“Yeah, the shoot was a blast. Your album cover is going to look amazing,” Vic says, still standing by my side at the front of the table.
Olivia frowns and turns to Avery, “So they rejected it again, huh?” I watch as his jaw tenses and he nods quickly. She smiles. I can’t believe I watch as she actually smiles. It fades as fast as it appeared but it was there. What the hell?
She leans in and whispers into his ear, a tiny smile appearing on his face. They turn to look at one another and just as she leans over to kiss him, I turn my attention back to Jesse. I can’t bring myself to watch their exchange, just the thought of it hurts. Jesse is messing around on his phone, but quickly looks up at me, and smiles.
“I’m really excited to get to work on this song. You’ll come listen to it when we’re finished, won’t you?” he teases, standing up and tucking his phone away.
“Just try and pry that phone of yours away from me when you do,” I say playfully, doing my best to ignore the giggles coming from my seat.
A crooked grin spreads across his face and I watch as a barbell pokes through and slowly rolls across his full lips.
Momentarily distracted by Jesse and his hidden piercing, I don’t even hear my friend as she tells everyone that we’re heading out early.
Jesse’s face instantly falls, “You’re leaving already? You just got here!”
I wrinkle my brow and turn to Vic to ask her why we’re leaving and the incessant giggles start back up.
OH YEAH.
I turn back to Jesse and offer a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry. I have a dance class early tomorrow so I really should get going. It was great meeting you, and thank you for inviting us out.”
He takes my hand and lightly places a kiss on the back of it. “Thank you for coming, I hope we can do this again soon, maybe even get you out on the dance floor next time so you can show me some of your moves,” he says with a devilish grin.
I smile, “Maybe next time. Good luck with your album. Let me know how it turns out.”
“Well you know, to do that, I absolutely need to have a way to contact you—so getting your number tonight is strictly business. You understand,” he flirts so hard that we both just laugh. After briefly exchanging numbers, Jesse reaches out and places his hands on my hips. He leans in, kisses my cheek gently, and leaves me flushing completely pink.
“It was really great meeting you, Melanie. Until next time,” Jesse whispers, pulling back from me with that smile and then walking back over to the bar.
I breathlessly turn back to the table and avoid eye contact with Avery, say my goodbyes and take Vic’s hand as we make a quick exit.
As soon as the breeze outside hits my skin, I suck in a huge breath and sit down on the nearest brick lined flowerbed at the back of some restaurant. Vic stops, turning back to me with a look of concern in her eyes.
“You all right, Hun?” she asks, sitting down beside me. I nod, throwing my head back and shaking my head.
“Yeah, I’m just stupid. Freaking stupid,” I say. How could I have ever even imagined that he… I guess seeing her in the flesh was just cementing reality into place.
How could I ever compete with that? No wonder he didn’t stay longer, come back, or even try to contact me. She must be worth ten of me.
I feel the tears stinging at the backs of my eyes as the very thought took over my body and racked it with an overwhelming sadness.
Before Vic could say anything, his voice came crashing over me like a tidal wave.
“I was hoping I would catch you. Can we please talk, Chase?” Avery says, standing beside us with his hands in his pockets, looking almost as lost as I feel.
I take another deep breath before scanning the nearby parking lot for people before unhinging on him.
“I’ll give you guys a few minutes,” Vic says, squeezing my knee before walking past Avery, who she pats on the shoulder before walking away into the dark.
“Why are you even out here, Avery? You should be inside. You should be inside with Olivia,” I state, keeping my eyes glued to his, trying not to let my emotions show.
He slowly steps closer to me and stops, “I couldn’t just let you leave like that, Chase. I tried to get over there to talk to you earlier, but I—”
“But your fiancé showed up. I get it. Honestly, you don’t owe me an explanation. You don’t really owe me anything,” I manage to choke out as I stand up, deciding that I just need to give him up cold turkey and stop all of this once and for all.
“That’s just it, I want to explain. I don’t know what’s going on in your head, but I swear you have the wrong idea,” he says, his voice heavy with emotion. It causes me to pause and look up into those eyes and he sucks me in just like that. I blink hard. It’s now or never.
“Well… it doesn’t matter, it’s not like I’m sitting here proclaiming my undying love for you, rock star, but I liked you. I liked you a lot and… And I deserved the truth,” I finally manage to push out. Not as tactful or well-spoken as I had always hoped it would be, but to the point nonetheless. I hope.
“Chase, I swear to you everything I told you then was the truth.”
I don’t know why, but one look in his eyes and I know he’s not lying to me.
So he was single when we were together; he wasn’t with her. My heart starts to beat faster.
“Then what the fu—” I start but he steps up to me, placing a hand on each of my arms to calm me down, only his hands on me do the exact opposite.
“Olivia is one of those ‘I caught a fish this big’ when really it’s only this big kind of people. She tends to exaggerate—a lot.”
His hands slowly slip down my arms until he’s no longer touching me, but my body still hums from the way his skin felt against mine. I breathe out slowly and look up into his eyes again, knowing it’ll only make it worse.
“About you?” I ask hopefully.
He sighs, “Especially about us.”
God, let this all be an act, let it be a lie. Tell me she’s nothing to you, the butterflies cry from their tomb.
“So… you two weren’t together when you met me?” I timidly ask.
“Absolutely not.”
I bite my lip, and brave another question.
“Are you really getting married?”
“Nope, not getting married.”
I try to bite back my smile, but I really can’t hide it.
“But she is my girlfriend. She has been for almost two years now.”
And just as quick as it came, my smile is gone. I feel the stinging at the back of my eyes for the millionth time tonight and immediately I feel the need to run. I hate that he makes me feel like a teenage girl all over again.
“She’s a spitfire, but she’s a sweet girl. Her family is in the music business,” he begins, telling me all these endearing things about his blonde trophy, but I stop listening. My eyes and heart plead with him to stop digging the knife in deeper.
Ten seconds ago I thought they were getting married, but I’m about to cry over hearing him admit to dating her? I’m absolutely out of my mind.
“I have to go,” I manage to say before stepping away, but he side steps me, blocking my child-like exit.
“Talk to me, Chase,” Avery says in that soft tone I remember so vividly from the rooftop, and I shut down. Going there is a bad, bad, bad, bad, idea.
I meekly give him a flat smile, and lie through my teeth, “I’m fine, Avery. Honestly, that’s all I wanted to hear.”
I go to walk again and he presses his body to mine, taking my wrist in his hand, and holding it tightly. The burning behind my eyes is becoming more and more unbearable.
“What if that’s not all I wanted to say,” he says barely above a whisper.
My heart starts screaming out for him to just say what I’m to chicken to admit, and that if I just hear him say the words, even after all this time, that it will still feel exactly like it did back them.
The sudden chirping of a cell phone ring
blares from his pocket and it doesn’t take a second to figure out who’s calling him. My desperate look fades to one of irony as he grabs for it, silencing the damned thing as fast as he can, but it’s too late.
“Goodbye, Avery,” I whisper, and before losing my nerve, lean in and place a soft kiss on his cheek and turn and walk off into the parking lot as the tears begin to fall freely.
I find Vic playing on her phone inside her car as I fling open the door and crawl in, grabbing her into a hug before she can even say anything.
I cry silently for a moment, and she remains quiet, patting my hair until I lean back and sniffle.
“Let’s go home.”
She smiles softly, “You ok?”
I shake my head no, “But I will be now that it’s all done and over with, and I never have to see him again,” I say with a small chuckle through my tears.
Vic frowns, biting at her lip as she eyes me carefully.
Frowning back at her, “What?” I ask.
“So now would probably be a really, really bad time to tell you that I kind of invited them over for a small party at the apartment this weekend, wouldn’t it?”
Dunking my foot into the fading bubbles of my now cold bath, I snap another angry bite of my beef jerky, take a possible eighth swig out of some bottle I jacked from my friend’s liquor cabinet… Yech! …and lay my head back to stare at the ceiling.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb girl!
I roll my eyes at myself, and sit up to let the water out, but once it’s about a third of the way from being empty, I just plug it back up and crank it back up to hot and let the steaming water fill up again. I chug another nasty gulp back and grab another piece of my snack from the bag on the nearby sink and sit back, watching the water fall against my pink, wrinkly feet and sigh again. Damn, damn, damn…
What if that’s not all I want to say? Well, you could have said a lot more back on the rooftop, you son of a *hiccup*! I mumble to myself. I didn’t want to know what he still had to say! Not really, anyway. Ok, maybe I did, but it wouldn’t make Barbie any less his girlfriend, so the point was moot.
I hear a small creek of the door, but I keep staring at my feet.
“Beef jerky, bourbon, bubble bath, Chase? That serious, huh?” I hear Vic laugh. I roll my head against the back of the tub to look at her peeking in from the cracked door. I turn the water off with my foot, and grab the black towel off of the closed toilet seat and drape it across me.
“Come on in, Vic,” I say, my voice heavy from all of the thoughts I can’t seem to get rid of no matter how long I soak in this tub, or the alcohol.
*Hiccup*
“Lord, how long have you been in here? You’re practically a prune!” she says with another dry laugh, slowly taking a seat next to me and quietly nudging the bottle out of my reach with her foot.
Damn her. I just look up at her with a ‘shut the hell up’ look and take a huge bite of my jerky.
“I’m an idiot,” I manage to say through my mouthful.
It’s her turn to roll her eyes and sigh, “For the love of Bob, Chase, what were you expecting? Hell, if I were you, I’d be doing cartwheels after hearing that the man isn’t engaged to the chick!”
I roll the bite around in my mouth and contemplate her words. I should be thrilled, but I’m not. Did I expect him to pine after me the way I tried not to over him? Who knows! I may have kissed a few boys here and there, but it always stopped there. Relationships or anything more, were impossible because I compared every pair of lips to Avery’s lips. He made me fall head over heels in love with him and then vanished, leaving me ruined for anyone else. He fucking ruined me. The thought cuts right though me, and I sit up in the tub, grabbing onto the sides and looking Vic dead in the eyes.
“It’s not fair, Vic. I broke free so I could live a life where I didn’t feel suffocated anymore, and yet he walks in and I feel like I’m drowning. He wrecked me, he seriously came in with his smoking hot lip ring and ridiculously sexy voice—and said all the right things and kissed me in ways that made my knees give out, and just left. I’d of gone with him, Victoria, I would have gone anywhere with that… asshole! And then he goes and… finds someone else?! You want me to admit it to you, fine. I think I did fall in love with him back then, naïve love, but I fell harder for him than I realized and I’m dumb for ever thinking that it wouldn’t matter if he moved on because I… I can’t kiss a single guy without wishing it were him. For the love of God, I still remember what he smelled like, what his lips tasted like! The mere sight of him just lit the chest I’d locked all of this away in on fire. All this time I tried convincing myself that it was nothing more than just a fling, ha! Stupid! Ruined. He ruined me,” I breathe out in a half cry half yell as I reach for another piece of jerky. Vic raises her brows and frowns, grabs the bag and hands me a piece, then takes one for herself. Then she sighs, grabs the bottle of bourbon, and takes a huge gulp. She hands it back to me and I follow suit.
We both sit there in quiet and chew and think. We both sigh loudly at about the same time.
“So when the hell is this party?” I blurt out, reaching for the plug and yanking it out, deciding after that rant, I can probably get out of my bourbon, beef jerky, bubble bath and get my ass to bed to sleep it off.
Vic stands up and grabs me a dry towel as I try to pull off the wet towel plastered across me.
Handing it to me, she says, “Two nights away. Please don’t be mad at me about it. I had to bail tonight with you after harlot Barbie showed up, but Kennedy—I have to see him again, Chase. I really like him, or I think I could like him a lot, but I didn’t really have the chance to talk to him tonight so I offered to have him over and he asked if it could be a group thing. It’s not like I could say no! Have you seen those dimples?”
I smile for the first time since we left the bar a few hours ago. Well, at least I think it was a few hours ago. My legs are a little wobbly so maybe I have been in here longer than I thought.
“Nah, I’m not mad at you, but don’t expect me to be there.”
She opens the door for me as we walk out of the bathroom and laughs, “Oh come on, Hun, you’ll be there. Go sleep that mess off and we’ll talk about it in the morning. And Chase?” she pauses outside of her door. I look over my shoulder at her.
“You’re not ruined. I know it feels like it now, but once you get some rest and let it all sink in, you’ll see that maybe things just have a funny way of working out,” she says softly, and I wonder if she’s not drunk, too. I just nod as I make my way into my room and fall into bed.
Roughly clearing his throat, “So, are you going to talk to me this morning, or do I have to try and figure out what exactly you’re pissed off at me about by the crunching of your cereal?” Avery asks with a highly sarcastic tone in his gruff morning voice as he stares across the hotel dining room table at his obviously still angry girlfriend.
Shooting him a warning glance from over the top of her bowl of granola, Olivia sighs, and rewraps her fluffy white bathrobe around her as she begins to tap her spoon against the beautiful cherry wood table.
Avery throws his head back and lets out an agitated groan. She’s been giving him the silent treatment since they left the bar last night. Not that he minds all that much.
He’d be lying not only to himself but also to the entire world if he said that the relationship had been anything but rocky for more than half of the time they had been together. Hell, he was never out to have a relationship in the first place. It just sort of happened. Before he knew it, the time had flown by and they were still together…
Barely.
Falling into a relationship with Olivia Birsch had been complicated from the start, but falling out of one, well, that was something far more problematic.
A couple years back, when a spur of the moment trip fell apart, Avery returned to L.A. just in time for the Blurr Record party celebrating the launch of their first album. After celebrating a little too hard with his band and Jack Daniel
s, he woke up next to a girl… and he couldn’t remember her name. Thinking he could make a quick getaway while she was still asleep, he grabbed his clothes from the floor, darted out of the bedroom and down the hall of the mansion, which he soon realized was the one the party had been held at. Not his finest moment, running from a one-night stand, but he could barely remember anything past the initial toast and shots with the guys. He darted into an empty bathroom, quickly dressed, and quietly made his way down the wide staircase. To avoid the group of people cleaning up in the main room, Avery dashed down a hall and ended up in the kitchen, face to face with Samuel Birsch sitting with a cup of coffee and his morning paper. It was a moment that would sit with him for the rest of his life. Blurr Record Label Executive himself, and father to the blonde stranger upstairs, the gray haired gentleman enjoying his breakfast was none too happy to find a disheveled Avery sneaking around his house. After a few moments of hung over stuttering during the father’s ruthless interrogation and slew of threats that included dropping his band from the label and ruining their name for good in the industry, Olivia pranced into the kitchen to his rescue and playfully shooed her father away from Avery. She quickly came up with some off the wall story about how they’d known each other for years and reconnected recently, but that she didn’t want her father to know about it because she knew they had been signed by the label. Batting her lashes and pouting her lips, the old man bought every single word. Avery should have realized then that saving his ass with a list of complicated lies was far too easy for her, but it never occurred to him that it was anything more than an attempt to calm her father down. Thankfully, Mr. Birsch seemed relieved. Of course, his relief came from knowing that his newest investment wasn’t one night standing his daughter like some common groupie.
Avery was never looking for a relationship, but after that, they just fell into the rolls. It had been that way ever since, but things between them had never felt natural. They didn’t know each other, and even after taking the time to try, they still didn’t have much in common. He knew there was something lacking, but for the sake of the band, he kept pushing through, hoping he would be able to find whatever the hell it was.
Wild Chase Page 11
