My sixth call, and it went to voicemail again. I frowned at my cell. If Ray had more shopping for this bachelorette party or whatever it was, then why wasn’t she answering? Being away from her, I’d missed her desperately. So, I’d wrapped things up in Chicago a day early and had come home.
Dammit. I leaped up from my bed and paced to the window. Night had descended, and the Golden Gate Bridge was concealed in fog in the darkness, the lights barely noticeable. It’d been several hours since the last—the only text from her. My stomach churned, and I didn’t like the feeling creeping through me.
Was she avoiding me?
After the New York trip, we had been closer than any couple. But the suffocating sensation didn’t ease. I glanced at my watch again. 8:26 p.m. Had she changed her mind, gone to her sister’s instead of spending the last evening with me?
No, not Ray.
I rubbed my nape and paced back to the bed. About to call Ila, because clearly, Ray wasn’t going to answer her phone, my cell beeped with a text. At her name, my heart skipped. Thank fuck!
I read the message, unable to make sense of it.
Jack, I’m going to my sister’s. I’ll see you when I get back.
What the hell? First, she had things to do, then she wasn’t answering my calls, and now this damn text? I was supposed to take her to SoMa in the morning for this very reason, so we could spend tonight together because she would be staying with her sister until the wedding. Foreightdamn days!
The uneasy feeling that something was seriously wrong twisted my gut. I messaged her.What the hell’s going on, Ray?
An entire fucking minute passed. Finally, the wavy dots appeared.
I need some space. Please, Jack.
Her words hit me like a blow to the chest. What the fuck? I was just supposed to accept this damn decision she made because she said so? Gut deep, the roiling sensation persisted that if I let her go, I’d never see her again.
My heart pumped hard as if trying to get oxygen, attempted to continue beating as I typed back.Where are you?
No response.
Dammit, Ray! What the hell is going on??
And…nothing. The text remained unread.
I didn’t want to reread the damn message she’d sent, but I did, trying to find some clue as to what the fuck had happened. But each word was like a knife in my heart.Need space?
Did that mean she wanted out of our relationship?
I wasn’t going to let her do this to me. To us! If she wanted to end this—and my gut twisted at the reality—she could fucking tell me to my face!
I opened our shared location on my phone. Fucking ironic, wasn’t it? Since she was the one who’d connected us via our cells when we were in New York.
23
Ray
My feet hurt,and I slowed down. Darkness surrounded me. I blinked at my surroundings, feeling as if I’d just woken up from a long nightmare.
Traffic choked the street, laughter echoing as people hurried into the bar nearby. I had no idea how long I’d walked or how I’d ended up on this road…on Divisadero Street. Maybe I’d taken a cab at some point, I didn’t recall.
Rubbing my burning eyes, I trudged into a bar slowly filling with the work crowd and wedged myself in the corner between a hefty guy and a woman. The man glanced at me. Whatever he saw, he motioned at his seat. “You look like you need this.”
“Thanks,”stuck in my throat, and I collapsed onto the vacated bar stool.
“Brandy,” I rasped to the bartender. I didn’t drink hard liquor, but it was what I usually handed out to people with broken hearts. Except alcohol only exacerbated the situation as far as I was concerned. Yet, I needed something to function. I could barely feel anything, I was so cold.
I stared at my icy, splayed fingers, then blinked at the squat glass set in front of me.
“On the house, honey.” The blond bartender gave me a sympathetic look before moving on. I’d done the same thing—several times, in fact. I took a sip and choked, the liquid burning a layer off my throat. A spasm of coughing wracked my body. Worse, it had awakened me from the numbness entombing my emotions. Excruciating pain seeped through me again, and my throat ached from the tears lodged there. I was unraveling, drowning—
