Page 8 of The Air You Breathe

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jane gave me a hug, making me want to cry. “I just saw the chemistry between y’all and I don’t know, I hoped maybe he would get his head out of his ass.”

“No, it's fine. I just…”

“Okay, two shots.” Katherine interrupted me, putting down eight shots. “One before the story and one after because I’m sure you're going to need another.”

My heart swelled because these girls were amazing. I wish I had them when we had broken up, maybe things would have been different. We all took the shot before I told them what happened between Evan and me. After I finished, they all looked at me with sadness on their faces. All the alcohol I had was making me feel even more emotional. The need to cry was rising to my threshold and I didn’t want to cry in a bar at someone's bachelorette party.

“Fuck girl, you’re going to need my shot too.” Sabrina slid her shot over to me. “Seems like he made the easy decision for himself.”

“Damn, mine too,” Katherine said, as she pushed hers towards me too while she glared at Sabrina. “I think it’s sweet he was protecting her, but I think maybe you guys just need to talk it out.”

I nodded. “I feel like we are way past talking. He’s had three years to talk to me, but he’s kept his distance.”

“I agree!” Sabrina said, but Jane and Katherine looked like they wanted to say more. I had taken enough of Katherine’s bachelorette party.

“Ok, I definitely can’t take these, so help me out.” I slid the shots back to them. “Cheers to Katherine!”

The girls hesitated but they took the shots anyway, holding them up as we all clinked glasses.

“To Katherine!” Sabrina and Jane said together.

We threw back our drinks and slammed the glasses on the table.

“We need to put on some dancing music!” Sabrina walked up to the jukebox again and looked for a song. I felt like I was being watched again when “Let me take you dancing” by Jason Derulo came on and Katherine squealed as she got up quickly and started dancing.

Jane laughed at her, getting up and I joined her. I looked around the bar one more time before I locked eyes on none other than Evan, who was walking towards us with a scowl on his face. I should be over all butterflies but they were still as strong as the day I met him.

4

EVAN

I’m grateful on the days when I don’t have to go into the club or meet with Lucio. I’m sitting across from Marc, who had a potential fighter. Word is, he’s really good. I vetted both him and Marc, making sure he was clean and they were going to be easy to work with.

I laid out the contract for him when Darcy walked into the bar with Jane and two other women. I instantly smiled until I saw what she was wearing, what they were all wearing.

What the fuck was going on?

I watched them go to the digital Jukebox, as Darcy went to the bar.

“Evan?” I snapped my head towards Marc.

“I was just wondering about the weekend fights. Are those treated any different?” he asked, still scanning the document. I explained how weekends and weeknight worked, what they needed to expect and what we expected from them. He asked more questions and I answered them, keeping an eye on Darcy. She looked sad and heartbroken, which made me nervous. Did she break up with someone? Another glance around the room made me notice the men in the bar looking at them, making my skin crawl.

I almost texted Callum, Nathan or Aiden telling him to come over to see what their girl Jane was wearing but I knew I was being selfish. I ended the meeting quickly after agreeing to a few things. I wrote them down so I wouldn’t forget, shaking Marc’s hand and watched him leave. I waited a few minutes hoping he wasn’t going to come back.

I saw the girls take a shot, then one of them popped up and went straight to the Jukebox. Once their song came on, one of them squealed, she immediately started dancing with Jane joining her. I walked over because I couldn’t take it anymore. Once I got close, we locked eyes, shock appearing on her face and then immediately turned into anger.

“Darcy,” I said, as calmly as I could.

“Evan.” She glared at me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking at Jane and the other women.

“It’s my sister-in-law’s bachelorette party,” Jane said, as she danced.

“Yes, now excuse me while I dance with my friends.” Darcy dismissed me.

I grabbed her hand before she walked away getting a glance at her ass in that short dress. “What do you want?” she snapped.

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