Page 35 of Made For Me

CHAPTER21

Julia

“Are you busy for dinner?” The minute the words come out of his mouth, everything in me stops. My hand even stops midway to my mouth with the cup of water in it. I don’t even have a chance to replay the words in my head by the time he says, “Pick you up at seven.” My mouth suddenly goes as dry as the sand in the desert on a summer day. Even if I tried to swallow, nothing will go down. “Text me where to get you.” I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out. “And if you don’t text me, I’ll just show up at Jillian’s after I go to your house.” This makes me gasp out, “See you later.”

The sound of the phone disconnecting makes me move the phone from my ear, staring down at it. “Who the hell was that?” Jillian asks from beside me. We are camped out on her couch, where we have been all day long. Even Alex has joined us as she sits on the couch beside us.

“Chase,” I answer, trying to wrap my head around what the fuck just happened.

“What did he want?” Alex asks.

“I think I’m going on a date with him.” The minute those words are out of my mouth, Alex springs up from the couch.

“Excuse me?” She looks at me with big eyes.

Jillian’s head whips around so fast I’m surprised she doesn’t get whiplash. “What did you just say?”

“She said she’s going out on a date with Chase.” Alex says it slowly, but at the same time, she is fisting her left hand while inserting her right forefinger into it.

“Oh, no,” Jillian says, jumping off the couch. “You can’t go out with him.”

I’m about to ask why not when Alex does it for me. “Why the hell not?”

“Because it’s a horrible idea,” Jillian replies, and I don’t know why, but that thought doesn’t sit well with me.

“Well, I for one think that it’s about fucking time.” Alex looks at me and smiles. “This whole tango has been exhausting”

“What tango?” I ask her.

“The two of you together have been like watchingNational Geographicand waiting for the both of you to just snap and fuck on the table.” She grabs her phone and I can’t help but laugh at this. She pulls up something on her phone. “You can’t even deny it, look at this picture.” She hands me her phone and I reach out to grab it. I look down at her screen and it’s a picture of Chase and me on New Year’s Eve, sitting beside each other on the long bench against the wall. His hand is wrapped around my waist and both of us are laughing at something as we look at each other. I don’t even remember what he said but all I can do is focus on him, my heart literally goes up and then down. What is happening right now?

“Alex,” Jillian says, “this is Chase we are talking about.” She then looks at me. “You can’t treat him like the others.”

I roll my eyes and lift both of my hands up in frustration. “You don’t think I know that?”

“She knows that,” Alex says at the same time. “It’s different.”

“Yeah,” I say, pointing at Alex, “it’s different.”

“Why?” Jillian asks and all I can do is glare at her.

“It just is.” I toss the blanket off my legs. “Now I have to go get showered.” I turn and start to walk from the room.

“She’s going to get the hammer tonight,” Alex jokes, laughing while Jillian groans.

I don’t bother turning around, instead I just lift my hand and flip them the bird. I walk up the stairs with my stomach in my throat. I sit on the bed at the same time the phone vibrates in my hand.

Chase: Where am I getting you from?

Me: My house.

Chase: Can you be ready in an hour?

Me: What happened to seven?

Chase: More time for you to cancel on me.

I can’t help but laugh.

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