Chasing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 4) (15 page)

Holly reached out and squeezed Alexa’s arm. “Let’s just go somewhere else.”

“No. We came here to have a drink, and that’s what we’ll do. He could do whatever he wants.”

“There are hundreds of bars within spitting distance of this place,” Melissa pointed out.

Alexa dropped her voice. “I’m not giving him the satisfaction. Who else wants a cocktail? I’m going to the bar.”

She didn’t wait for her friends’ approval or continued sympathies. A woman on a mission, she forced her way forward and made eye contact with the bartender.

“Can I get three tequila shots please?”

While she waited for her drinks, she saw Graham and Trista huddled together, sparring. Or Trista was sparring. Graham had that patronizing, “Just calm down, sweetie,” look that men get when they’ve messed up, but want you to believe you’re overreacting. Trista sniped one last time and then fled.

The bartender poured three golden shots and left her tab open. Drinks in hand, Alexa scrambled back to her friends and passed out her wares.

“Bottoms up.”

Alexa slammed the tequila shot like she hadn’t since her last year of college. She should have been more specific with regard to the quality of the tequila because the pungent burn hit her like a one-ton pickup.

“Alexa, please. Let’s talk outside.”

Without turning to look at Graham, she spat out a, “fine,” and walked outside, knowing he would follow. When she heard the footsteps behind her come to a stop, she whirled around.

“Honestly, Graham, you can do whatever you want. But I thought we had this conversation. Yesterday. How could you expect this not to bite you in the ass? Correction, bite me in the ass. Or Trista. This is my business. You are astoundingly fucking selfish.”

“I’m not sleeping with Trista, and I wasn’t going to sleep with Trista.”

“So, feeling her up in the bar is what then?”

“I wasn’t feeling her up. She stumbled, and I caught her and we kinda laughed. I literally was just telling her that we can’t go back to where we were.”

“Is that why you were leering at her tits?” Alexa threw her hands to her temples and then to the sky. “Don’t answer that. I don’t have the right to tell you what to do with your life. I just wish you gave more consideration to how what you were doing affects everyone else. But, I guess, you’re not that guy. I know that now.”

“I’m sorry.” Graham’s pleading eyes searched hers for understanding, and she gave him none. “I let my little head have more control than the head on my shoulders. I shouldn’t have been touching her like that if for no other reason than I knew she wanted to start things up again, and I don’t.”

“I’m not talking about this anymore. I’m hanging out with my friends, trying to have a good time, and you’re blowing my buzz.”

Alexa took a couple of strides back toward the door, and Graham changed his tack.

“So, you’re hanging out with your ex and introducing him to your friends. You expect me to be okay with that, so I roll with it. But one freaking moment with an ex-girlfriend and you flip out.”

His indictment turned her back around and sent her storming toward him.

“I wasn’t groping Adam. And I introduced you to him because he and I are nothing, and it wasn’t a big deal.”

“You introduced me to him because you had no choice. And he’s practically in love with you, so you need a way to back him off. You used me to deflect him. Don’t kid yourself.”

Alexa huffed and looked past him, down the street. “Deflecting is making this about me when you’re shuffling things around so she doesn’t show up yesterday and you two can canoodle tonight one-on-one on your date.”

Alexa blasted him, all the while chastising herself for not walking away. Their relationship wasn’t a serious one, so why get into this big to do with him?
Walk away.
But she couldn’t.

“It’s not a date.”

“Like our not dates?” Alexa smiled to stave off a grimace. “It’s fine. Really. We both know what we wanted. Right? We got it. Now, it’s over.”

“Got it. That’s good to get straight.” Graham’s words snapped. “But please tell me you’re not going to take this out on Trista. She had no idea that you and I were seeing each other.”

Alexa felt like gagging at his protectiveness of another woman. “Of course I won’t. That’s the whole point. I don’t want anything personal interfering with my business.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want our thing to make things hard for her at work. She’s a good person, and she’s good at what she does.”

“Wow. She should have listed you as a reference.”

“Alexa—”

“Forget it. Good night, Graham.”

T
equila shots are
a fast track to regret.

Alexa could sense the sunlight through her eyelids before she threw off the covers and stumbled around her house in search of water. Vodka sodas never left her feeling like she’d licked the bottom of someone’s shoe and then clubbed herself over the head with it.

After storming back into Logan’s the night before, Alexa had doubled down on the party and downed two more tequila shots in short order. Melissa and Holly joined in out of sisterly solidarity.

“We can’t let you drink alone. That would make this sad,” Holly had declared before ordering the next round of shots—lemon drops. “But one more tequila shot, and I might lose my sushi.”

Their raw fish dinner at the Japanese restaurant a few blocks away was maybe the worst preamble to tequila-fueled drunkenness ever, but that escaped her mind as Alexa ordered drink after drink.

Steeped in alcohol, the women decided they needed to go dancing, so they took a pedicab a few blocks over to a nightclub. Alexa remembered standing in line outside with the thumping bass pounding through the muraled brick wall. Holly recognized the bouncer and shimmied her way to the front, springing them from the line to the VIP rooftop.

Bumping bodies and free drinks courtesy of various men took them into the early hours Sunday morning. The next logical step was to grab a breakfast of sorts from the Tex-Mex food truck serving all-night migas around the corner. Melissa bowed out, going home to Kyle and a passable amount of sleep before heading to a late church service.

Holly and Alexa rallied and filled up on a mashup of eggs, tortilla chips, and salsa, rolled in corn tortillas with a side of crispy potatoes and onions. The meal may have saved Alexa from the worst of the hangover, even if late-night eating meant she’d have to white-knuckle it through a workout at some point.

But for now, she needed water. And lots of it. Simply being vertical made her temples pulse with pain. She filled a liter-sized water bottle and guzzled it before heading to the couch. She paged through her phone messages and saw numerous texts and two voicemails from Melissa.

“Morning, Mel,” Alexa grumbled when her friend picked up the phone.

“You’re alive! I was beginning to wonder if I needed to swing by your house and make sure you weren’t passed out face down on your lawn.”

“It’s not so bad as that. I took an Uber home from the taco stand. Of course, that took over an hour and probably cost me an arm and a leg with the surge pricing.”

“How’s Holly?”

“I haven’t talked to her this morning, but she texted me when she got home. I’ll see her at work tomorrow—hopefully. Of course, I’ll also see Trista at work tomorrow. That should be fun.”

Alexa closed her eyes and circled her fingertips on her temples. None of that was Trista’s fault, but it would make her first day on the job incredibly uncomfortable. Regardless of what he had said, his proclamation that he didn’t want to date her clearly came as a shock.

“Do you think she’ll quit?”

“I don’t know. Most of me hopes that she stays on. Professionally, I really think she’ll be great. A tiny sliver of me, though, would love to duck the whole issue and have her no-show me.”

“You don’t mean that.”

Alexa sighed. “No, I don’t. I’ll manage it the way that I always do. Rip the Band-Aid off with the horrible conversation and then move on.”

“Have you heard from Graham?”

“No. He hasn’t called or texted or anything. I wouldn’t expect him to. Him, I definitely want to no-show. If he has any pride whatsoever, he’ll never set foot in my gym again.”

“Offer him his money back.”

“I never actually processed his application. I can just tell him to go away. You think that would be childish?”

“I think it’s practical.”

“Enough about all that. Are you going to church today? It’s Palm Sunday.”

“I was, but Kyle wants to sleep in. Plus, I feel kinda dingy going to church with tequila seeping from my pores.” Melissa moaned. “Why did you do that to us?”

“Stupidity. I used to drink tequila every weekend, all weekend, and bounce right back. That’s not exactly happening this morning. Right now, I’m trying to stay horizontal.”

“Pull it together. You want to be on your game tomorrow morning.”

“I’m so dreading that conversation. The thought of it pisses me off all over again. He’s such a jackass to mess with my business like this.”

“Only business? You’re not usually one to get this emotional over something like that.”

Alexa rolled over to hide in the sofa cushion. “I have no other right to be angry.”

“You liked him, and he’s treating that like it’s nothing. You can be pissed off about it.”

Guys she dated before had seen other women, and a handful of times, she ran into them at restaurants or events. Typically, it rolled off her back. Graham was different.

Her anger bubbled and flowed like lava, slowly cooling to hard rock.

“I don’t want to think about how pissed I am because it doesn’t matter. He and I are done.”

“He made a mistake, but that doesn’t have to end everything if you like him. Where would I be if Kyle had written me off because I dumped him to chase Chris? As someone who’s benefited from forgiveness, I can tell you I’m a big believer.”

“Kyle loved you, and you loved him. Graham and I are not in love.”

“Maybe not. I’m going to save you a lecture on how do you know you’re not in love if you don’t focus on the person and give them a chance to be the one.”

“That’s saving it?”

“Stay strong and hydrate, sister.”

“I’ll try. Talk to you later.”

As usual, Melissa gave Alexa much to consider, but allowing Graham back into her good graces wouldn’t happen. He had to go.

* * *

“
I
’ve done
some stupid shit in my life, but I’ve never been caught in the midst of it like last night, man.”

Graham sat across from Jonah at a popular brunch spot near his house. They had a carafe of Bloody Marys on the table along with a hot pot of coffee. Graham needed both this morning.

“Why don’t you try talking to her? In the light of day, she may have calmed down.”

“You didn’t see her. The look in her eyes screamed, ‘Done.’ She’s a stubborn woman.”

“Then, be done with her. Didn’t this all start out because you wanted to get New Year’s Eve out of your system? Mission accomplished.”

Jonah popped a mini muffin in his mouth and chewed enthusiastically.

“It did…But I kind of started to like her. She was fun until the yelling started.”

“So then, try to explain things to her.”

Graham snorted. “Was my advice to you a few months ago this shitty?”

“Come to think of it, yes. It was. You told me exactly what I’m telling you now. And then you tried to get me to sleep with my ex-girlfriend or some random woman as if that would change how I felt about Shannon. I loved her, and no woman was going to change that. But you’re not in love with Alexa, right?” Jonah snatched another muffin and jabbed it toward Graham. “Move on.”

Graham nodded. Alexa, while interesting, was no more than a passing phase in his life. Last night had been embarrassing more than anything else. He’d get over it. “I still have to have another conversation with Trista. I probably fucked things up for her at her new job before she even started.”

“Women can be vindictive.”

“I don’t think Alexa would take it out on her. She’s very hard-core about her business, and if she hired Trista, it’s because she was impressed.”

“Your squeezing her employee’s ass was probably also pretty impressive though.”

Graham’s head fell back, and he groaned. With his eyes closed, he could see the aura of rage around Alexa when she walked into the bar and saw him. Hadn’t she promised not to fire Trista? Or, hell, Trista might just quit? Except that Trista had already quit her old job. If things didn’t work out at Alexa’s, Trista would be unemployed. How utterly moronic he had been.

“I’ll fix it.”

“How?”

“Floods of apologies in every direction.”

“If you can get either woman to stand still long enough to listen to you.”

“I’ll manage it. Alexa and I were supposed to meet with that couple I told you about—the ones with the diabetic little girl. We’re fundraising for them. She’ll have to talk to me at some point, and Trista...I’ll just have to call her.”

“You really started to like her?”

“Trista?”

“No, Alexa.”

Graham rubbed his fingers over his stubbled chin. Thinking he would work his way through his feelings by sleeping with her was a miscalculation. Spending time with her was more addiction than catharsis. Every obstinate look and snide remark triggered the need for more. The woman was so much trouble—maybe too much—but he couldn’t get enough.

The thought of admitting as much out loud gave him indigestion.

“We were having a good time.”

“You keep saying that she’s a good time. There are other women who offer good times. Less complicated women.”

“And you’re a big fan of less complicated?”

Graham raised an eyebrow, and Jonah cackled. He’d chosen the most complicated of women—a recovering addict, with a child, and two ex-husbands.

“Less complicated isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but I thought that’s what you were all about.”

“Me too, and Alexa isn’t…She’s just...Alexa.”

He roved a hand through his hair and gripped the back of his neck, having lost his ability to describe the woman or how he felt about her. Jonah’s grin only irked him more, chasing Graham to another topic.

“How’s the moving and shaking?”

“I’m making good contacts in support of my Congressional bid and raising a decent amount of money. My father is still angry about my party affiliation. Coming out as a Democrat may have been as horrible to him as my sister coming out as gay.”

“Poor guy. He’s had a rough couple of years.”

Jonah’s deeply conservative father had his daughter come out of the closet, his son marry a woman he couldn’t stand, his wife file for divorce, and, now, his son goes public as a liberal.

“He has actually. I’ve never seen him as despondent as he’s been about my mother moving out. I think he’s still hoping he can lure her back.”

“Maybe they’ll work it out. Your parents belong with each other. It’s hard to imagine one without the other.”

“My mother doesn’t feel that way. She’s never been happier. She got back from a vacation in the Mediterranean with her friends and bought a house in my neighborhood ‘to be near the baby.’ Shannon is worried she’ll be camping out in our nursery. I keep saying at least she’s excited.”

“That
is
progress.”

Jonah’s father wasn’t the only one who didn’t cotton to his wife in the beginning. The prospect of finally getting a grandchild worked wonders on the older woman.

“I enjoy having my mom around more, but don’t tell Shannon I said that. I’m supposed to be creating ‘healthy boundaries.’” Jonah curled his fingers into air quotes.

“As long as your mom plays nice, Shannon will come around.”

“Don’t say that. I’ve been optimistic!”

“Your mom’s a nice woman.”

Jonah chuckled, then tipped his head in consolation. “She can be—when she wants to. I think she’s motivated. Now, if I can only get her to stop dropping hints about names for our baby boy.”

Graham’s eyes widened in horror. “What names?”

“Francis is a family name on her father’s side—as is Cornelius.”

“Nice,” Graham laughed. “Classics.”

“Yeah, like Ambrose,” Jonah sniped, referring to his own middle name.

“Do you have a name picked out?”

“We do. I’m not supposed to tell anybody, so you have to promise not to say anything.”

“No offense, Jonah, but your baby is only a topic that comes up when I talk to you.”

“Funny.” He threw a balled-up mini muffin wrapper at Graham. “Benjamin.”

“Oh. That’s nice and normal.”

“It is.”

A wide smile lit up Jonah’s face, signaling his thorough domestication. Over the years, he and Jonah spent many a Sunday recounting wild sexual details of their weekend. Now, here they were talking baby names—and Graham’s discontent over a woman.

He slumped in his chair. They were
both
getting domesticated. And that wouldn’t do.