Page 7 of Love Collided

Chase laughed, his eyes going heavy when looked me over again. “I would be curious to see how that works.”

Heat flooded me, followed by shock. I never had someone look at me with so much… blatant interest.

The heat filled my face, my cheeks probably turning red already. This rich jerk was looking at me like he had a chance to win me over even for a minute.

“I don’t want his money. I would prefer to just agree that I never have to see him again.”

He smiled, his lips curving up on one side, and making the dimple appear one more time.

“I can agree to that.”

“Fine, then. We are done here,” I said, pushing past them all and getting in the car.

Jesse, the money, now Chase.

Tears were threatening, the stress of the entire week boiling over. This night was going to hell, and I think it was about time to give up on it. Maybe I could drive for a while and get my mind off of everything.

Jesse’s car pulled up next to the crew's line of cars and I didn’t hide my groan.

I couldn’t run off now.

The truth was here to smack me in the face. My problems were inescapable, relentlessly closing in on me at every turn.

I was starting to worry I wasn’t fast enough to outrun any of them.

FOUR

CHASE

One week later

I rolled over, hitting the bed next to me. The cool rush of relief came over me when I didn’t feel another body there. I hadn’t brought anyone home with me, and while going home alone had been the plan, I never knew what drunk me was going to do.

It was already two in the afternoon, meaning I almost managed to sleep another day away.

Lucky me.

One less day to deal with, it was Saturday anyway. No classes, no pretend job at my dad’s law offices. Nothing but endless, empty time.

My phone buzzed with texts. The first few useless updates about things that happened last night at a party which hadn’t seemed to end.

I was twenty-four years old, in law school, and partying like I was in high school. It had brought me some sort of purpose before. Being the life of the party, all eyes on me, but somewhere along the line, that lost its appeal, too. Now each party felt like one more thing to get through.

Every single fucking thing in my life felt like one more chore.

I got up and got dressed, figuring I could at least go grab myself some breakfast down the street.

The Porsche sat in the back of the garage connected to my condo, the dark green paint looking black in the dim garage, but I knew it would shine the minute I pulled into the sun.

The car purred as I pulled out, the sound of the engine keeping me calm.

It didn’t last long, though, the engine’s purrs quickly turning into a high pitched whine.

“Shit,” I said, slamming the steering wheel. I had known something was starting to go wrong, but kept putting off bringing it to the shop. Now, I had no faith that I would be able to make it all the way across town to the dealership.

I pulled out my phone texting Fox to see if he was around the garage to look at it. Ash had stuck around catching up with me after the races the other week and Fox was quick to see if I wanted to hang out with them that weekend. One night out with the guys and they all seemed more than happy to ask me to go out again later this month.

A few minutes went by before I got a reply.

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