Chapter 30 Chase #2
“Hey. Sorry, I didn’t mean to ditch you on your birthday.” Annie orders a fruity cocktail and sends me a penitent smile. Then her voice dips to a hush. “I’m also here to save you.”
I tell the bartender to put her drink on my tab. “Save me?”
“Yep. You looked uncomfortable.” A sly look is sent to Jaclyn, who is now enmeshed in conversation with a woman on her right. “I know it’s hard putting yourself out there. The dating scene is vicious, according to Kenna.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Not everyone rescues injured goldfinches and names them Haiku. Some people have body parts in their fridge named after their favorite serial killers.”
Straightaway, my anxiety shakes loose and a smile teases. “You think Jaclyn’s a closet sociopath?”
“Jaclyn, huh?” A pink cocktail with extra cherries and a coral umbrella is placed in front of her. She sips from the straw, her red-wine nails tapping the glass. “I mean, probably not. She looks like the type of person who doesn’t even let her ground beef go a day past the expiration date.”
A sharp laugh escapes, and I order a beer. “Guess we’ll never know. Maybe she is a serial killer, and I just dodged a literal bullet.”
“Maybe.” Annie grins around her straw, then plucks a cherry from the endless slew of ice cubes. “Behind the ground beef is a collection of body parts. Elbows and clavicles because she’s different and quirky.”
“Heads and hearts are too predictable.”
“And I bet she does name them after serial killers, but in an offbeat way.” Her blue eyes glimmer under the indigo lights. “Bed Tundy.”
“Jesus.” I reach for my beer, veiling the toothy grin I can’t tamp down. “Well, thanks for saving me then. I’ve managed to avoid becoming a shinbone named Jack the Stripper in Jaclyn’s produce drawer.”
“Here to help.” She clinks her glass with mine. “Happy birthday, Chase.”
The humor tapers off as I stare transfixed at the cherry between her lips. She scoops it into her mouth with her tongue, and a moment later, removes the perfectly knotted stem.
Silence settles.
The energy changes.
Then the whiskey turns on me. “Do you really love him?”
She chokes on her drink.
Her eyes widen like she can’t believe I just asked her that.
Gulping hard, Annie peers down at the floor, jaw working, lashes fluttering. The glistening cherry bow tumbles from her fingers, landing beside my boot.
I exhale sharply. “Sorry.” Taking a hard swig of my beer, I shake my head and slam the bottle on the counter, turning to face her. “No. I’m not sorry.”
“Chase—”
“I’m fucking crazy about you.”
Slowly, her eyes pan upward. Shock glitters in her ambushed gaze, stealing her breath.
Moisture pools as her mouth fumbles for a response.
Regret gnaws, and my head pounds. But my heart pounds harder. This need to lay it all out there before it’s too late chomps through logic and morality.
Grit rolls up my throat as my voice lowers to a whisper. Sincerity bleeds through, honesty threaded with desperation. “I’m crazy about you, Annie.”
Sound shrinks on all sides, the lights dimming until all I see is her. Standing there, mouth ajar, looking at me like I just ripped a rug out from under her. The gems on her dress sparkle and blur. Her cheeks redden to match. Two teary pearls breach the corners of her eyes.
This isn’t fair.
I’m not being fair.
And still I wait, hoping, yearning, hemorrhaging at her feet. Silently pleading with her to see me.
Not him. Just me.
Annie makes a sound, a little squeak of despair. “I—”
“There you are.”
A dark shadow trudges over, blackening the moment. Pilfering all the hope and wretched expectation from the room. Sound returns, the lights blaze brighter and hotter, and the whiskey sits like a concrete block in the pit of my stomach.
Whatever she was going to say is snuffed out as Alex wraps a possessive arm around her and she deflates. “Hey,” she forces out. “I was just grabbing a drink.”
“Loosening those inhibitions. I’m here for it.” Alex nuzzles her neck, nibbling the soft skin.
Her eyes drift to mine.
She looks fucking broken.
“Come on. You like this song,” he says, his big hand clamping around her wrist as he yanks her from the counter. Toward the dance floor. Oceans away from me.
Her heels skid across the linoleum as she attempts to find her balance, shuffling behind him while sending me a painful look of apology as she retreats.
My hand grips the beer so hard I nearly crack the bottle. I shove it at my lips, swallowing the whole thing, the alcohol fizzing in my chest like a short-circuiting grenade.
I push away from the counter.
“It was nice meeting you—” Jaclyn’s voice fades out.
Needing a better distraction, I join my bandmates as they form a loose circle around the corner, talking music, the sound of the live band filling the room with staticky noise.
“Yo,” Rock greets me, shaggy dark hair covering his eyes. “Didn’t want to pry you away from Goldilocks. Tell me you got her Snap.”
“Yeah,” I lie.
Tag studies me, his attention split between his sister and whatever dead thing is lingering in my eyes. I know he sees it. They’re probably shaped like two sad broken-heart emojis.
“I warned her, you know,” he mutters, low enough so only I can hear him. He folds his arms and nods at the dance floor. “Told her this wouldn’t end well.”
“Alex?”
“You. All of it.”
My pulse runs away from me. “It doesn’t matter. It’ll end how it’s supposed to.”
“Yeah.” He huffs. “With everybody ruined.”
Muscles drawn tight, I watch Annie from a few feet away. The smile is gone, and her eyes are rimmed red. If Alex notices, he doesn’t care. She’s in his arms. Pressed against his chest.
Wholly his.
“I never meant to cause problems,” I say. “And I know you don’t like me, so—”
A gruff laugh cuts me off. “That’s what’s so fucked about this.
I do like you. Doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense, but if I could rewrite the story, it would be you over there dancing with her, putting the smile back on her face.
Because that’s what you do. You make her smile.
And it’s not that fake-ass bullshit she whips out when she wants us to think she’s doing just fine.
It’s real. Something I haven’t seen in a long time. ”
His words sink in slowly, knocking the wind out of me.
“Annalise has always been good at pretending,” Tag adds, sipping his beer. “But not with you. And if I can see that, I know he can see it too.”
My eyes glaze, the bar spinning in and out of focus.
As if summoned, Alex looks up at me.
We stare at each other, two enemies at war, and I watch as his lips draw into a sneer as if he knows something I don’t. Like he has some dirty little secret up his sleeve.
Whiskey taints my blood with vitriol.
The way he holds her is too severe, his arm a wrench around her shoulders, fingers white-knuckling her biceps. She has no choice but to sink into him. Submit. The image has my teeth scraping together, hot tension simmering beneath my skin.
The hopelessness curdles into anger.
Anger that after all these years, I’m still not happy. No matter how much I run or how deeply I try to disappear, nothing ever changes.
People leave. Love turns sour.
And now, the one person I do have was never really mine to begin with.
Fuck.
I need to go.
Just as I’m about to storm out of the bar and take an Uber home, I freeze, doing a double take.
Because the unthinkable happens.
Alex drops to one knee. Pulls out black velvet box.
Right in the middle of the dance floor.
The music cuts off like it was planned. A spotlight shimmies around the room, landing on my worst nightmare. Annie’s hand shoots to her mouth as she stands there, paralyzed, looking just as blindsided as I feel.
Tag watches the scene unfold, his expression shell-shocked. “Holy fuck.”
Words catch in my throat. “Did you…?”
“Not a damn clue.”
My hairline dampens, and my skin crawls. I can’t hear what he’s saying; I don’t want to.
But I hear her.
One word.
A soft, hesitant, “Yes.”
My vision distorts, everything streaking around me in a monochrome blur. Hugging, kissing, people cheering from every corner. Tag and I just stand there while Rock and Zach applaud through congratulatory whistles, oblivious.
The world tilts.
My world crumbles.
And I should’ve fucking seen it coming—seven years. The guy has seven years on me. A life built, memories made, a future within reach.
And me?
I’m just the guy who stole the wrong car.