He Split My Bills and Spoiled Her

My boyfriend bought my best friend a bag that cost almost $12,000, then made me pay him back $46 for dinner and $32 for the ride there and back.

Eight years together, and the whole time he demanded I be a woman who paid her own way and never took advantage of him. Meanwhile he kept buying her one luxury thing after another.

I looked at him and suddenly laughed, and it came out sarcastic. "Forget the ride. Go ahead." Chapter 1 Dashiell Hargrove frowned. "You sure?

In this rain you're not getting an Uber." Cold rain slapped at my face. The evening wind drove it down under my collar. Cramps came through my lower belly in waves.

In the end I sent him the ride money and the dinner money together on Venmo. Then I bent down and got into the back seat.

A cup of iced milk tea was pushed straight into my hand, the cold still coming off it. Dashiell glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "Don't say I don't treat you well.

That one's on me. No charge." The cold bit through the cup into my fingertips.

I pulled my hand back before I could think about it. "It's iced." Dashiell's brows pulled together. "Is that a problem?" "I'm on my period.

I can't drink anything cold." He ignored how fast the color left my face. His eyes softened and went to Rowena in the passenger seat. "I only bought one hot one and I gave it to Ro.

She got rained on. She can't have anything cold." "You've been the tough one since you were a kid. Just ride it out." My fingers went numb where they gripped the freezing cup.

The car was shut up tight, and the cold kept washing through me. Rowena twisted around.

Her eyes found me in the back, playful. "Toni, what were you two whispering about back there in all this rain? Afraid I'd hear?" I leaned back against the seat.

I shook my head and said nothing. When we first got together, if I had my period, Dashiell would drive halfway across the city for a hot brown sugar milk tea.

He'd hold the cup inside his coat to warm it before he handed it over. He said it himself back then. My girl doesn't touch anything cold.

And now, the same kind of rain, his hot one had gone to somebody else. Dashiell hated noise while he drove. After all these years I was used to keeping my mouth shut.

Rowena didn't mind my silence. She chattered on, watching out the window. "This rain is unreal.

My white sneakers got completely filthy." "Toni, next time we're checking the forecast before we go anywhere." I stole a look at Dashiell's face in the driver's seat. "Okay," I said quietly.

Rowena picked up a towel and started drying her wet hair.

Halfway through she stopped, like something had come back to her, and started digging around the passenger side. "Where's the lipstick I left in here?

Why can't I find it?" Without thinking I reached into my own bag for mine, ready to hand it over.

My hand hadn't even made it out when Dashiell produced a whole makeup bag from somewhere, neat and fully stocked. He opened it up.

Lipsticks in every shade, foundation, eyeshadow, all of it. "Right here. You put it there yourself. How do you forget that fast?" I froze in the back seat. Eight years together.

He had never once let me leave anything of mine in his car. Chapter 2 One morning, rushing to get to work, I left a lipstick in his car.

That night when he got home he threw it down in front of me, his face cold enough to frighten me. "I take clients out.

A woman's things in my car make me look unprofessional." "Leave your stuff lying around again and you can take the L to work." After that I never left a single piece of makeup in his car.

I didn't dare forget so much as a lip balm. And Rowena had a whole makeup bag of her own living in that car.

Rowena smacked her forehead, everything clicking into place. "Oh my God, that's where it is.

I completely forgot." Dashiell reached over and ruffled the top of her head, easy and indulgent. "What would you do if I wasn't around to keep track of things for you?" That loose, easy closeness between them put an ache in my chest.

The two of them looked far more like a couple than he and I ever did. He'd messed up the hair she had just fixed. She lifted a hand and lightly batted his away. "Hands off.

You just wrecked the hair I did." Then, as if she'd only now noticed there was a girlfriend in the back seat, she turned around with the hot milk tea held against her and smiled at me, all innocence. "Toni, don't read into it, okay?

Dash and I are just messing around. Don't get the wrong idea." My eyes drifted to her wrist without meaning to. She'd had her jacket wrapped tight all day and I hadn't noticed.

Now the jacket was soaked and off, and in short sleeves the watch was right there, plain as anything. Feeling my eyes on her, Rowena quietly tucked her hand back toward her sleeve.

Dashiell spoke up first. "Antonia, you like that watch too?" On Valentine's Day he'd held me and asked what I wanted for a gift. I thought about it for a long time and said a watch.

I'd never owned one. I woke in the middle of the night and saw him sitting on the edge of the bed with his tablet, scrolling a shopping app, going through listing after listing.

I was so full of anticipation then. I thought the gift would be in my hands the next day. What I got the next day was only a cheap plain silver chain, the kind that tarnishes.

And the watch I'd wanted so badly was sitting on my best friend's wrist. I looked straight at him and nodded slowly. "I do." Dashiell's mouth twitched. "That watch is $3,500.

If you want one, either Venmo me and I'll place the order, or I'll send you the link and you can buy it yourself." Whatever small piece of hope was still left in me was doused in an instant.

Rowena jumped in, already reaching to unclasp it. "Toni, if you like it, just take this one." A big hand came down over her wrist. Dashiell's voice dropped. "Keep it on.

Don't take it off." A flicker of awkwardness crossed Rowena's face and she pulled her hand back, sheepish. "I'm so sorry, Toni." "I just remembered, this was Dash's promotion gift to me.

I'm not in a position to hand it off to someone else." As she finished, the car came to a smooth stop outside her apartment building.

Before Rowena could reach for the door, Dashiell had already grabbed the umbrella and was out in it.

Through the window I watched him hold the umbrella over her, tucked against him, and walk her into the lobby. One of his shoulders was out in the open rain, soaked through.

Chapter 3 I looked down at the plain chain on my own wrist, tarnished and gone dull. The cold metal sat against my skin.

It used to rain and he'd tip most of the umbrella over me and let half of himself get soaked. Back then he said he couldn't stand to see me out in the rain.

Now there was someone else under his umbrella. I pulled out a small, selfmocking smile. "It's fine. I don't need it anymore." The car drove back to the apartment we shared.

Getting out, my foot slipped and I stumbled, nearly went down. A cramp tore through my lower belly, hard enough to drain my face white.

I made myself walk inside and went straight to the kitchen. Rinsed the pot, ran the water, sliced the ginger. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.

Dashiell came in behind me, puzzled. "What are you doing? You look awful." It hurt too much to get a whole sentence out.

I raised a hand and pointed at the cabinet, telling him to pass me the brown sugar.

Dashiell stayed exactly where he was, not moving. "How much is brown sugar?" "The last bag is gone." "If I have to go out for it, the delivery fee goes on you, same as always." My fingertips clamped down on the edge of the counter.

Anger shot straight up through me. "I'll pay for it myself. You don't have to make the trip." "There's some at the back of the cabinet.

Just hand it to me." Dashiell gave the cabinet a careless glance. His tone was flat. "That's a shared household item. We agreed.

You take it, you log it in the expense app, and we split it at the end of the month." I looked up at him.

My voice shook a little. "I'm on my period, my stomach is killing me, and I want one cup of brown sugar ginger tea.

You're charging me for that too?" Dashiell crossed his arms and leaned in the kitchen doorway. "Why wouldn't I?" A wave of helplessness swept through me. "Dashiell, I'm your girlfriend, not your roommate." He raised an eyebrow, impatience under it. "This whole scene, it's just a roundabout way of getting me to spend money on you, isn't it?" "I always thought you were different from other girls.

That you cared about the relationship, not the stuff." I'd heard it so many times my ears were numb to it. It wasn't like this in the beginning.

I'd run a fever and he'd sit up all night beside me. Run to the pharmacy, boil ginger tea. Never counted any of it against me.

Somewhere along the way every small thing between us got a price on it. I didn't want to argue anymore.

The cramps kept coming in waves. "Hand me the brown sugar." "It gets logged." Dashiell said it again.

I closed my eyes and pushed down the ache in my throat. "Log it." Only then did he pull the cabinet open, slow about it, and toss the bag onto the counter.

It hit hard and split open. Most of the brown sugar went across the floor. I looked at the reddishbrown powder all over the floor. I hurt too much to bend down.

I didn't bend down to clean it up. Dashiell glanced down at it and frowned. "Be more careful.

What spilled goes on your side of the expenses too." I looked up and held his eyes. "Dashiell, don't you think you've gone too far?" Dashiell's face stayed calm, without a trace of guilt. "No.

I think you're making a production out of nothing." I didn't want to say another word. I shut off the burner and walked back to the bedroom, one step at a time.

I didn't want to make the ginger tea anymore. I didn't want him anymore. Chapter 4 Back in the bedroom I curled up on the bed. The cramping came in wave after wave.

It was nothing like any period pain I'd had before. Then something warm ran down my thigh. My stomach dropped. Every bit of color went out of my face. I pulled the sheet back.

A wide, glaring patch of blood had soaked through. I reached down with a shaking hand. My fingertips came away covered in warm blood. I couldn't stop shaking.

I braced on the edge of the bed to go out and call Dashiell in the living room. The bedroom door was half open.

Through it came the low sound of him on the phone, so gentle it was almost a stranger's voice. "Does your stomach still hurt? I ordered you DoorDash.

Remember to take your stomach meds after." "Don't let your mind run. I've already smoothed things over with Antonia on my end. She's just in a mood." "Be good.

Get to bed early." My hand went stiff on the doorframe. All the strength drained out of me at once. He was worrying about Rowena's stomach. He couldn't see that I was bleeding.

I didn't knock. I moved slowly back to the bed. The pain kept getting heavier. My head started to drift. I fumbled my phone out.

My fingers shook so badly I could barely hit the right spot on the screen. I dialed 911. "Hello… my stomach hurts really badly.

I need an ambulance sent here." I hung up and slid down onto the cold floor. The noise in the room got to Dashiell after all.

He shoved the bedroom door open, saw the blood on the floor, and his brows twisted hard. "What are you doing, calling 911 in the middle of the night?" "My stomach hurts." My teeth were clenched.

There was no color left in my lips. "They're period cramps.

You need an ambulance for that?" Dashiell stood where he was with his arms crossed. "Antonia, can you stop using your own body as a bargaining chip every time you get jealous and want to make a point?" "All this over that little thing with Ro in the car today?" The ambulance got there fast.

The medics came in and lifted me onto a stretcher. In the ER, the doctor finished a first exam. His face was grave. "She's miscarrying with heavy bleeding.

She has to be admitted right now. Someone needs to get to registration and sign her in. They want $2,000 up front." The doctor turned to Dashiell, standing off to the side