Page 76 of Perfect Chemistry

I watched as she grabbed her phone out of her purse and started thumbing through the lock screen before passing me her phone mid call.

I took the phone as it began to ring. I couldn’t hear it ringing in the house anywhere.

“Hello?” a woman’s voice answered my phone.

“Uh, hey. My name is Kai. I lost my phone last night and was hoping you could tell me where it is?” Who the hell just answered my phone?

The woman on the other side chuckles. “Ah, cutie with the blonde hair and blue eyes from last night, right? Yeah, you left your phone at the Stone Balloon last night. You want me to leave it here behind the bar? Or I can meet you tonight for dinner and give it to you then?”

I must have looked confused as hell, because Amy reached over and grabbed the phone from my hand.

“Hello?” she asked. “Who am I speaking with?”

“Uh-huh. Hi, Katie. My boyfriend left his phone there last night and I would like to come pick it up. Mmmmhmmm… We got into a bit of an argument and said some things, but we’re all good now,” Amy’s sickly sweet voice cooed at the phone.

It made my skin erupt into goosebumps listening to her politely and succinctly tell the woman with my phone that she had no chance in hell. I wanted to laugh, but the more I listened the scarier she sounded. No wonder Bradley was so well behaved since they got married. She was scary as hell.

“Uh-huh…… Mmmhmmm. Sure. You do that. Thank you so much,” Amy told the woman before hanging up.

Looking at me like she was right now, I knew I was screwed. “Thank you?” I offered putting my hands together like I was praying to a goddess.

“I’ll be back in about 30 minutes. There is a sandwich on the table for you, and you can help yourself to a soda or water. I have to go meet with Katie,” Amy informed me as she grabbed her bag and walked out of the kitchen.

Katie.

She was back, and I was a mess. I looked over at the table and saw that Amy had made me a grilled cheese sandwich. She was such a sweetheart. It made me feel even shittier that I was constantly crashing at their place when my life fell to shit. I choked down the food, realizing that my stomach was still not happy after my night out.

I cleaned up the dishes that I used and emptied their dishwasher while I waited for Amy to get back. Shit.

I had just remembered that my car was still parked outside the Stone Balloon when I heard the front door open. Amy and Ben came walking in, and I barely reacted in time when Ben tossed my car keys to me.

He smiled, one eyebrow cocked up, “Yeah, I got your car, too. Unless you wanted to do the walk of shame downtown?”

I couldn’t even laugh, it was so embarrassing the way they took care of me. “No, I appreciate it. Really. You guys have done too much for me,” I admitted, shamefully.

“Well, as long as you recognize that. I won’t be too hard on- Did you empty the dishwasher for me?” Amy squealed, dropping her bag on the table as she walked over to the still open but empty dishwasher.

“Uh, yeah. I felt bad for everything so I wanted to make it up to you any way that I could.”

Amy smiled at Bradley, “See? I told you! Men can be domesticated before you marry them off.”

“What?!” I started laughing. “I am not getting married off just yet. But thank you again.”

Amy walked to her bag, “Oh, yeah. That Katie chick?… You dodged a bullet with that one. You may owe me dinner, she was really cute….” she spoke as she passed the phone to me, “but a bit of a psycho. She ′accidentally dropped’ it.”

As I took my phone, I looked down to see that the screen was completely shattered. I sighed. I needed a new phone now. One more thing on the list of shit for my day.

“Well, I am off to buy a new phone, I guess,” I sighed still staring at the phone. “Thanks again for… everything.”

I gave Amy and Bradley a hug before grabbing my clothes and smashed phone, and walked out to my own car. I needed to get a new phone. I took off today, but I needed my phone in case any of my patients called in with an emergency.

Taking one more deep breath, I drove to the electronics store to get a new phone.

Chapter 26

Katie’s POV

I sat on the bed in Andie’s guest room and stared at my phone. What the hell was I thinking? I needed to have closure. I hadn’t spoken with Ty’s parents since I moved back here. They didn’t know Ty and I had eloped before he deployed, and they didn’t know that he had died until after I was notified: as his wife. They found out about me from the casualty notification officer.