Page 10 of Falling With a Spin

“It’s perfect thank you,” He replies and sits in the chair as she slides our menus on the table, making sure she brushes Chad's arm in the process. It takes everything I have to not show how baffled I’m at with the obvious flirting.

“Your waiter will be with you shortly,” She says with a flirty smile. Rolling my eyes, I look down at the menu to see what is available.

“Thank you, Sabrina,” He smiles at her, and I swear I see him wink in her direction.

What. The Actual. Fuck.

As she walks away, I scan the menu, hoping he’ll start up a conversation. When a couple minutes pass by and he doesn’t, a sigh leaves me and I look up at him, “I'm pretty sure I passed my Calculus test today. How was your day?” I blurt out, trying to bring his attention back to me, but his eyes are still on the hostess. I lean over the table, making sure not to knock over anything, and snap my fingers in his face to bring him back to our date.

“What the hell, Em,” he seethes, leaning back. Irritation starts to build inside of me. He is checking out another woman.

“I asked you a question, and you ignored me because you are checking out the hostess who looks like a burnt Barbie instead of paying attention to me, your girlfriend, on our anniversary,” I say, sitting back in my seat. Right on que, he clenches the menu in his fist and shakes his head.

“Oh my god, we are not doing this right now.” he continues to look at the menu not once looking at me. “I wasn’t checking her out,” he grits.

Wasn’t he, though? It sure seemed like it, but I could have also been seeing things. Furrowing my brows together, I sit back against my chair, choosing to stay quiet throughout the rest of dinner. When the waiter comes to take our order, Chad quickly orders for me and hands the menus back to him.

I’m not a helpless child. I know how to order for myself. I think to myself as I take a sip of water.

Once the food arrives, we eat in silence. I’m hurt that our first anniversary together is turning out this way. But it’s my fault anyway, and always is, too. If I had just kept my mouth shut, we could be having a great time. He’s always saying how impulsive I am, not thinking things through and always choosing emotions over logic. I agree with him and I’ve been working on it. But he seems to think it should be fixed overnight.

Breathing in deep, I reach for the glass of water right as the check is brought to us. Chad slaps some money down and gets up, taking my wrist and dragging me out of the restaurant. I practically have to run to keep up with his pace, and that's something you can’t do in heels.

“Chad, please slow down, I can’t keep up.” I try pulling my hand from his grip, but it’s too tight.

Ignoring me, he continues to drag me to the car. He opens the door, throwing me into the passenger seat, my side hitting the console and I wince lightly as I straighten myself in the seat. When he opens the door and gets inside, he grips the steering wheel with his fist till his knuckles turn white.

“Do you know how embarrassing that was?” He asks through gritted teeth. “To have my girlfriend accuse me of checking out some bimbo?” His gaze is fixed on the windshield, and my anxiety bubbles the longer he keeps his grip tightened on the steering wheel.

His lips thin into a tight line, and he brings his hand up still in a tight fist. Almost as if he is going to hit me, and I flinch against the door right when it comes down onto the dashboard. I didn’t realize I was gripping the door handle, readying myself to leave, till I let go and stared at him with utter shock. My heart is pounding, and I’m unsure what to do.

“Emma, I’m so sorry.” Pure terror laces his voice as his behavior turns a complete 180. “I didn’t mean to do that. I really hope you didn’t think I was going to hit you.” His voice turns soft as he reaches for me. I try my best not to flinch away, but he squeezes his eyes shut and pulls his arm away from me.

We’ve got into arguments in the past, but never to the point where he was going to hit me.

“Can you please take me home?” I whisper, still pressed up against the door.

The twenty-minute drive feels like eons, and when he pulls up to the side of the building, I jump out before he can fully park the car.

“Emma, wait!” He yells for m, but I’m already sprinting inside and in the elevators before he has the chance to walk through the front doors.

When I get up to the apartment, Taylor is in the living room watching a shitty reality TV show. She wasn’t expecting me to be home tonight, and neither was I.

“What’s wrong? What did he do?” She fires the questions at me before I can get the door closed, but I shake my head, not wanting to get into it.

Instead, I sit on the couch next to her, curling myself into her side and letting the tears fall silently.

Chapter 4

Emma

“Liam, are you okay if I head out early?” I ask my manager while I’m wiping down the counter. “I have a few papers that are due next week that I want to get a head start on.” I throw the towel in the red sanitizer bucket we keep behind the counter.

“Yeah, that should be fine. Laney should be here soon anyway. Can you take the trash out to the back before you leave, though?” He asks.

Laney is our other barista who works during my off-hours. She is super friendly and sweet, but anytime I come in the next day, the store is still a mess, or items have been left out.

“You got it, thanks.”

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