Page 53 of Gabriel's Salvation

“I'll have a Coke to go with that bottle of rum,” Marko’s lap warmer slurs.

“Give her a beer, one of the cheap ones,” I reply, snatching the bottle of rum from the table along with my phone.

“But I wanted rum,” the woman whines nasally.

“Cheap beer it is,” Declan nods as I place the rum bottle on his tray, letting me know he’ll be switching her drink out for water, our little code for ‘sober this bitch up and get her outta here quick.’

“See you fuckers tomorrow,” I say as I walk off, not even giving them a chance to reply.

I drive home and as soon as I get there, I jump in the shower, doing my best to wash away the memories still desperately swirling around in my mind. Wrapping a towel around my waist, I make my way into my bedroom. As I walk past Nate's room I hear him on the phone to Izzy. He must have it on speaker. I stop and press my ear against the door and hear the two of them laughing, joking, and teasing each other.

A bunch of emotions bombard me. Part of me wants to gag at how goddamn cringy and pathetic they both sound. Another part of me is annoyed at the sound of that witch's voice. I know I need to put the past behind us and give her a chance since Nate’s made it pretty fucking clear she’s not going anywhere, but I just can’t forgive her. I hear them laughing again and I feel a mix of sadness and jealousy that I'll never have that.

I head to my bedroom, reach for my phone and I'm again met with that picture. The one of Riley. I know I need to change it, but since she's still refusing to answer my calls, it's the only way I get to see her. For a moment when I wake in the mornings, I get to pretend she’s still mine and that I didn’t fucking destroy my one shot at happiness.

Feeling unusually hopeful, I try again to call her. But just the same as the last ten times I tried, it just serves to reconfirm that I'm still blocked. So I throw on a pair of boxers and climb into bed.

Chapter Nineteen

Riley

It's been weeks since everything happened between me and Gabe. I've tried everything I can think of to help forget about him, but I can't. I know he's broken and bad for me, but part of me is inexplicably drawn to him. Part of me wishes that like all my favorite fictional men, I'll be able to tame and turn his tortured soul. But this isn't an episode of The Vampire Diaries and I'm no Caroline or Elena.

“Come on, Rilez,” Harper calls from down the hall.

“I’m coming, hold your fucking horses!” I shout back as I bend down and pull one of my sneakers out from under the bed.

I race out the door just as the sound of a horn beeps from outside.

“She's so impatient.” I laugh as Harper hands me my phone and ushers me out of the door.

“Bout time bitches,” Ava sighs as I climb in the backseat.

“Sorry about her,” Izzy smiles from the passenger seat as she looks back at us both.

“They’re the ones that should be sorry, these nails aren't gonna paint themselves,” Ava laughs as she holds up her already perfectly manicured hands. I just shake my head as Izzy rolls her eyes at us in the rearview mirror.

We barely have time to put on our seat belts before she revs the engine and takes off, like the girl racer that we know her to be.

“So, I was thinking about red, to match my dress, or maybe blue, since it's Tucker's favorite color… or perhaps I should go for something a bit brighter to catch his attention,” Ava ponders as we make our way to Francisco's, our favorite mani/pedi place.

“Tucker won’t give a fuck about the color of your nails, as long as he gets to visit Pound Town,” I tease.

“Oh don't worry, he’ll defo be visiting Pound Town; it's our anniversary after all,” Ava says with a wink.

We pull up outside Francisco’s and make our way inside. It's only a small place but we try to come at least once a month, if not for anything more than a little girl time.

“So, who's having hands and who's having feet?” Lexi asks as we walk inside.

“Me and Riley for hands,” Ava pipes up.

I give her a confused look. “My treat,” she smiles.

“You know the way,” Lexi replies.

“Some customer service this is,” Ava says, feigning outrage.

“Well, I could always stop letting you use my friends and family discount,” Lexi snaps back playfully.

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