Page 27 of Fire

Gwen returned Allie’s hand a squeeze, and after giving herself a mental pep-talk, stood. “Let’s do this.”

Things didn’t go quite as planned.

In fact, they went the complete opposite.

Taking the longer route to avoid passing right next to Blake’s table, Gwen averted her head while weaving through a few tables, keeping her feet moving at a fast clip. She didn’t see the wall of man until she collided into him. And it was like literally smacking into a wall. The force of the impact had her staggering back. She saw two arms try to grab her, but it was too late—she landed smack on her ass.

The people at the table next to her made some noise.

The man she ran into made some noise.

Allie made some noise.

With a sinking stomach, Gwen chanced a glance behind her. Blake was already standing. Their eyes clashed, and he took a step forward. She scrambled to get to her feet, both Allie and the man helping her.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. Are you okay?” the man asked, his grip still firmly on her arm, steadying her on her feet.

“Yes, I’m fine. Please don’t worry about it. It was my fault.” She pulled at her arm, and he let her go. She turned to Allie. “Let’s get out of here.”

They hustled for the door, and she made the mistake of looking over her shoulder one last time before they hit the exit. Blake had stopped in the middle of the restaurant next to the man, the blonde had a hand on his arm.

Their eyes locked one last time, and he took a step as though coming for her, but, thankfully, in the next blink, Allie had pulled her out the door.

“I’m sorry I ruined your celebration,” Gwen said, shoving a scoop of ice cream into her mouth.

She and Allie sat on the couch, a gallon of cookies and cream between them, spooning it straight from the carton. After the fiasco at Charlie’s, they’d unanimously decided to go straight home by way of the market for ice cream.

“You didn’t ruin it.” Allie giggled. “You should have seen your face when you landed on your ass.”

Gwen grimaced. “Don’t remind me. God, I’m so embarrassed.”

Allie poked her with the tip of her spoon. “Don’t be. I’m sure people fall on their asses fleeing from their exesallthe time.”

Gwen smiled, shaking her head. “You’re a horrible friend.”

“I made you smile, didn’t I?”

Gwen tapped her spoon with Allie’s. “Yeah. Yeah, you did.” Sighing, she stuck her spoon in the carton and stood. “I’m going to bed and hope to forget this night ever happened. Wake me only if the planet explodes and we’re the last two people on it.”

Allie laughed. “Really, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Says the woman who was four appletinis to the wind and knows no better.”

Allie stuck her spoon in the ice cream and stood, too. “Go to bed, grumpy. We’ll spend tomorrow watching Sam and Dean. That should make you feel better.”

Gwen had a feeling it would take more thanSupernaturalto make her feel better, but she agreed before disappearing into her bedroom.

Her bed was calling her name but knowing she couldn’t get into it yet, she gave it a dirty look as she walked past, stripping out of her dress on the way to her closet. After hanging it up, and throwing on her PJs, she washed her face and brushed her teeth thenfinallyclimbed into bed. She was never leaving it.

Seeing her phone flash on the nightstand, she picked it up and saw she had six missed messages, all from Blake. Radio silence for almost a week and now he’s blowing up her phone? Her finger hovered over the message bubble. But did she really want to hear what he had to say? Not feeling particularly masochistic, she hit the button to turn it completely off instead.

She’d pushed her knowledge of Blake out on a date to the back of her mind all evening but lying in the dark with nothing else to focus on, the image of him with the blonde reared its ugly head. Jealousy twisted like a knife in her stomach, and she felt like all kinds of an idiot when a tear slipped from the corner of her eye and slid down her temple to get lost in her hair.

“Suck it up, buttercup,” she whispered into the darkness. Then listening to herself, she took a deep, shuddering breath and closed her eyes.

Blake pounded on the door as loud as he dared at three o’clock in the morning. When no one answered, he tried Gwen’s phone again. Straight to voicemail. His thumb jabbed the button on the screen, disconnecting the call before raising his fist for another round of pounding.

That time, the results were fruitful. Hearing the deadbolt slide free, he blew out a breath of relief. Finally, after days of torturing himself, he’d get to see Gwen.

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