“Thanks, J.” He sighed and glanced at me. “I feel like I should be the one taking care of you, but you’re helping us out. Are you up for hiring someone and running the place? You could still bartend every once in a while, but you’d be in charge of scheduling, hiring, and inventory. I don’t want to fuck up your schooling, and I feel like we’re putting you in a bad position.”
“No. I can handle it. I’ll make Joel and Maggie managers. Hire someone for the books, and hell, if I could train them on inventory, it would work out. We’ll be okay.” I shrugged.
He smiled, relieved. “Good. I knew we could count on you.”
“Shit, did you ever doubt me? Shame on you, Gage.” I laughed and went back to the bar.
It was three in the afternoon, and I was dying to get off work. This was new for me. I loved working and being in the bar. It was odd to be excited to head home, especially to go hang out with Aiden. Just the thought of him made me smile. I still couldn’t get over the fact he got a beer-making kit for us. It was such a couple thing to do together. Not like I minded.
Joel yelled something at me, and I mentally kicked myself for daydreaming. I was not that girl. “Sorry, J-Dawg. My bad.”
“Get your shit together, lover girl. We have a pre-game rush right now. I need two hundred bucks, so work it behind the bar.”
“Yes, sir.” I flew into action. I sent a couple of texts to Aiden about the beer and what I wanted to do to him later, but I never got a response. I didn’t have a second to even worry about it. We were slammed. So much for getting off early that night. The basketball game didn’t start until seven, and we had hours before then.
“What the hell, J? Why are we so busy?”
“Game, probably.” My arms hurt, and my legs were sore. It had been five hours of straight action for a Saturday afternoon. Not our typical weekend. It usually got like this later.
“Hell. I’m going to double what I needed to make. I’m pumped, but shit. We don’t have enough servers.”
“I know. I’ll get Gage.” I cashed out the couple in front of me and ran to the back. “Hey, Gage, we are slammed. Can you run food?”
“Sure thing. Just posted the ad online. Be right there.”
“Appreciate it.” I checked my phone. Still no messages. Huh. I passed the kitchen and refilled all their waters. I knew they were roasting back there.
“J! Get more vodka. Hell. These women are going to drown in it.”
“Sure.” I ran back and forth restocking, refilling, pouring, and sweating. I finally started to notice a break in the crowd and sighed.
Joel came up and rubbed my back for a second. “You good, girl?”
“Fuck. I didn’t get enough sleep for this.”
“Aiden. Damn him.”
I laughed and looked up to a familiar face, only with a fresh bruise. I tensed.
Joel noticed and stayed right behind me.
“Kam.”
“Jenna. Hi.” He fidgeted and tapped his fingers on the bar a couple times. “Can we talk?”
“We’re too busy for me to take a break, but I can right here if that’s okay.” I wasn’t going to be alone with him right now. No way.
“Okay. Well, I wanted to apologize profusely for scaring you the other night.” His dark eyes were serious, almost glistening. His hand shook a little. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just…have feelings for you, and I thought you had them, too, I guess.”
“Kam.” I released the breath I was holding. Joel took that as his cue to leave. I knew he would be back in a second if I got distressed, but Kam appeared genuine. “Fuck.”
“I misread the situation. I get it. I do. I was disappointed you picked him. I thought you were too good for him.”
“Kam. He’s your friend. I wasn’t even trying to find someone. It just…happened.” I didn’t like the way he talked about Aiden. He had a past—I got it—but they were friends, brothers.
“He said the same thing.” He touched his jaw and grimaced. “That’s actually how I got this.”
“He hit you?”
“Look, I know you probably won’t believe me, but I saw a girl leave his room this afternoon. I went up to confront him—well, talk to him about you—and saw her leave. I told him I was going to tell you, and, well, he punched my face.”
My stomach dropped. There was no way. He wouldn’t.
I dropped the glass I held. The crash made Joel rush over to me. “What the hell, J? You never—what the fuck happened?”
“I know you might not believe me, but I got a picture of them. I knew he was going to hurt you. I didn’t want that, Jenna. You’re too good.”
Joel grabbed the phone from his hands and hissed in a breath. “Get this shit out of here.”
“Jenna, I’m so sorry. I’m sure he’ll have an excuse or something because he’s Aiden. He always does. I needed to tell you so you could get out of it. I’ll leave you alone, but I’m here if you need to talk.”
Kam walked out of the bar. I stood frozen. I saw stars and heard Joel say something. I saw his mouth move, but it didn’t register.
The blonde in the picture stood in front of me, and Joel’s face warped into one I’d never seen before. Pure disgust. He yelled something at her. She winced but shook her head and pointed to me. She pleaded with him while I stood there, silent. I watched her pull out her phone and yell back at Joel. He read what was on the screen, then slammed his fist into the counter. Spit flew out of his mouth, and he pointed to the door. The blonde obeyed whatever he said, and he turned to me. I watched his mouth form my name. No sound came through, though.
“Jenna. Baby, come on. Answer me.” He ran his hands up and down my arms in panic. “I know you can hear me. Just blink.”
I did.
“She showed me her phone. Texts from Aiden. Begging her not to tell you. I saw them. I’m going to fucking kill him.”
My brain shut down, needing an entire rewiring to understand what just happened. The picture and conversation replayed itself over and over in my head. It was one I would never forget. Aiden wearing the outfit I saw him in earlier, his arms wrapped around another woman, his lips on her head.
My stomach heaved. I sprinted to the bathroom and made it just in time. My hands shook, barely grasping the paper towels to wipe my face. On my third failed attempt, I collapsed onto the ground.
The door opened, and Gage saw me on the floor. His normally stern eyes softened. “J. Scoot over. I’m joining you.”
I did, and he locked the bathroom door and sat on the grimy floor with me. My back was against the wall, and my body continued to shake. He put his arm around me and squeezed. I lost it. He let me snot, cry, and wail into his shirt. He didn’t say a word, just patted my back. It could’ve been an hour or ten minutes. I had no idea, but I felt nothing.
His voice broke the trance I was in. “I’m taking you home. I’ll stay with you until Cyn or someone can come be with you.”
I nodded.
He wiped my face with his hands and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “Jenna, you’ve saved my life before. Literally. Cyn is my life. You will get through this. You’re a badass bitch. This is going to hurt, but you’ll get through it.”
He kept his arm around me and walked me back to the bar to grab my stuff.
Joel was livid. He walked up to me and was about to say something when I saw, for a second time that day, his face distort into hatred. “Get the fuck out of here right now or I’ll kill you.”
“What the fuck? What’s going on? Jenna? Why are you crying?” Aiden’s voice made my stomach heave again. Gage stalked over to him in two steps.
“You need to leave.”
“What the hell? Why is my girl crying?” Aiden panicked. He became distraught and begged someone to answer him. “What the fuck?”
“Get out.” Joel stood on the other side of Gage and blocked him from my view.
“I need to talk to Jenna. I lost my phone al
l day. I couldn’t call. What’s going on? Someone fucking answer me, goddamn it.” His tone became angrier. A part of me wanted to comfort him, but it died quickly. “Jenna, please. What happened?”
“You have three seconds to walk out of here without my fist in your face.” Gage towered over him. His tone left no room for argument. “Now.”
Aiden kicked the bar and stormed out. I held onto the railing to support myself. Joel was there within a second and helped me back up. “I called Maya and Ken. They’ll be there. I’ll take over. Get her out of here, Gage.”
Gage kept his arm around me on the walk to the car. I shielded my face from the sunlight and turned off my emotions. I functioned better without them. Fuck them. It was all bullshit. I let him do this to me. I fell for him. I fell completely in love with Aiden Chad, and he fucked me over. I was so stupid. I felt tears come on again, but this time it was anger. I pushed away from Gage and went to my bike. “I need to ride.”
“Sorry, girl. Not in this state.”
“I need the wind. I need to escape for a minute.”
He shook his head. “I’m not letting you on your bike. You can hate me if you want, but this isn’t an option.”
“I’m going to fucking scream. I don’t know how to deal with this, Gage. My body is shutting down. I want to crawl inside myself and just rip out my heart. I can’t go back to my apartment. I can’t deal with being mothered. I want to ride.”
He looked at me with a grim face and clenched his fists. “We’re getting Joel.”
Minutes later, Joel and I hopped on Joel’s Harley, and we slid on our helmets. Gage was going to stay at the bar while Joel and I had the night off. I held on to him and closed my eyes. I told him to just drive, not to stop for an hour.
We rode well into the night. Through the mountains. Past rivers and trails. I saw a sign signaling that Flagstaff was close. I nudged him.
He pulled off at a rest area with a cute restaurant. “You good to eat, J?”
“I won’t be able to eat for a while. Coffee or ice cream sounds good, though.” We locked up the bike and found a booth in the back.
We ordered and sat in silence.
“Thank you, Joel. For doing this.”
“Of course. No questions asked. You needed the escape.”
“I’m not ready to go back yet. I don’t want to face…everything.”
“I don’t blame you. I’ve never seen you like that before. It fucking scared me. I never want to see you sad again.”
My eyebrows pinched together, a heavy weight in my chest. “I love him, Joel. Like crazy love him. It’s going to take a long fucking time to get over this.”
“Can I ask you something?” His brown eyes narrowed like he was afraid.
“Go ahead.”
“Is there a small part of you that thinks maybe it isn’t true?” He cringed at the end like I was going to throw my coffee on his face.
“Why?”
“Because I know Kam showed you the picture, and it looked really bad. Really fucking bad. But I’ve seen him around you. It almost seemed…too staged for me.”
“He’s always been a player. It’s what I expected.” I shrugged, refusing to get suckered back into happily ever afters. I blamed all those goddamn movies Ken and Maya made me watch. At the thought of them, I pulled out my phone and saw forty missed calls. Countless texts. I shut off the phone. Everyone knew I was with Joel. That was enough.
“That’s bullshit. It’s been six months. He’s different.”
“People don’t change, Joel.” I twirled the spoon in my coffee just to keep my hands busy. I didn’t even put anything in it. I needed it black.
“I love you, J. You’re my sister for all intents and purposes. But bull-fucking-shit. You’ve changed. I’ve seen you transformed this past year. It’s all for good.”
“How have I changed? I’m still a bitch. Now I just know what it feels like to have a broken heart.”
“You’re not a bitch, per se.” His lips quirked up for a second. “You’ve opened up yourself to Aiden, his friends, Mike, his family. You helped Maya with some personal shit.” I looked up at him because I didn’t know he knew. “Yeah, Maya told me about it. She likes to talk a lot. God, give her a drink, and she goes on for hours.”
“True.”
“Plus, you’ve softened a little with Ainsley. It’s been a combination of everything. You’ve changed. Why can’t he, too?”
I didn’t have an answer to that question. I shrugged.
Joel paid the bill and hopped up from the table. “J, we’ll ride back and go wherever you want. You get tonight to mope and get it out. But you owe him a conversation.”
Chapter 42
To Hell With Manners-Aiden
I sucked the blood off my knuckles. Then punched the shit out of anything and everything in my room. Pause. Repeat the process.
“What the fuck am I going to do?”
She refused my calls after I finally fucking found my phone downstairs. She didn’t answer a text. Her friends didn’t answer, and no one was fucking telling me anything.
“Goddamn it!” I ran my hands through my hair and kicked my cooler of beer. Panic clawed its way up my body, through my chest, making it hard to breathe
Someone knocked on the door. Jon walked in with a grim look on his face. I wrapped my hand in an old shirt, stopping some of the bleeding. “Tell me you found out something.”
“Yes. It’s not good, Aiden.”
Nate came in the room next, followed by Zeke. They both wouldn’t make eye contact with me. My stomach dropped. What the hell happened?
“Someone needs to fucking tell me. I’m losing my goddamn mind.” I stood, but Nate pushed me back down.
“Dude. What did you do today?” His mouth was pressed in a tight line as if he were pissed at me, too.
“God.” I thought about it, and it was a blur. “After our meeting, I hung out in my room, did homework, and hid out. Then worked out before heading to the bar, where everything fucking turned to chaos.”
“No one came over?” Nate asked, eyeing me.
“Who would? Jenna was at work.” I looked at all of them, confused and getting more pissed by the second. “Fucking spit it out.”
“It’s all over social media that you cheated on Jenna with some blonde. There are pictures and screenshots of texts.”
“What?” My body tensed. There was no way. I would never. “What? Show me.”
Jon handed me his phone, and I saw red. There I was with some blonde. It didn’t make sense. I had no one over. My stomach dropped again. This time it wasn’t for me. It was for Jenna. Her friends rallying around her, her expression of pure devastation. Why Gage threatened to kick my ass.
Oh my God. “Jenna.”
“Yeah.”
I put my hands over my eyes and pressed so hard I saw little lights. “It’s not true. Please tell me you believe me.”
“Yes,” Jon said without hesitation. “If you guys want my opinion, from the stories I’ve heard, Kam did this.”
“He did this? Cost me the best thing in my life because he’s a fucking alcoholic prick? Are you kidding me?” I stood, rage fueling me. I would admit the evidence was solid. It would take a lot to prove I didn’t do it. Part of me was terrified, because if she didn’t believe me, it was over. No hope. She had to believe me. She had to.
“Calm down. Listen.” Jon sat at my desk while Zeke took the bean bag chair. I thought about the last time Jenna was over and we fooled around on there. The memory caused my stomach to cramp, and I bit down on my lip. I couldn’t imagine her not being in my life. I refused. “I heard Kam went to the bar. Talked to her for a bit, showed her something on his phone.”
“How do you know this?”
“Jenna has a circle of people who care for her. So do you, Aiden.” Jon smiled and held up his phone. “Her friends defended you, if you care to know. Maya and I have been communicating.”
<
br /> “How is she?”
“They haven’t seen her. She took off with Joel.”
I sighed, knowing she was at least safe. With Kam on the run and the root of this problem, I didn’t want him coming near her. “So he showed her something?”
“Yeah, and then the girl in the picture—don’t even know who she is—went up to the bar. She showed Joel texts between you and her, begging her not to tell anyone you two slept together. That’s when shit got bad.”
“What the fuck? I never! I didn’t. I don’t understand.” I pressed my fingers to my temples and counted to ten. “What do I do?”
“I don’t know, man.”
Zeke pushed himself onto his knees and frowned. “I like Jenna a whole lot, but, dude, she needs to hear you out.”
“She’s pissed as fuck at me. I would be livid if this were reversed.”
“Don’t give up. If you love her, fight for her.”
“I do. I never even told her.”
“Such a dumbass.” Nate hit my back and stood. “I’m going to call Kam’s family and explain a little of what’s going on. This shit is going too far. We don’t stand for this. He cannot remain in this frat.”
“I agree. We can worry about him later. Let’s help Aiden right now,” Zeke said with a frown.
“I’m heading over there and sleep on the porch until she talks to me.”
I took off sprinting toward her apartment. It was pitch-black outside, and I had no idea what time it was. I checked my phone for anything and saw a number of text messages I sure as hell did not send. Someone fucked with my phone.
“Jenna, open the door. Please, baby. Please open the fucking door.” I pounded on their door and hoped with everything inside me she would be there. I needed to see her face.
The door was opened by Maya with a forlorn look on her face. “She’s not here, Aiden.”
“Do you know where I can find her? It’s urgent.” My heart wouldn’t stop racing, and my hands shook.
She looked at me with pity. She sighed and nodded slowly. “Yes, but I think it’s best if you give her some time.”
Let Life Happen Page 31
