled down his profile and saw pictures of him with my Chelsea.

I could have set everything on fire. My insides churned. This wasn’t happening. Was she cheating on me with this dude? I asked myself. I started my car and headed to her friend Lisa’s.

I pulled into the parking lot. Lisa owned a temp agency. I walked inside and saw the receptionist sitting at the front desk, “I need to see Lisa,” I demanded impatiently.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Look, I need to speak with Lisa ASAP!”

I guess the sound of my voice caused her to leave her office and come into the lobby. Our eyes met. She looked at me with confusion.

“Ashton, what are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you. This is urgent.”

She rolled her eyes and we ended up going into her office. “Who is this dude Chelsea’s fucking with?”

Her face scrunched, “Dude? What dude?”

“So, you don’t know about a Christian Munoz?”

She shrugged, “You’re the only fool I know that she’s been with.”

I pulled out my phone and showed her the picture. She stared at his picture longer than necessary and said, “Um.”

I snatched the phone from her. She pointed at me, “What you’re not going to do is come into my place of business with all this attitude. Now, the last time I spoke with her she said she was chilling on some island.”

“And you don’t know this dude?”

“How would I? He lives in Orlando.”

I looked at his profile and it showed that he was an engineer that resided in Orlando. An engineer? How was I going to compete with that? My mind ran wild. When I finally looked into her eyes, they showered me with pity. She shook her head, “Now that she’s moved on, you’re ready to act right.”

I huffed, “This doesn’t make any sense. How could she be dating him if she hasn’t had time to get over me?”

“Ashton, when a woman is tired of your bullshit, she emotionally checks out long before she physically leaves. Maybe she met this guy and he offered her something that you never provided. She looks happy. Her skin is glowing.”

“Her skin glowed with me too.”

She shook her head, “Not like that.”

“What should I do? Come on Lisa Help me. Please.”

She placed her hand on her hip, “And what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. Get her to visit you and I’ll be there waiting.”

“I don’t know what you think that is going to do but fine, whatever. I’ll call her when I get off to see when she can visit me.”

I hugged her, “Thanks.”