The couple of Ashley and Ted stayed out of curiosity, to see this person who means so much to the great Rick that he loves life so much.
And that person arrived. The person Rick loved and Ashley had once loved.
Randal.
He was handsome, even more handsome than before, with his jet-black hair, his silver-gray eyes both cold and intense, hidden behind sublime glasses. His body was tall and slim, even more so than Shawn's, and he wore that custom-made steel-blue suit with elegance. And he was accompanied by a dazzling brunette woman he was holding by the hand.
Ted, too, saw him and stepped into his path.
"Randal."
The latter stopped dead in his tracks as he moved toward Rick. It took him a while to recognize his friend.
"Oh, Ted! Sorry I didn't see you," he said, giving him a light hug.
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
His friend frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean! Has it been so long since I've seen you?"
"Oh, do you know him, darling?" interjected James, studying the newcomer with very curious eyes, brighter than ever.
"This is Randal, a very old friend of mine."
"Pleased to meet you." quipped the latter.
"Likewise. Well, I think..."
"You see, Randal, even my darling man has no idea who you are. You've been gone so long, you don't even know anyone I know anymore."
"You're exaggerating as usual. What's it been, seven, eight months?"
"It's been eight years!" corrected the club owner forcefully. Ashley gasped at this news.
At their separation, the young woman had forbidden to speak of him for any reason, so never again did Ted, who was their only mutual friend, speak of him, so she knew nothing more about him, never saw him again until today.
"Eight years!" he exclaimed with a big smile but a cold look on his face as if none of this mattered to him, "well tell me about it, time flies."
"And so, the lovely woman who accompanies you is your fiancée?" inquired Ted, no doubt sensing the same thing as Ashley.
Randal turned to the young woman and smiled before returning to Ted.
"Stacy? I guess you could put it that way."
The latter pinched his arm, biting her lips with an amused smile.
"Naughty."
"But you like this side of me so much, don't you."
"Even more than that." she made in a most eloquent whisper.
They looked at each other for a moment, then the young man looked around, and it was only then that Randal noticed Ashley and Shawn, who were holding hands. He winced, and his expression touched his ex more than she could have wished.
Then, after a slight nod, he walked away with this Stacy. Rick was waiting for him and opened his arms.
"Randal, you came."
Rick's face altered and took on an expression unlike any they'd ever seen.
"How I've missed you."
He kissed this Stacy warmly, too, and as for the judge, she literally threw herself into Randal's arms. Then they chatted as if they were alone in the world.
Ashley and Shawn exchanged a meaningful glance, veiled in indecision.
"Who'd have thought..." Shawn finally uttered with a fierce sigh.
Emma took her friend aside and whispered resentfully.
"The dear friend has finally arrived. Now no one else will exist but him."
"That's him, isn't it?" the young woman inquired but didn't need to, "the tattooed man from the show."
So that's why Ashley had found him so familiar. Which was strange, considering their past relationship, its nature and its end.
"And not just a little. Everything he does, Rick does too. Only to please him and be with him."
"How long have they known each other?"
"Before me, anyway. And believe me, it was a shock, because I guessed immediately that if my darling had any chance with him, I wouldn't be here."
"I think you underestimate yourself," Ashley said distractedly, without much conviction, so absorbed was she in her ex, his existence, his looks, everything.
"Alas, no. I'm not the smartest woman in the world, but even I know when I'm only filling a hopelessly missing slot."
"A replacement, what." concluded Ashley nonchalantly, earning her an incendiary look from her hostess.
"Well, thanks for your support. Now I feel much better."
"Don't be upset, darling. I'm sure you're irreplaceable to Rick."
Although less, so much, so much less than Randal, obviously, she finished to herself.
Ashley and Randal were only together for seven months. It was wonderful, but it certainly wasn't meant to last.
Ashley was nineteen and Randal seven years older. She was a virgin and he hadn't been for a long time. And yet, he was somehow even more innocent than she.
They never did it. There were kisses, caresses, but they never went beyond that. Ashley always wondered why. The person who deflowered her was the person he left Randal for. Shawn. Who had had no qualms about taking her innocence and introducing her to the world of the senses. A wonderful world. She couldn't have wished for a better lover or a better love. Until now.
She'd left Randal for Shawn, for love. Or so she thought. But looking back now, she couldn't remember much of what had actually happened.
When Ashley and Shawn returned home that evening, there was a palpable tension between them, a tension that only grew with the hours. A tension the likes of which had never existed between them, along with that deep, heartbreaking silence.
Shawn was the first to break it.
"Well?"
"So what?" replied Ashley to buy time.
"How do you feel about seeing him again."
"How do you want me to feel." straightened Ashley, facing her fiancé.
"I don't know. Nostalgia, desire, regret, .... love?"
"If it were, I'd never have left him. And I left him for you."
"Why again?"
"You know very well."
"But tell me again anyway so I can be sure."
Ashley remained silent.
This time, Shan studied her attentively with eyes filled with various emotions, each more poignant than the last.
"You don't want to."
"I left Randal for love, for you."
Shawn continued to study his fiancée's face intensely, to read her gaze to the depths.
"You promise?"
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