Chapter Eighteen
One Month Later
Erica
I pulled the curtain back from my front window, peeking at the porch of my parents’ house, before running to the door and dashing out to my car. Just as I hit the unlock button my mom called my name, trying to get my attention. Instead of turning around like a good daughter, I hopped in the car and drove away.
I looked in the rearview mirror as she walked to the street, just shaking her head and laughing at me. It had been this game of cat and mouse the last month while trying to date Chase. After the first time he dropped me off here, I told him if we wanted it to just be us, he needed to drop me off down the road and I would walk home. He hated the idea, especially as it got closer to winter time, but the cool fall air was fine with me right now.
I had wanted nothing more than to tell my own mom about being with Chase and our story, so she knew why I had been the way I was for the past twenty years. But I also didn’t want to tell her about him just yet. She would insist on meeting him, drilling him with questions, and quite possibly drive him away from me. It’s one thing for your parents to meet a guy in high school, but I never had one of those guys, so I knew she was going to be extra with Chase. My mom was overly protective of me, so when I sat down to tell her, I needed to be ready to jump in if things got too out of control and right now that wasn’t possible. Every time I looked at Chase, I melted.
It was hard enough at work trying to keep everything straight, but we did it. Any chance we got alone, Chase would leave small kisses on my hand, cheek, sometimes even my neck. There was a night where he was working late and instead of heading out with the girls, I let them know I needed to get with him about our next project.
I’d snuck up to his floor, nodding to a few people who passed me on their way out for the night, and found Chase alone in his office, typing away at the computer. It took no time for me to replace the contraption in front of him and to place my ass on the desk, lifting my skirt and showing him just how much I missed him. Because I did. I missed Chase each second that we weren’t together.
Right now I was driving over to Chase’s to pick him up and bring him over to my place. We’d kept it safe over the last month, always staying over at his apartment, or making sure I picked him up so his car wasn’t parked outside. What my mom couldn’t see, she couldn’t interrogate me on it.
I pulled up in front of his complex and he jumped in, kissing me immediately, making me grab for his collar to bring him impossibly closer.
“Mmmm. I missed you,” Chase said into the kiss.
“It’s only been three hours.” I laughed at him. We had only gotten off work a few hours ago and had made plans to both go home and relax, then me to come pick him up. This way he could pack an overnight bag and anything else he might need. We had no plans for the weekend, except to stay in bed.
Alexa was with Max, since this last month they sprang it on us that they were having the wedding in Vegas,right then, so we all hopped on a plane and left for the wedding, and when we came back, Lilly and Greg hadn’t. It wasn’t until Lilly came back into work that she told Alexa and me that she and Greg had gotten married and that she was going to get a divorce. It had been this huge deal and Chase and I had talked endlessly about it.
We wanted our friends to be happy, but both of them were too stubborn for their own good. Their relationship was more than friendship and we could all see that, but because of words unspoken their futures were suffering from it. Lilly was wanting to spend more and more time alone, and I wasn’t sure what that meant, because it definitely wasn’t her. We’d been joined at the hip after the first day of hanging out together for lunch. We’d just clicked, each of us wanting our own space, but not minding having each other in it as well.
“Lilly doing okay?” Chase asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“As far as I know, yes. She wanted to spend the weekend wallowed up in bed alone.”
“Greg is being just as stubborn.”
“It kind of reminds me of us, though.” I laughed as I headed back toward my house. “We were just as stubborn, we just didn’t know that the other was too.”
“We are nothing like that.” Chase scoffed and raised a hand toward me. “Listen. We might have taken some time to get here, but we knew we loved each other. We were just too worried about the technicalities to say anything. They aren’t even saying anything at all and theyknowthey love each other.”
He pointed toward me.
“So, not the same.”
I laughed at his last words when I pulled into my driveway. I hopped out the car, trying to move fast, but Chase wasn’t moving fast enough.
“Well, hello there!” My mom waved from her porch swing, where my dad sat next to her, reading the paper. I wasn’t paying enough attention when pulling into the driveway to see that they had been waiting there for the last twenty minutes that I had been gone.
“Bye, Mom!” I yelled and ducked my head, grabbing Chase’s hand as he laughed at me.
“Good evening, Mrs. Neilson, Mr. Neilson.” I looked back at Chase waving at them with a grin slapped over his face. He looked so smug that he knew who they were and I happened to glance over just as my dad lowered his paper, quickly waving back at Chase.
I pulled his hand a little harder, tugging him inside. Once we were in the safety of my house, I led us into the living room, where I already had a snack table set up with drinks and a stack of DVDs for us to binge for the whole weekend. There was a pile of blankets and pillows covering the couch, an invitation I hoped Chase loved.
There was something about having him in my house that had me a little off-kilter. Yes, he’d dropped me off before and picked me up, but he’d never been inside. I looked back at Chase as he walked down the hallway to the kitchen, rather than following me. My heart sank because I knew what he was looking at. I hadn’t taken down the photos of Chase because they had become an everyday sight for me and the only times I didn’t see them was when I took them down when I had Alexa and Lilly over. They didn’t need to see Chase plastered across my walls. My parents never asked who they were as I added to the collection over the years, but I saw my mom linger over them many times when she was over.
My eyes followed him, watching as he stopped at each one, examining them. They weren’t just the ones from the airport when I was eighteen, but over the years from working at The Ink Well too. Parties, random pictures in the office, and a few that I managed to snap when Chase wasn’t looking when we were on a photoshoot.
“These are all me.” He reached out to touch the one he was in front of. He was looking down at a stack of papers behind his desk. I remembered that day so well. It was just before we moved into our new building and Chase was deep in edits and I managed to sneak my phone out to snap a picture before he knew.
“I know, I know, stalker much.” I rolled my eyes and walked away from where Chase was standing. His hand grabbed mine to stop me. When I turned around I was greeted with a smile and a kiss.
