Page 64 of Hard To Love

“I’m just going to the bathroom. I need a few minutes to pull myself together.” I threw my napkin on the table and grabbed my clutch. “Would you mind if we called it a night? I’m really sorry.”

Tim shook his head then reached for my hand. “Not at all. I completely understand.” His voice was laced with understanding as he let go of my hand. I felt like a horrible person. I wanted to apologize and explain, but my body was too focused on fighting back the tears that were stinging my eyes.

Tim picked up his glass and drained the remaining liquid. “I’ll just grab the check then I’ll get you home.”

I nodded my head, while my unstable legs somehow made their way towards the restroom. Unfortunately, I had to walk through the bar area on my way. I avoided looking in his direction, but I could feel his eyes on me. My legs felt weaker with each step they took.

To my relief, the bathroom was empty. My body leaned against the cold tile wall. Of all the restaurants in Manhattan, I thought shaking my head. Then a thought popped into my brain. Sliding my phone out, my fingers began flying across the keyboard at a rapid pace.

Did you happen to say anything to Liam about my date tonight

A couple seconds later, the bubbles started appearing on my screen letting me know that Cassie was typing.

I might have, why?

Because, Chase is here and he’s not alone.”

My eyes slid closed as I waited for her response. I could see she was typing.

Did you talk to him?

I blinked at her response. She didn’t seem surprised at all. Blowing out a deep breath my fingers banged away on the keyboard.

Why do you not sound surprised? So, help me god, Cassie, if you set me up, I will kill you.

Just hear him out.

My mouth hung open. How could my best friend do that to me? Before I could respond another text came through.

BTW- I had no idea he was bringing a date. That wasn’t part of the plan.

I groaned then flung my head against the wall. In my head, I knew she was only trying to help, but damn her for putting her nose in where it didn’t belong.

After taking a few minutes to re-apply my make-up, I squared my shoulders, blew out a deep breath, and opened the door. My body slammed into a rock-solid chest. I didn’t even need to open my eyes to see who it was.

“Chase,” was all I said, as my eyes slowly slid up to his face.

He placed his hands on my shoulders and gazed at me with so much emotion in his eyes, it caused my breath to catch in the back of my throat.

“Emily.”

I tried to pull away but he wasn’t allowing it. “Chase,” I tried to sound put off, but I liked having his hands on me. His touch was soothing and familiar and all I wanted to do was crawl into his arms and get lost in him. But then visions of him with that woman jumped into my head.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be entertaining your date?” I tried to sound confident, but my voice was betraying me.

His eyes narrowed. “I could say the same thing about you?”

Again, I tried to draw back from his grasp, but that only caused his grip to tighten on me. “What are you doing?”

“I want to talk to you.”

The shock of seeing him tonight was slowly fading, anger and jealousy was quickly filling up in its place.

“What’s the matter? Is your date not able to carry on a conversation? I’m sure with all the plastic surgery she’s had done, there should be plenty to talk about.”

Letting out a deep sigh, he finally took a step back releasing his hold on me. He looked up at the ceiling and pinched the bridge of his nose before he leveled his eyes back to me. “Will you stop it, and just listen to me, damn it?”

“I’m not sure I want to hear what you have to say.” I spat out barely holding onto my sanity. My head and my heart were having a full out battle.

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