Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 124(@200wpm)___ 99(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
I climb into the truck and head out. It’s only a twenty-minute drive to The Low Rider where Michelle and I first met. I know it’s a long shot, but after the story leaked, I can only imagine what things are like at home for her. Maybe she’s decided to bail for a few hours and come out with her friends. Like I did.
The sour scent of stale booze hits my nostrils as I step inside. I glance around and don’t see her. I sigh and am just about to turn and leave when I hear a laugh, a laugh I recognize. It belongs to Taylor.
I glance in its direction and realize there’s a door in the back I hadn’t noticed the last time we were here. I thread my way through the tables and into a game room where Michelle and Taylor and a few other girls are throwing darts and attempting to play pool.
Michelle shoots her shot and completely misses a game winner. She groans and looks up from the table, and our eyes meet.
I feel it, and I know she feels it. That magic we both experienced every time we were together.
I can’t stand it. I rush straight over to her but am instantly boxed out by Taylor and two other girls who form a wall of perfume and cheap dresses as they stare me down like I’m the Holebeck serial killer or something.
“Easy there, cowboy,” she says. “This here is a no-asshole zone. So just turn around and walk away.”
“Just let me through, Taylor. I need to speak to Michelle.” I glance over her shoulder and between the girls. Michelle is half-hidden behind a pillar, averting her eyes. “Michelle! Can I talk to you? Look, I’m sorry, okay?”
“What did I say?” Taylor asks, shoving me in the chest. One of the other girls hits me in the shoulder. They obviously know I’m not going to get into it with a woman, so I just let them back me up to the door. “Get lost, dirt bag!”
“Michelle!” I call out again. “Please?”
“You want me to start screaming that you tried to touch me?” Taylor asks. “Because I fucking will!”
Her eyes are filled with fire. She’s clearly a loyal friend and is just looking out for Michelle. I can appreciate that, but at the same time, I’m dying to talk to the girl I’m in love with. I know that if I can just speak to her, I can make things right.
“There’s no need for that,” I reply calmly, stepping back. “I’m leaving.”
Battery acid pumps through my veins as I storm out of the bar and back out to my truck. She’s right there and I can’t even touch her. I can’t even speak to her because of those friends of hers on bodyguard duty.
“Fuck!” I curse, slamming my fist down on the hood of my truck. Pain sparks through my wrist. I relish in it because for a moment, a split second, it takes my mind off how helpless I feel.
I slump forward, sucking air deep into my lungs. I had this all worked out. We had this all worked out, and somehow everything has fallen apart.
How can I fix this if she won’t even speak to me? How will I be able to go on without her?
“Casey?” Michelle’s voice behind me causes me to whirl around.
I see her standing there at the door to the bar, looking at me like a wounded puppy. It takes all my strength not to rush over to her and wrap her in my arms.
“Michelle, baby, I am so sorry,” I say instantly. I watch her take a deep breath. I don’t know if she’s processing or if she’s preparing herself. Maybe both. “Baby, I should have spoken to you about the story before I took it to the paper.”
She nods. “Yes, Casey, you should have.”
“I never should have said those things I said to you either.”
She looks down and shakes her head. “I said some pretty mean things too.”
I slowly walk toward her. She doesn’t back away. “Well, I think we both got caught up in the moment. Emotions were running hot.”
“You can say that again,” she replies, something close to a smile on her lips.
I’m close enough to her now that I can smell whatever she used for shampoo this morning. Beyond that, I can smell her scent. The scent that reminds me just how madly in love I am with her.
As if I could ever forget.
“If I can even attempt to apologize, Michelle, I guess I thought that you just didn’t want to be the one to expose your father,” I say slowly. “But I thought you understood that what he was doing would get out there one way or another.”
Michelle slowly nods. “I think I did understand that, Casey. But when you didn’t tell me what you were doing, it just felt like you were another man in my life making choices for me without telling me first. You know what I mean?”