She hooks her arm through his and beams with the glow of an army of suns. “Chase! So glad we’re finally doing this. The will-they-won’t-they stage was getting tiring.”
Her eyes swerve to mine as she sends me a full-fledged grimace.
I shake my head, a silent plea to tone it down.
Chase clears his throat, stiffens to a board. “Good to see you, Kenna.” He glances warily at the man beside me. “Alex, right?”
“Yup.”
“Chase.” He extends a big hand across the table. “Annalise talks about you all the time.”
“All the time?” Alex scowls at Chase’s hand before accepting it. Brief, reluctant. Bordering on the epitome of pain and suffering.
I go still.
“Um, yeah…when we met,” Chase backpedals. “That one time.”
“When you were bleeding to death on your couch?”
“After. Second time, I guess.” Chase scratches his mop of hair, looking like he’d rather be cast as the corpse in a low-budget horror film than sitting here. “At the restaurant.”
Oof.This web of lies is tangling into terrible knots.
My poor friends.
“Drinks!” I blurt, catapulting off the chair. “First round is on me. Any requests?”
“I’ll help you carry them.” Chase stands, then immediately storms over to the bar.
Alex is halfway out of his chair when I press a hand to his shoulder. “It’s fine. Maybe help me choose a song to sing?” I hand him the giant booklet of karaoke songs beside the table.
He grabs my wrist before I retreat, and we lock eyes. “I don’t want to stay long,” he says.
I force a smile, my fingers curling into my palm. “Yeah. No problem.”
Kenna sends me a soft look as I pull away and wind around the table to join Chase at the bar. He’s a stone wall of tension, but when I slide up beside him, our arms brushing, he relaxes a bit. “I’m sorry,” I murmur, my voice barely carrying over the chatter and music. “This is so awkward. I feel bad.”
A whiskey neat is set in front of him. “Little bit. But it’s fine. I have nowhere else to be.”
“I really appreciate you covering for me. It’s ridiculous, I know. I just—”
“I get it,” he interjects, spinning his glass. “I don’t want to cause any more problems.”
Nodding, I bite down on my lip before ordering a Jack and Coke for Alex and two mai tais for Kenna and me.
“How have things been?” He takes a small sip, eyes lowering to me.
“Good. It’s been a long week of reconciling, but I think we’re making progress.”
That’s an exaggeration. The truth is, things haven’t changed all that much. Alex is still Alex, and I’m still…
I don’t know.
But I’m trying. I’m working hard to fix what’s broken, while trying to find where I fit amid the scattered rubble.
Chase studies me, his glass hovering below his chin. “I know this isn’t the place for a heart to heart, but you can text me whenever. If you need an outlet. To vent or talk.”
He says it casually, but the words dig, pry, and twist. They mean something. More than I should allow them to. And I can’t tell if it feels like a noble invitation or an omen. “Thank you.”
