She avoided my gaze, taking another drink.“I told you I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Didn’t you feel better after you loosened up the other night and talked to me about things?You need to stop trying to control every single situation and let people in once in a while.Maybe if you did that, you’d stop being miserable as fuck with things in your life, so why don’t you tell me what gives.You used to share everything with me.”
I could see her thinking through the idea of telling someone her troubles.She was probably so uptight all the time and had pushed so many people away that she probably had no one to talk to.
“It’s not my style to talk to others.”
“Why not?”
“People talk.They judge.”
“And you think by telling me I’m going to tell all kinds of people and judge you.”
“You’re no different from anyone else.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I know people.”
“No, you think you know people.”
“Trust me, I know them.I see what the media does to people like you.”
“That isn’t the same thing.They’re paid to spread rumors about people.Normal people have better things to do than talk about others behind their backs, and if they are friends, then they don’t do that, anyway.”
“If only you knew the ones I knew, and we aren’t friends.Friends don’t just disappear, especially the ones who claimed that they were in love with you.”
While my father had intercepted her letters from getting to me after I’d lost my phone, I guess he’d never sent the ones I’d written to her like I’d asked.
“Okay, then,” I said, drinking down the rest of my drink.“Drink up, let’s go.”
“But I thought you wanted me to?—”
“Nope, I want to know nothing.You’ve made it very clear.Now, drink up.”
There wasn’t any point in trying to have a conversation about this with her right now.She was far too drunk to try to reason with.I slipped out of the booth and took care of the bill.When I returned to the table, she had her head down, her eyes closed as her head rested on her arm, her phone in her hand.
I carefully slid the phone out from under her hand and noticed it was open to a chat, my eyes immediately drawn to my name.I glanced at Emma, who still had her eyes closed, and then read the last part of the chat.
Chantal: Bullshit, until you met Mark, out of all the guys you dated, all you did was talk about what a loss Colton Fox was when you’d break up with them, and how you wished you could have a second chance.
Emma: Chantal, I did not.
Chantal: You did.Please do yourself this one favor and stop lying to yourself.Perhaps this is life’s way of giving you both a second chance.
Emma: You have no clue what you’re talking about.Colton would never be interested in a girl like me.
Chantal: Why not?He kissed you didn’t he?
I looked down at Emma, her eyes closed as she rested her head on her arm.
“Alright, baby girl, let’s go,” I whispered, carefully pulling her from the booth and getting her into a standing position as she groaned.
I was more interested in her than she knew, but we needed to sort a lot of our past if there would ever be a chance at a future.I was just after the girl I knew she was, not the one she pretended to be.
“Take your shoes off,”I said, carefully holding her as I kicked mine off and shut the room door.
She hadn’t moved when I looked at her.
