I grabbed a quick shower to wash the rest of the day away before plopping down on my bed and digging my phone out of my purse, which I’d just realized I had never turned back on since the plane ride. With all of the excitement at the hospital, it had completely slipped my mind. As I powered it up and pressed my finger down on Colton’s name, I hoped he wouldn’t be too upset with me for completely falling off the grid today.
“Hello.” My heart sunk when I heard a familiar, high pitched voice that did not belong to Colton. Pulling the phone away from my ear, I looked to make sure that I’d called the right person.
“Is anyone there? Hellooo?” My heart rate sped up to an alarming speed. Taking a few deep breaths, I mentally tried to talk myself down from the ledge. Maybe there was a good reason—nah, I couldn’t even come up with one. He knew how I felt about her. He’d seen the way she treated me.
“Lyla,” I deadpanned, feeling every hair on my body rise. “Where’s Colt?”
Her responding giggle set my blood to boiling. “He’s in the shower right now...should I tell him to call you back?”
Breathe. Breathe, Alex. “Whose shower?” I asked, biting back tears. Like it even fucking mattered. They were together. She had his phone. And he was in. The. Shower.
“Mine, why?” she asked, playing coy.
I had nothing. Not a single word as tears pooled in my eyes and my heart shriveled up and died in my chest.
What the fuck was happening? I mean, we hadn’t discussed exclusivity, but if we were together...Shit. Were we together? We hadn’t had a chance to discuss that either...But we slept together. Wasn’t I worth more to him than this? I told him I was in love with him and his response was to climb right back into bed with her?
“Wait, are you crying, Alex?”
The broken heart I thought I’d lived with all these years had shit on the pain of this moment. It was crippling. I couldn’t have answered even if I wanted to.
“You are, aren’t you?” She sighed loudly into the speaker. “You didn’t think a man like Colt would sit around licking his own wounds, did you?” Another giggle. “Trust me, girl, he’s got plenty of us lined up more than willing to do it for him.”
Despite my best efforts, a sob escaped.
“Oh, honey.” She tsked. “You have so much to learn about life.”
She hung up, and the screen darkened. I hated to admit that she was right.
I knew nothing. Apparently, not even my best friend. About the only thing I was certain of at that moment was that Colton and I were through. Completely. I might not have been able to control who my masochistic heart decided to fall in love with, but I had a brain smart enough to shield myself from the pain. Loving Colton Fowler came at a price I could no longer afford.
COLTON
WEEKS WENT BY WITHOUT a single word from Alex. Not a call. Not a text. Radio silence. I’d even been dodging calls from my parents because no part of me wanted to know what was going on with her and Dean. Our lives were so intertwined that there would be no way around it. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid, was the name of my game.
School and ball were my go to excuses and a welcome distraction from my thoughts, which never drifted very far from Allie. Her dark hair splayed across my pillow. The scent of her shampoo embedded in my sheets. Her smile. Her laughter. Hell, I even missed her bitching and whining. My life was empty without her in it. It was a sad existence, and I needed to snap out of it. That’s why after nearly a month of sitting around waiting for her to realize she’d made a huge mistake I was throwing in the towel. There was a life for me out there that didn’t involve Alexis Mack, and it was high time I went out and found it.
“Colton?” Finley shrieked when I descended the stairs dressed in clothes that didn’t consist of cotton and mesh. He rubbed his fists into his eyes dramatically. “Are those...dare I say it, jeans?”
“And buttons,” Blex added, slapping his hand on the front of my shirt. “I do believe he’s risen, Finley, my man.”
“Praise God, Allah, Buddha, and all the other saints.” Finley steepled his hands in front of his chest, taking a dramatic bow.
“Gods,” I corrected, rolling my eyes.
“I said God first, numb nut.”
“They’re all gods, idiot,” Blex corrected, hooting with laughter.
Finn scrunched his face in disgust as he slid his foot into his shoe. “You two can go right ahead and laugh your way straight to hell.” He rolled his eyes upward to make eye contact with us towering over his hunched form. “There is only one God. It’s like the deadliest of sins to believe in others.”
Blex and I looked at each other briefly before bursting into hysterics. “Fuck, Finn. Your dumb ass makes getting out of bed worth it.”
“I try,” he muttered, rising from the couch and stomping his feet a few times to make his pants fall over the tops of his shoes.
“No, you don’t. That’s the best fucking part,” Blex added on our way out the door.
Thursday night was ladies’ night, and the club was jam-packed with, you guessed it, ladies. Normally, I felt right at home in a sea full of women, but since sex with Alex, I felt guilty even glancing their way. Which was stupid. We were not together.
“See anyone you like?” Finn asked, saddling up next to me at the bar. “I think I want that one.” His finger pointed toward the dance floor to a redhead with huge tits and a big ass, both spilling out of her barely-there outfit.
“Nah, you go ahead. I’m gonna sit here and have a drink.”
“Good idea,” he said, passing his card to the bartender. “Beer goggles first, then they’ll all start to look like Alex.” He did the little finger snap point as he rose from his seat. “I like it, Fowls.”
Finley had no clue how the mere mention of her name sent my heart racing. How much of a chore it was to simply draw air when she was occupying my thoughts. That’s why when he slapped me on the back, tapping the neck of his Bud Light to mine, before hauling off to secure his woman of the night, I didn’t punch him in his fucking face for bringing her up.
I spent the next hour stewing in memories of the girl I’d come here to forget, losing count of how many drinks I put down. Always hoping that the next would be the one to wipe my brain clean.
“Hey there, sad and lonely...Is this seat taken?”
My eyes drifted from the label I’d been picking at to the direction of the voice to find tits. Tits as far as the eye could see. I’m sure there was a nice face attached somewhere, but right in my line of vision was an enormous pair of chesticles. “That is an amazing rack,” I muttered, appreciating God’s work of art, or maybe it was a surgeon’s doing. These days it was hard to tell. Whatever the case, I admired them all equally.
“Why, thank you...I’ll take that as an invitation.”
I thought I’d said that low enough so only I could hear, but apparently, I’d just given this fine woman a compliment without even trying. Maybe I hadn’t lost my touch after all. “Go right ahead, gorgeous.” And she was...gorgeous, that is. Sky blue eyes and long black hair. I wasn’t even sure she was human. It was quite possible I dreamed her up. Apparently, I was good at that...imagining things that weren’t real. Like I’d imagined the earth-shattering connection between Alex and myself.