Page 94 of Bad & Bossy

If anything, I was worse than my own father. At least he’d waited until I was thirteen to abandon me. So much for breaking that cycle.

A fist hit the table, and as I turned to look, everything in between blurred into nothing until I focused on him. Bobby practically fell into his seat, hollering hello to Adam over the music, asking him where the group was, I guess they’d met up beforehand.

I watched him as I knocked back another, watched as he took what wasn’t his and plucked a shot glass from the tray. He’d been pissing me off lately in my sober bouts, in the mornings before I’d had a drink and the evenings before I drowned. My house was a fucking wreck because of him. Half of my clothes had gone missing, and even now, it was plain to see he’d been taking them as he relaxed in one of my good suits. Whether his were getting ruined in his own antics or whether he’d simply lost them in the piles of trash filling his room, I wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t even asking. He was just taking.

And I fucking hated his haircut.

I blinked, and he was speaking.

“Another round?” Bobby asked, his gaze cutting to me as he leaned forward onto the table.

“I don’t know. I might head home,” I sighed, glancing at the clock and nearly losing my mind as I realized two hours had passed. It’s fine. It happens.

“Come on, man. It’s Friday. No work tomorrow, no bitch to hold you down anymore,” he laughed, placing one hand on my shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

From the sway of my body and the no longer incessant thoughts, I’d hit the calm before the storm. Any more and I’d be a fucking shipwreck. “Don’t,” I breathed.

I looked to my right, hoping Adam would back me up, but the space he occupied before was empty, and the glasses he’d drunk from were gone. When did he leave?

“What? She’s fucking insane. Keeping your kid from you? I mean, what kind of woman does that? You don’t need her,” he droned on and on. He knocked back the last shot left on the table before leaning into me again. “Get us another round, Cole.”

“I don’t want another round,” I snapped, tugging my shoulder from his grip and watching as the world spun.

“Seriously? You were fine ten minutes ago.”

“You didn’t mention Dana ten minutes ago.”

“Oh my god, man,” he said, dragging one hand down his face in frustration. “Stop letting that cunt get into your fucking head?—”

My hand went flying before I’d even made the decision. I grabbed him by my tie, wrapping it around my fist, and tugged him toward me. “Don’t you ever call her that again,” I growled, bringing his face just inches from mine, watching as the little drops of spit landed on his unshaven face. “Do you understand me?”

The laugh that bubbled from him had me pushing him back harshly into his seat, relinquishing my hold on him. “Christ, she’s really got her claws in you,” Bobby said.

He pushed himself to his feet, swaying a bit, before glaring down at me.

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Cole. You’re not my fucking dad,” he chuckled. “You’re barely Drew’s.”

My hands buzzed as he walked away, the desperate temptation to beat his face in where he stood smothering me. But I wouldn’t do that. We were both on edge, both suffering from a relapse. A part of me held an inch of grace for him.

Even if it meant sobbing on the bathroom floor of a rundown bar in the middle of Boulder.

My phone pinged, and I fished it from my pocket, the blind hope that it would be Dana fueling my actions. But it was a call from my sponsor. I canceled it. I couldn’t be bothered lying anymore today, whether that was to myself or anyone else. Wasn’t sure I even could at this stage.

How did things get this bad?

I stared at the wood of the table, memorizing the swirls in the knots and the way each piece was nailed together. I was already becoming a shell of myself tonight, but in general, I was useless. Weak. A piece of shit, a deadbeat, a failure. Dana was right to push me away. She was right to keep me from Drew. Maybe she was even right to keep the truth from me.

I waited until I heard the front door close before stumbling my way up to the bar and settling into a high top chair, passing my card over the counter, and asking the bartender to keep them coming.

Chapter 34

Dana

Istepped out of the elevator, a handful of documents tucked under my arm to deliver to Ben from my manager, Allison. I hated coming up here lately, hated the way I felt the need to look over my shoulder, to keep a constant eye out for him. I didn’t know if it would happen, only that it could.

At the end of the hall, disheveled and meek, his hair a goddamn mess, Cole stood in front of the door to his office, desperately fishing in his pocket for his keys. I stood in place, my heart racing, watching as he glanced from side to side before shoving the key into the lock.

For a split second, right before he disappeared around the frame of the door, I could have sworn he spotted me. My breath caught, my heart raced, and the glint in the brief pass of green eyes nearly pulled me in.

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