“Hey, they’re gone now, don’t worry.” Joseph gave her a look of liquefied sympathy and she gave a snort. She was pathetic. She couldn’t even look at them! “You want to get out of here? We can get the meal wrapped up and head home if you like.”
That would be running away, but anything was better than sitting here with those two behind her.
“Yeah. Thanks, I think that would be for the best.” She glanced back at them in spite of herself and caught Chase looking at her.
Janet was in tears, gripping a glass of water like it was a lifeline.
“Are you ready?” Joseph asked, standing and offering his hand to her as he’d done a few weeks earlier. She didn’t take it.
“Hold on second.”
There was something fishy going on at Chase’s table. Janet whispered fiercely at him, but he stared directly at her. That look was back, and she was in his arms on that fucking leather sofa, touching him, kissing him.
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, low and long. She couldn’t let him go, no matter how hard she tried to believe. There was this piece of her which wanted to believe it could work, even though he said it couldn’t.
“Emily, you’re staring,” Joseph spoke up, stiff from envy.
This wasn’t fair on him. She did deserve real love, and he wasn’t it. Or she wasn’t ready yet. She should’ve stuck with her guns, but he’d caught her at a weak time.
“Listen to me!” Janet shrieked at the table, and Chase finally broke the link between them and turned to her. The restaurant went silent, waiters paused midstride, and patrons craned their necks to stare.
It was nice not to be the problem for once.
Janet picked up her glass and threw the water at Chase, who ducked to the left in the nick of time.
“Emily?” Joseph asked, hand still outstretched to take her. But she stood on her own, turned her back on Janet and Chase, and walked back to the car.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Emily tossed her keys on the coffee table and stifled a yawn. Joseph followed her in, but he hadn’t said a word since the restaurant. Perhaps he’d finally read the fucking room and realized he had to back off a bit.
The scene with Chase and Janet had worked wonders on her mood. Not because she wished any ill on Janet – okay, that wasn’t entirely true – but because she’d walked away. She’d left them to it.
It was his problem now. It wasn’t hers. She had nothing to prove.
“You okay?” Joseph stroked the back of her neck and she flinched. This didn’t work for her. She’d have to let him down easy again, but she still needed him.
“I’m fine, Joseph, just tired and a bit emotionally drained.”
He plopped the leftover French food – ponging of garlic and butter – on her kitchen counter and went to sit on the couch.
“You going to come sit with me?”
He was possibly the neediest man she’d ever met. She joined him on the sofa regardless, though she didn’t want to cuddle. It was time to end this foray into non-passion. She couldn’t lie to him or herself any longer.
“Joseph, I think – l”
BANG!
The door slammed open and rebounded onto Amanda. She was positively wild, hair a bird’s nest and without any make up whatsoever. There were dark rings under her eyes.
“Hey bitch!”
This was a violation of the restraining order, but Emily was pretty sure it didn’t count if Amanda sought her out.
“Who are you?” Joseph stood, frowning and holding a glass of water out like a shield.
“Shut up, Peewee Herman. This doesn’t concern you.”
Joseph sat down on the sofa with a huff.
“Amanda, are you okay?”
“It’s your fault. It’s your fault he hates me,” Amanda screamed, ripping at her flowery blouse. Joseph rammed himself into the back of the couch, trying to withdraw from the situation. He wouldn’t be winning any superhero awards.
“You chose the life you have now, Amanda. And I’m sorry, but I tried to warn you. You were too consumed by your need to defeat me to see the wood for the trees.”
“I love him!”
“So did I!” Emily shrieked back. She was so tired of being calm and collected. “I loved him and he damn near killed me too. He dissolved bits of me until there was nothing left but an empty drunken shell. He’s done the same to you.”
Amanda collapsed to the floor and gripped at her fake blonde hair, pulling it this way and that like a deranged monkey. “I lost my baby. I lost my baby.”
“I lost my kids. But I didn’t choose to lose them.” Emily wouldn’t allow her friend to have a pity party. She’d let Brian force her into an abortion, and unless he’d held a gun to her head, she had no sympathy for her ex-best friend.
“Ladies, please relax.”
“Be quiet, Joseph, this doesn’t concern you.” Emily didn’t bother looking back at him. He was likely glued to the couch cushion in the same way he’d been a second before.
“All I wanted was my happily ever after. All I wanted was to win for once.” Amanda rocked on the floorboards, glaring up at her. “Precious Emily, so popular. Prom Queen, head cheerleader, and you stole Brian’s heart first, even though I wanted him.”
“Good God. This isn’t high school anymore, Amanda. You’re a grown as woman. Start acting like one.” Emily got up and walked to the kitchen to get herself water as well. Joseph was, indeed, stuck to the sofa, horrified by the scene unfolding in front of him.
“Well, I wanted you to feel my pain. I wanted you to realize what he really did to you. Brian –”
“Oh my, looks like I’m late to the party.” Janet ambled in through the open front door, for all the world as if it was her apartment and they were the guests.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, and Joseph looked from Amanda on the floor - still tugging at her hair, the picture of a mental patient – Emily sipping calmly from her glass of water, and Janet teetering around in the doorway.
“I came to tell you that you’re a bitch.”
“Join the club,” Emily gestured with the glass of water, unfazed by the name calling. She’d had far worse thrown at her in the strip club and after it. “You guys should band together and get t-shirts or something.”
Janet glanced down at Amanda and stiffened.
“Oh yeah, I forgot you two met before.” That seemed ages ago.
Amanda looked up at the dance instructor, upper lip curling in total rage. “You.”
“Yes. Me.”
Did Amanda know Brian had had an affair? The reaction suited it.
“I’m going to have to ask you both to leave. I think the circus is done for the night.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Janet sauntered further in and slapped the glass of water out of Emily’s hand. She was on a roll. Two glasses in one night; that had to be some kind of record.
“I don’t get what he sees in you. I don’t get it.” Janet gesticulated in the air and Emily’s eyes widened. She didn’t have a ring on her left finger. She racked her brain, flashing back to the meeting in the apartment a while earlier, when Janet had massage Chase.
She hadn’t had one then either.
It’d been a lie Janet and Chastity had perpetrated, and Chase had never denied it because he was a stubborn mule.
“You’re not engaged.”
Janet exploded with laughter, doubling over and gripping her knees. Emily controlled the urge to slap her cheeks until they matched her horrid hair. But Janet didn’t stop laughing.
“What’s the joke, Janet?” Emily fumed from the confrontation, but she wouldn’t let either of the women see it again.
The redhead was drunk out of her skull.
“The joke,” she repeated between hiccups of mirth. “You’re the joke. Wanna know why? Cos you didn’t kill Chase’s parents. Brian Ross did.”
TO BE CONTINUED
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Melissa Shaw lives in the land of Prince Hamlet in a gorgeous suburb of Copenhagen, and uses the surrounds to craft romances which touch on the truth behind humanity. She likes strong female characters, flawed men, and strong bourbon. When she’s not hunched over her laptop, she’s wandering the streets searching for inspiration or sipping coffee at the local shop. Mostly she’s just writing. That’s what she does best.
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Never Say Never, Part Three (Second Chance Romance, Book 3) Page 7
