Ally and I curled up on the couch when I got home. Caleb had gone to bed early after a long day of being spoiled by his Auntie Ally. We both managed to polish off our pizzas and a whole container of Ben and Jerrys, Chocolate Therapy in which I was clearly in desperate need of some.
Lifetime seemed to be having a marathon on about cheating men and I officially took that as I sign. After our third in a row Ally clicked off the TV and stood up yawning. I was surprised she had stuck around this long, most of the time on the weekends especially after watching Caleb for me she would be heading over to Skys to spend the night with him but she hadn’t mentioned him all day.
“Well I’m gonna head to bed. You need a good rest too, maybe you and Chase can get a chance to talk to each other tomorrow.”
“Um excuse me?” I ask in shock. Clearly I had heard that wrong.
“Weren’t you the one wanting to castrate him earlier and now you think I should actually give him the time of day?” I couldn’t believe how quickly her tune had changed from just a few hours ago. Normally Ally was the feistier one between the two of us.
“Wellllll,” she dragged out as she looked guiltily down at her shuffling feet. “I kinda talked to Chase while you were gone.”
“Kinda or you did. Which is it there’s really no in between there,” I snapped out.
“I did talk to him,” she admits. “He kept pounding on the door begging to talk to you again and I finally opened to tell him you weren’t here and where to shove his apology. He asked if you had told me what happened and he told me his side of things. Apparently he went over to talk to Teddy and he cleared up a few things for him. I think you should listen to him Leah. He really sounded convinced that he wasn’t in the wrong.”
I snort out a laugh before standing up and angrily tossing the throw pillow back onto the couch. “Yeah well he can pretty much persuade anyone. You should have just punched him in that stupid sexy smirk I’m sure he was giving you and slammed the door in his face. I’m not surprised you believed him, you’re like the most naïve person around. Thanks for being such a great friend!” I shout out before practically running to my room and slamming the door behind me.
I glance over at Caleb who’s curled up with his arms wrapped around that damn stuffed bear Chase got him. Stupid bear. Luckily my mad fit hadn’t caused him to move an inch.
I instantly regret my words and wish I could erase them and the hurt look that covered Allys face. I head to bed though and figure I’ll deal with her in the morning. That would be one relationship that I couldn’t live without, she really is like a sister to me and I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life.
*****************************************
A few weeks went by and I managed to pick up my ‘Avoid Chase’ game pretty easily. Maybe I had picked the wrong career path in nursing I could totally be one of those secret spies. I still got plenty of phone calls and text messages almost on a daily message from him but I deleted those before reading them. Caleb asked a few times when he could see Chase but after awhile he must’ve given him because he gave up that topic pretty quickly.
Ally had been understanding with my outburst at her and she had kept mum on the whole situation after that. I kept myself busy with work and school once again and used up most of my free time at the campus rec center and Caleb loved to go swimming in the pool with the water slide. I knew I could most definitely avoid Chase there since he always used the convenient gym at the complex.
But I was basically going through the motions, even with the betrayal it was still hard just to completely shut off all thoughts and feelings I had for Chase. That asshole had wormed his way right into my heart and I didn’t know how to get him out.
Remy had tried to chime in after the whole situation too. She had showed up that night after the band was already done performing and she admitted she didn’t see Chase which only added fuel to the evidence I had. He was probably buried under Missys massive chest by that time. I hope she smothers him to death with those things. Remy said that she heard through Mark that was Chase was pretty miserable without me though and he had never seen him that bummed out before. Good I hope he was miserable, it’s not like I did anything wrong.
Plus I had other things to deal with like the strange behavior from Ally. She and Skylar were no longer attached at the hips like Siamese twins anymore and I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen him. She always seemed to dance around the topic whenever I brought it up and insisted she just wanted some time with me and Caleb. I couldn’t blame her for that though. I loved having her around and so did Caleb. He loved being spoiled by the both of us.
Of course my espionage all came to a screeching halt almost a month after seeing Chase for the last time. I knew it was bound to happen since we lived right across the hall from each other but I didn’t have myself prepared for it. I forgot one of my papers that was due that day and rushed home to get it before my class started and bam, I ran into a solid wall of muscle. Without looking up I knew it was Chases familiar body and I tried to shove past him quickly but it was a loss effort.
“Whoa Leah, stop please.” He dug his fingers slightly into my shoulders as I pushed all my weight against him and of course he didn’t move a freakin’ inch. “Chase I really can’t do this right now, just move.”
He placed two fingers under my chin, forcing me to look up into his glowing green eyes. That was the one thing I was trying most to avoid, those eyes still managed to melt the ice on my insides and I quickly found an interesting spot on the wall behind him. He sighed in defeat when I still refused to look at him and dropped his hands to his sides.
“Fine go ahead Leah, just keep running and avoiding me, it’s what you do best.”
“Excuse me? I’m pretty sure I have a right to avoid you,” I jab a finger into his chest as I feel the anger rise up in my chest, I’ve been keeping it in for the past month and he’s causing it to bubble over.
“Its not my fault you messed something perfectly good up. I love you so much,” I stop myself after I realize what words just came out of my mouth. I don’t want to give him any hope in rekindling our relationship and I’m pretty sure I just saw one of those hopeful looks just flutter across his stupid perfect face.
“Loved you so much,” I correct myself. “You fucked that up Chase with that slut. I’m sure you’ll be real happy with her. Just make sure to schedule a doctor’s appointment, stat. I’m sure she gave you a few special presents.”
“Leah, please just let me explain. It’s not like that at all. We still have something here. You’re the only one that I love, the only one for me. No other girls matter please, especially not that one. Just give me five minutes.”
“Fine Chase,” I unlock the apartment door and hold it open for him to follow me in. He just stands there looking at me from the hallway with a hurt look still plastered on his face.
“C’mon times a ticking, you now have about four minutes left. Just promise you’ll leave me alone after this.”
He finally follows in while shutting the door behind himself and trails behind me as I go towards my room to find the missing paper. “Can you at least look at me well I try to explain myself,” he whispers to me.
“’Kay I’m all ears Chase.” I flop down on my bed and he kneels next to me as I see his throat working with a thick swallow. “I never touched her Leah. Ever. I wouldn’t…I couldn’t do that to you.”
“Really Chase. I’m pretty sure after all the alcohol you consumed that night you were really thinking clearly and don’t even try to use that as an excuse.”
“I admit I drank a lot that night. I was celebrating the job that I landed,” he takes another swallow before continuing on, “but Teddy was with me all night and he can back up my story. I know you don’t think he’s a very reliable source but he’s never lied to you before, right? And besides he’s practically been waiting outside your door ever since we started dating waiting for me to screw up so he can swoop in.”
I slowly shake my head even though I regret agreeing with him. “That girl. Missy. She’s a regular groupie, she’s always around at every performance and constantly throwing herself at me. You’ve probably even seen her before if you think about it.”
Well since all I have to remember her by is a pair of very fake boobs I probably wouldn’t recognize her very quickly unless she’s walking around topless. I guess that could be a possibility. “So how exactly did her underwear end up in your pocket Chase? I’d love to hear your excuse for that.”
He rubs his hands roughly over his face at my question. “I truthfully don’t know the answer to that question Leah. She probably slipped them in when she was trying to grind up on me. Teddy said before he pulled me outta there she wrapped her whole body around me. She knows about you, I’m sure she’s seen you before so she was probably trying to make me look guilty. But I’m not really Leah, please. Teddy saw how much I drank so we left and he took me out for some coffee before driving me and the truck home. A buddy of his followed us back and gave Teddy a ride after dropping me off that night. Listen I know I had a lot to drink that night but I was still in control. Nothing happened.” He looks back at me with his pleading green eyes.
“How did she know about me working then and what about her text saying you were complaining about me?”
He shrugs his shoulders before answering. “Leah all I do is talk about you, the guys probably think it’s pathetic but I don’t really care. If she was hanging around she probably heard me saying something about you having to work, I think me and Mark were planning on coming in the next night with Caleb when you and Remy were working together. And the whole complaining thing? I don’t know. She was probably making it up, hoping you would be the one to check my phone.”
I sit there quietly while running his explanation through my head and letting the words sink in. I don’t know what to think, it sounds believable and I’ve definitely seen the girls that try to throw themselves at the guys.
“Please Leah, just give me a chance. You have to trust me on this, I would never do anything to hurt you or Caleb. You both mean so much to me.”
I make the mistake of looking into his green eyes again and can see the hurt running through them.
“Fine Chase. Say I believe you. But we aren’t going to just jump right back into our relationship, I need to build the trust back up before we can go any further. And I don’t want Caleb to get hurt again.”
I stand up off the bed to reach for my bag and he grips me in a tight hug and I’m instantly swept away by the warmth and familiar scent of Chase.
“If that’s what it takes Leah. I’ll do anything,” he murmurs into my hair.
“And I’m staying here with Ally, we don’t need to be living together right now, I just need a little more time.”
I see a flash of pain cross his face at my words but it’s quickly replaced by a small crooked smile and I know it’s for the best even if it hurts a little bit. I never intended for things to move so quickly with Chase and maybe we need to slow things down a bit to see if things will really work out.
We’re still young and even though I’m a little more mature for my age with the responsibility of having a kid, Chase might figure out he’s not ready for an instant family.
“I need to get going,” I glance down at my watch before heading towards the front door. “Shit I am so late.”
“I can give you a ride Leah.”
“No that’s okay, I don’t want to have to depend on you for everything Chase. Plus we’re starting things slow and we’ll see how that goes, ’kay?”
“Okay Leah. Do you mind if I call you later maybe we can catch a movie sometime this week or grab dinner or something?”
“Yeah that would be good. I’ll talk to you later.” I wave over my shoulder as I hurry down the stairs.
I’m not sure if our relationship we’ll ever be the same again even if I do believe him which I’m pretty sure I do. I know how other girls can be sometimes. And he’s right about Teddy, he’s constantly trying to win me over with his smooth lines that work on everyone but me so that makes me believe the stories true. This time I’ll just have to keep my head on straight with Chase and try not to let my heart lead the way.
Chapter 25
Chase
So I finally caught her and convinced her to listen to me. God I missed her so much, just being around her instantly calmed me down and made me relax, I was finally able to breath normally again for the first time since she shut me out.
And the way she was chewing on that full pink lip of hers, something I had figured out pretty quickly she did when she was deep in thought. I just wanted to lean over and bite that lip to taste her but I resisted. I knew if that happened she would of freaked the fuck out and I woulda been back to square one with her. And then she tells me she wants to take things slow, I don’t think I can do slow with Leah.
Whenever I’m around her I want to toss her over my shoulder and hop the next plane to Vegas, dragging her to one of those cheesy Elvis chapels so I can put a ring on her finger before her head stops spinning and she starts doing that thinking thing again.
Nope couldn’t do that, I would have way too many pissed off people back at home to deal with and I know we couldn’t do anything without Caleb. He would be just as much of a part of our little family as Leah would so that definitely wasn’t an option. I needed a plan to win Leah over and make her see that things with us just couldn’t move slowly, they were more like a speeding train without the brakes on and no stops ahead.
I knew I needed to head over to the one place I always went to and got the best advice. Moms. She was still pissed at me with everything that happened with Leah even though I didn’t do anything wrong, she still said I was an asshole for drinking that much and letting things get out of hand. I grab my phone out of my pocket before hopping into my truck and making the short drive to my moms.
“Hey Al….yup I finally got through to her…….I know about damn time………….. you think you could help me with something?”
****************************************
Leah
Almost a week had passed since I had forgiven Chase and he had yet to call. His truck had been missing from the parking lot anytime I was home and I never saw a sliver of light peeking out from the hallway. It now seemed like he was the one avoiding me.
Every time my phone rang or a new message alerted I scrambled to get it but no Chase. I started to worry that I had pushed him too far by waiting so long to hear his side of things and maybe he didn’t want to take things slow. At this rate I was ready to toss that whole stupid slow thing out the window as long as I had Chase back.
“Hey sweetie how you doing?” Remy asks as she interrupts my thoughts of Chase. “Oh um I’m fine Rem. Just thinking.” I finish putting in the order that I had stopped doing midway through and grab the coffee pot to see if any refills are needed.
“Thinking about Chase I’m sure. He still hasn’t called?”
I zigzag my way through tables and fill up cups as I go before answering her. “No he hasn’t. I don’t know Rem maybe things just weren’t meant to be.”
Although my heart tells a different story by the heaviness I feel in it from not hearing from Chase. I had picked up the phone so many times just to call him but stopped myself before the call went through.
“I dunno about that Leah. Maybe he just needs a little bit of time too. You’ll see, things will work out, you two are perfect together. Can you take these out to table five for me, I need to cash these other customers out.”
“Sure, no problem.” I grab a couple of plates filled with eggs and bacon and head over to the table, checking on a few of my own customers before I make my way back to the counter to wait for my next order.
“You want to come over tonight, we could work on that paper together if you want?” Remy asks as she counts out the change for the waiting customer.
“I wish I could we really need to get a ju
mp start on that. But I promised I would help Ally with some sorority thing. Their doing some cleanup work at a park near campus and she conned me into it.”
Really I just felt like I needed to spend some one on one time with her. She had finally confessed to me that her and Skylar had decided to go their separate ways but they were still going to do the whole let’s just be friends thing. I was shocked that she hadn’t instantly spilled this to me considering she had dubbed them as soul mates but she said she didn’t want to bother me when she knew I was dealing with everything else.
I felt guilty that my love life and its sticky problems somehow trumped hers but she insisted that she just wasn’t feeling it with Skylar and things were really okay. Skylar and her were too much alike according to Ally which if I thought about it was pretty true and Ally was looking for a challenge. That so did not sound like a fun time to me but whatever floats her boat I guess. Apparently she thought her feelings about Chase and I being soul mates was still right and she was convinced we would work things out.
Remy giggles as she turns back to me patting me on the shoulder. “Aw poor thing. Ally can be so persuasive can’t she? At least you’re helping the community out.”
“I can never tell her no but I’m sure it’ll be fine. At least the weathers starting to get a little nicer out.”
It was just the beginning of spring and I was glad to see the signs of snow clear out and stay gone for awhile. After I finally got my nursing degree I was going to move far far away and live somewhere warm on the beach. I’m sure the park would be a mess to clean up now that the snow had all melted.
After finishing up my morning shift, Remy and I head to our two classes that we had together for the day. At 4:00 I made my way over to the park that was within walking distance of the campus but found nothing but an empty parking lot.
I pull out my phone and send a quick text to Ally asking where I’m supposed to meet up with her. Within a minute she texts back to meet her in the shelter building beyond the walking path that wraps around the small park. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long, I’m supposed to pick up Caleb around six from daycare and we have plans of a lazy night with his favorite of mac n cheese and pb & j’s planned for a very nutritional dinner.
Chasing Leah (Journey Series) Page 20
