One
“It just happened, huh Simone? OK, I guess.”
Kevin Payne didn’t have many words for his wife of two years after hearing what he just heard.
“I really can’t explain it,” Simone said. “She was just there, and well, you know what happens—”
Simone Lang’s current partner and manager, Sloane Mercer, cut her off.
“I was there, Kevin. ME. NOT YOU!!! You have absolutely NO RIGHT to be ANGRY—”
Kevin cut her off.
“What are you talkin’ ’bout, Sloane? I was FILMING. A. MOVIE,” Kevin said. “Like that’s the thing that I do. I’m an AC-TOR, Sloane. I was AC-TING. And I’m not even mad. Y’all did what y’all did, it happened, it is what it is. Why are YOU mad is the question tho? You got it. You won. WHO MADE YOU LIKE THIS???? I wish y’all all the best in the world. But y’all do have to get out of my house though.”
“Kevin, wait,” Simone said.
“I got it, Simone,” Kevin said. “You went on tour, you slept with your manager, y’all are apparently in love now, your manager is mad at ME for some reason. I’ll always love you. You are even welcome to come over and maybe chit chat sometimes.”
“But you can’t stay here anymore.”
“You INDIGNANT, CONDESCENDING—” Sloane started.
“And please Simone, take your angry ass girlfriend somewhere and go get her somebody to talk to,” Kevin said. “They got these little lavender sticks you can breathe in that helps. I use them all the time on set when my anxiety kicks in. Help her, Simone. HELP. HER. She keeps up at this pace and she’s gonna have a braineurysm.”
“So that’s it then?” Simone asked.
“That’s it, Simone,” Kevin said. “You made it where that couldn’t be anything but ‘It’. And if you expect me to beg you or plead with you to stay when you’ve already clearly made your decision, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention for the last six years. I’ll give you all the time you need to get your stuff, and I’ll transfer you some money in your account so you’ll be straight for the time being. Ten mil sound good?”
“Kevin, I—” Simone started.
“It’s settled then,” Kevin said. “Go live your life. Outside of my house.”
“God I HATE you,” Sloane said.
“And I don’t hate you, Sloane,” Kevin said. “Y’all be easy now!”
* * *
Kevin had literally just got home from filming the 4th movie in the Bloodlaw series, the movies that had made him a household name.
But Kevin Payne was not Garrett Bloodlaw, the expert assassin and mercenary he played in the films. He was Kevin Payne. He was just a man, he was tired, and he had just found out his wife of two years, aspiring singer Simone Lang, had had an affair with her manager while out on her first tour.
Definitely not the news he wanted to hear at this hour of the morning.
Kevin went to bed alone that night.
And that’s when he started thinking about her.
After 19 years, countless relationships that didn’t pan out, and a marriage to his personal assistant that just ended…
He never stopped thinking about her.
