Chapter 1 #2
At first, I thought it was just some new thing. A feeling that ebbed and flowed.
But a few months after she started dating Stu, I noticed myself getting more and more annoyed and jealous when she spent time with him.
After a while, I realized those feelings weren’t new.
I was completely in love with her.
I was in love with her when she walked across the stage at her college graduation. I was in love with her when she came to my first professional baseball game with my name and number plastered on her back.
It was hard to admit.
But when I thought back to how many times I’d been blinded by jealousy seeing someone’s arm around her shoulder or how many necks I wanted to snap when she’d call me with a broken heart, sobbing over some asshole who didn’t even deserve her in the first place…
I realized I’d loved her since at least our senior prom eleven years ago.
We were just kids back then.
There were a myriad of things I hadn’t noticed about Sloane back then that had captured my attention since. Like how she snorted a little when she cried or how she crossed her legs when she laughed, because one time in first grade, she peed while I was tickling her, and it’d haunted her ever since.
When we were eighteen, I didn’t obsess over the way she bit her lip when she was nervous or the way her nose wrinkled when she smiled.
Recently, it was like every time we were together, I noticed something different. Just one more thing that made my chest ache for something I couldn’t have.
Tonight, it was that little freckle on her chest.
I’d probably seen it a million times before tonight, but the way her blouse fell against her breasts and exposed the top of her cleavage was torture.
My mouth watered when my imagination got the best of me, picturing the way my tongue could trace the—
NO.
I cleared my throat and straightened my spine, pulling myself out of that glorious daydream that threatened to play on repeat in the back of my mind. I hadn’t even realized she had started to talk.
Sloane shifted on her feet, moving her shoulders awkwardly. “—and you’d know that if you’d bothered to answer your phone.”
I searched my brain, trying to piece together what I had missed, but between the pounding headache and the distraction of visualizing my tongue on her skin, I was coming up empty.
“I—sorry. What?” My brows furrowed as I looked over at her.
The deep, defeated sigh that huffed out of her made me cringe. “I said, Stu and I ended things. Like a month ago. And you’d know that if you bothered to answer your goddamn phone.” Her voice lowered to a harsh whisper.
Ended things?
I had no clue that they weren’t together anymore. The fact that I had caught him checking her out earlier pissed me off even more.
“Oh,” I responded quietly, guilt gnawing at my chest. How much had I missed out on?
When I pulled away from Sloane, I never really considered that it might hurt her, too. I’d assumed I was the annoying pebble caught in her stiletto that she just couldn’t seem to shake out.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The lie felt rough on my tongue.
She lifted her shoulder in a shrug and signed the paperwork on the desk before sliding it back across the counter and under the plexiglass partition.
A clear plastic bag was shoved through the hole, and I immediately spotted my phone, now sporting a gnarly crack that splintered across the entire screen.
Fucking amazing.
She grabbed the bag and turned to face me after thanking the young officer behind the glass. “Hope you don’t mind. I had them toss the dime bag of coke.”
My eyes pinched shut, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
How did I fuck up this badly?
She shoved the bag of belongings into my chest, knocking me back a few steps. Sloane wasn’t usually a confrontational person. Clearly and understandably so, tonight I had struck a nerve.
“It wasn’t mine.” My voice—and explanation—were weak. I couldn’t blame her for being upset with me. I wouldn’t believe me if I were in her shoes.
Sloane scoffed, her eyes rolling again. “The evidence is pretty damning.”
“I know—” I sighed. “—But I swear it wasn’t mine.” I trapped the bag against my chest.
It’d been at least a month since we’d had a conversation with any substance, and even longer since the last time I saw her in person. I’d been dodging her calls and avoiding her in a stupid attempt to salvage our friendship.
How the hell had I never considered I was doing more harm than good?
She held my gaze for a moment, her eyes dancing back and forth between mine. Like she was searching for something that could help her decipher between the truth I was telling and the evidence she was seeing firsthand.
Her lips twisted to the side; a subtle shake of her head told me she couldn’t find whatever she was looking for. But I felt her disappointment regardless. “Let’s go.”
Disappointment and crystal-clear annoyance aside, she’d shown up for me when I needed her.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for myself.
I cursed under my breath, breaking into a jog to follow after her as she stomped toward the exit, her heels echoing throughout the otherwise silent room.
“Pi—Sloane, wait up.”
She pushed through the doors, immediately heading toward the parking lot.
How the fuck does someone move so fast in heels that tall?
Jogging down the stairs, I hollered for her again, rolling my eyes when she ignored me. Honestly, I was stupid to think she would even listen to me in the first place. I’d known Sloane my whole life, and she will forever and always be the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.
“Sloane, please.” She might be moving like a bat out of hell, but the difference in our height worked in my favor.
She rifled through her purse for a second, pulling out the keys to her car as I reached over to grab her wrist. “Please. Just—talk to me.”
The lights of her Lexus flooded the dim parking lot as she turned to face me, the dancing shadows accentuating the anger etched onto her face.
“I have a meeting with Cami at seven-thirty because it’s the only time I could fit it into my schedule.
” She shook her head, scoffing and dropping her arms to her side with a smack.
“I mean, what the fuck did you think was gonna happen here, Rhys? You go on—on some kind of binge, in an extremely public bar, might I add, and you don’t think there are going to be any consequences? I mean, coke? Seriously? What were you thinking?”
I thought she might end my scolding, but she took a breath and kept on.