by Paris Hansen
“Which friend are we talking about here? They’re all really nice and very straight, although I’m pretty sure none of them are the monogamous type if that’s what you’re looking for.”
Meghan smiled, “that makes my plan even easier and honestly, I don’t care which one, all of them would be good with me, but I’ll take whichever one I get. That Declan is pretty freaking hot though. Those eyes and those lips…damn. Then there’s Braeden, total spank bank material, but I think that Oliver’s more my speed. I just want to climb that tree and see how far he’ll take me.”
“Oh my god,” Sylvia muttered as she sipped her wine. “That is for too much information for me. Don’t you have a boyfriend anyway?”
“Nope. Dropped him like a bad habit after that night we went dancing. If I had known that the guys were as fun as Savannah is making them out to be, I would have dropped him before that. He was boring and horrible in the sack. I definitely need more than that. What about you Brooklyn? When are you going to make your move on Declan? The way he’s always looking at you, damn, if I wore panties I’m pretty sure they’d catch fire just from being in the proximity of that look.”
Savannah snorted, unable to hold in the laughter that bubbled up at the look on her sister’s face. Sylvia choked on her wine while Finley and Meghan erupted into laughter of their own. This was the kind of thing that Savannah had been missing while she’d been wallowing in her fear and misery. She needed more nights like this, although preferably ones that did not require cleaning wine out of her furniture, which she now needed to do because of Meghan’s comment.
“All I know is Declan doesn’t date or even hook up, at least as far as I can tell. Braeden is pretty much a manwhore and Oliver is too, but he’s not nearly as bad as Braeden. I’ve at least seen Oliver with the same girl more than once. Braeden barely knows any of their names and he doesn’t ever get their numbers,” Savannah said as soon as she made sure that Sylvia was alright.
She noticed her sister wince when she mentioned Declan not dating, but her reaction was lost on everyone else in the room since they all seemed to be focused on Oliver and Braeden the easier marks of the group. Savannah knew that her sister was disappointed about the news, although she’d deny it if asked. It was obvious to pretty much everyone that Brooklyn liked Declan and it was nearly as obvious that Declan had a thing for her sister.
Unfortunately, they were both stubborn and determined to be alone no matter what. Brooklyn liked to say she was waiting until she was settled, but Savannah wasn’t sure that she would start dating even when that finally happened. And Declan was a more complicated story. She knew he had a past that was painful, one that involved his daughter. It was that past that kept him from wanting to spend his life with someone else and it made Savannah sad to see. He was one of the nicest men she knew and an amazing father, it was too bad that he wasn’t going to share that with someone else.
Savannah sat back, watching her friends gush about the men they wanted and the men that they had enjoyed in the past. All of them, except her sister, had more experience than Savannah although she was older than most of them. She spent so much time focusing on her career that she had cut out the things that most 20-somethings enjoyed doing the most. Now that she was comfortable in her career, she was committed to Gabriel and hoped that she would spend the rest of her life experiencing him. She didn’t need or want a parade of men in her life, but she couldn’t help but enjoy the stories her friends were sharing. Tonight, she’d live vicariously through them, in the morning she’d go win her man back.
The next morning, she stood outside of the house that Gabriel had inherited from Jonathan. It was a cute single story rambler with a huge front yard and a walkway that went from the sidewalk to the front step. Just like the day she confronted him in his office her palms were sweating and her heart was racing. She should have called first, should have let him know she was coming. Deep down, she was thinking that she should have made sure he was alone first, that Valerie wasn’t here with him, but it was all too late, she was there and she was knocking on the door. When no one answered, she used the key he had given her to let herself in. There was a chance he was still sleeping or maybe out running, so she figured she would just wait. When she heard the shower running she realized he was home, but couldn’t hear her at the door.
With her key in hand, she walked back to his bedroom trying to make as much noise as she could so she wouldn’t startle him like he had done to her once in the very bathroom she was about to walk into. She smiled at the memory of him pulling back the shower curtain, her screaming and slipping on the wet surface of the bath tub, arms flailing and him catching her wet body in his muscular arms. For the first time in weeks she was excited to see Gabriel, to maybe hold him in her arms, to get back what they once had.
With the smile still plastered on her face, she walked into the master suite intending to head straight into the bathroom when she was stopped dead in her tracks by the naked woman sitting on her boyfriend’s unmade bed. Bile rose into her throat as her legs buckled. Grabbing onto the doorframe she barely kept herself from falling to her knees. She tried to will herself to turn around and leave, but her nails were digging into the wood frame and she wasn’t sure she could walk if she tried. Instead, she stared at Valerie, knowing that she would never forget the scene in front of her as long as she lived.
The gorgeous raven haired woman was sitting up against the pillows on the side of the bed that Savannah had always thought of as hers. In fact, sitting on the table next to Valerie was the book that Savannah had been reading the last time she stayed overnight. She had grabbed it out of the collection that Gabriel swore was Jonathan’s, but that he seemed to know so well. She started to read it one night while he was watching TV, but had been interrupted by Gabriel initiating a night of passion that even now made Savannah blush. The book was still laid flat, opened to the page she’d been reading before everything started weeks before.
Valerie didn’t bother to cover up; modesty was obviously not her thing. She paid enough money for her body that she always needed to flaunt it and now she seemed to want to rub her nudity in Savannah’s face. It wasn’t enough that she had stolen her man, but now the bitch was tainting every memory that Savannah had in that bed, in that house. Now all she could picture was Valerie in her place; Valerie having sex with Gabriel, Valerie down on her knees. Spots danced in front of Savannah’s eyes, her breath catching in her throat as she fought back tears and the little bit of breakfast that she had eaten before driving over to Gabriel’s house.
“Oh Savannah, it’s so nice to see you, but I’m afraid you just missed Gabe. We had a late night and an early morning, so he really needed to get in the shower. I assume you’re here to get your stuff?” Valerie purred as she smoothed her mussed up hair over her right shoulder, the long tresses barely covering one of her fake breasts.
Savannah opened her mouth, but words wouldn’t come. Her tongue felt thick, her throat dry. She couldn’t believe this was happening, but then again she had predicted it would eventually. It was only a matter of time before he fell back in bed with Valerie, before they fell back into old habits. Her stomach lurched; she knew she was going to be sick, but she refused to do it in front of Valerie. Finding strength she didn’t think she had, she turned and ran out of the room. She dropped the key on the table by the front door before she made her way outside. She wouldn’t need the key anymore. There would be no reason for her to step foot in that house again.
Slamming the heavy wood door behind her, she stopped on Gabriel’s front step. Turning to the left, she threw up in the bushes next to the house until she had nothing left to purge. As soon as she was done, she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand before carefully walking to her car. She hoped she could make it home before she completely broke down. Her house wasn’t too far from Gabriel’s, but she knew that the fallout from this was going to be bad. The worst had happened; her heart was more than broken. She felt like a piece of her had
died and now she had to go home and deal with it. She would finally know how Gabriel had felt when he was dealing with his grief and she knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Chapter 10
A slamming door shook Gabriel from his thoughts right as the water turned cold. Once again he had been thinking about Savannah and how much he missed her. He thought about her almost all day every day since she’d stormed out of his office. He missed her more than he ever thought possible and all he wanted was to see her again, but she hadn’t responded to his texts or phone calls since that day. The slamming door gave him hope that she had finally come to her senses. Besides himself, she was the only one with a key to the house and he had been alone in the house when he’d gotten in the shower, although, if Valerie had her way, she would have been there with him. She tried her hardest to get him to bring her home with him the night before no matter how many times he told her he wasn’t interested.
Valerie had been trying harder and harder to make him forget about Savannah since the fight. Their time together had gone from mourning their mutual loss to her constantly coming on to him. More than once he told her how much he loved Savannah and wanted to make things work with her. When she wouldn’t get the hint, he told her that he couldn’t see her anymore. That didn’t stop her from coming to Arrow knowing that he wouldn’t kick her out unless she provoked him. She knew he wouldn’t cause a scene. So he let her sit there and spend her money while he tried to ignore her.
Most of the time she let it go, but the night before she had been relentless even stooping so low as to follow him outside when he left to go home. She tried to get into his truck, but he locked the door before she could open it. When that didn’t work, she showed up at his house and wouldn’t leave until he threatened to call the cops. She had officially lost her mind. Now he knew exactly what Savannah had been talking about. He hated that she’d been right and he hadn’t listened to her.
Shaking his head, he turned off the cold water and pulled back the shower curtain so he could grab a towel. Part of him hoped that Savannah would walk in on him while he was drying off. It would break the ice and maybe he could convince her to have make-up sex before they actually made up. When he was finished drying off he wrapped the towel around his waist disappointed that she hadn’t shown up.
“Sav, is that you?” he called out as he walked from the bathroom into his bedroom.
“Hey babe,” a familiar voice said from his bed.
“Valerie. What are you doing here? How the hell did you get in?”
Gabriel turned to find his ex laying back on his bed, propped up on her elbows, her long legs kicking out from the side. The tight red tank top she wore barely contained her breasts and her black miniskirt hardly covered the part of her that he had once loved the most. He didn’t have to look hard to know that she wasn’t wearing anything under either tiny scrap of clothing.
“I came to apologize about last night Gabriel. I’d had too much to drink and came on too strong. I’m sorry.”
“That doesn’t answer my other question. How did you get into my house?”
Valerie sat up and held out her left hand. Sitting in it was a key that he instantly recognized thanks to the tiny heart he had drawn onto it with a red Sharpie. She had Savannah’s key and it made him want to throw up. How had she gotten it? Where was Savannah? His heart sank when he realized what likely happened.
“I was about to knock on the door when she showed up. She handed me the key, told me to give it to you and then walked off.”
And that was exactly what he was afraid of. Had she come to give him back his key and break up with him or had she seen Valerie and made the decision in the moment? Had Valerie once again ruined his life while he just stood by and let it happen? He was such an idiot. Maybe he didn’t deserve Savannah. He should have fought for her after she walked out of his office. The best thing would have been to go after her and tell her that he loved her that she meant more to him than anything else in the world, but he was pissed and hurt and didn’t understand where she was coming from until the next morning. Now he had to go after her and hope that it wasn’t too late. He quickly threw on an old pair of jeans and a faded t-shirt that he pulled from his dresser not bothering to keep himself hidden from Valerie’s over eager eyes. All that mattered was getting to Savannah.
“I wouldn’t bother sweetie. As she was walking away, she told me that I could have you,” Valerie said her tone happy and light even though he felt like his heart was being ripped out. “I think she’s done with you. Maybe now you can give me a second chance. I promise things will be better this time. I’ll be better.”
Gabriel wasn’t sure what to say. His heart was breaking yet again. It seemed he had lost yet another person he loved and he wasn’t sure he could take anymore. It would be easy to fall back into Valerie. There was no way he could ever love her again, so there was no way she could hurt him. She could help him turn off the hurt. It was tempting and he honestly thought about it longer than he wanted to admit, but he knew he couldn’t go through with it, not two minutes after hearing his girlfriend was breaking up with him. He wasn’t that guy. Plus, he wanted to talk to Savannah. Hear the words come straight from her mouth. She had once told him that he needed to have the decency to tell her what he wanted and now he was going to demand the same thing from her, but first he had to head to the restaurant. There were things he needed to get out of the way and something he wanted to grab before he went to talk to her.
“Val…”
“Look, there’s no need to make any decisions now. Just think about it. In the meantime, why don’t we head to Arrow and drink? You look like you could use a few and I would love to be there for you as a friend,” Valerie said and then stood up being surprisingly careful not to flash more skin than was already showing.
Her reaction surprised him and now he wondered if he hadn’t been wrong about her. She had come on strong, but Valerie had always been one to go after whatever she wanted. The old Val would’ve thrown a fit when denied what she wanted or she would have continued to come on too strong. Her backing off now was new, different, definitely more mature. Maybe she had changed, but even if she had, he was still sure he’d never be able to fall in love with her again. Not after what she did to him. But relationships weren’t always based on love; his parent’s marriage was a prime example of that.
Without a word, he walked out of his bedroom and toward the front door. He needed to get out of the house and Valerie’s plan to drink once they got to Arrow sounded like the best idea he’d ever heard. Grabbing the keys off the hook next to the door, he opened it and gestured for Valerie to walk out first. She really was completely underdressed for public consumption, but he didn’t care. They were going to sit in his office and drink. By the time either of them was ready to leave, she’d be perfectly dressed for a night out at a club. He followed her out before closing the door and locking it. While turning the key, he took a deep breath, hoping the crisp morning air would help clear his head a little, but instead of the clean scent of Seattle he was assaulted by the distinct smell of vomit. Searching for the source of the smell, he finally found someone’s stomach contents in the bushes next to his porch.
“What the fuck?”
He couldn’t believe that someone, some person had thrown up in his bushes. There was no way that an animal had done that. His first thought was Valerie. She had been loaded the night before, maybe she was hung over and feeling shitty that morning. Or maybe it had been Savannah, but he couldn’t figure out why she would have gotten sick? Either way, he had to clean it up, pissed that whoever did it, hadn’t done that for him. Just one more thing to screw up his day, he definitely needed to drink a few to even things out.
After a quick hose down of the front of his house, he jumped in his truck and drove the mile from his house to Arrow. Valerie followed behind him in her cherry red convertible BMW. The top was down and he could see her black hair whipping around her head. Did he really want to spend mo
re time with her? Maybe instead of wallowing he should get his shit together, go after Savannah and make her talk to him, but…nope, wallowing was exactly what he wanted to do. What he needed to do. He didn’t care if that made him weak, his life was falling apart and he needed some time to deal with it the best way he knew how.
As soon as he reached Arrow, he checked in with the staff, and then told them not to bother him while he was in his office. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the overstock in the store room next to his office and a couple of shot glasses from the storage room across the hall. Before he could pop open the bottle of booze he noticed the frames on his desk. He had put them back up after Savannah stormed out of his office needing a reminder of what he was losing. Savannah and his brother stared back at him. He could almost feel their disappointment in him and in his decisions as he lowered each frame again. He then opened the bottle of whiskey and poured himself and Valerie a shot.
The liquid burned its way down his throat and into his stomach before she even had a chance to sit down in the ugly chair that she’d bought for his office. While she took the first shot he served her, he poured another for himself. The second shot was gone nearly as fast as the first. He definitely wasn’t going to take this wallowing thing lightly. His heart hurt more than it had ever hurt before and he didn’t know what to do about it. So instead of figuring that out he was going to drink until he either couldn’t feel any more or until the answers magically came to him. Honestly he didn’t care which thing happened first, all he knew was that he didn’t want to hurt anymore.
“Gabe…”
“No talking Valerie. I’m not in the mood for talking or bullshit or anything other than drinking. If you want to stay in here with me, then just shut up.”
Without a word, Valerie nodded and held out her shot glass. He filled her glass and then his before throwing back another shot. The burn didn’t last very long, but while it did it that was all he could feel which had been exactly what he was looking for. In silence, they continued to drink one mind numbing, feeling numbing shot after another. Gabriel had no idea how long they were at it; all he knew was that he wasn’t as buzzed as he should have been given the amount of alcohol in his system. The bottle was nearly empty and he hadn’t eaten anything since the night before. He should have been wasted with a foot near black out drunk, but he was barely feeling the fuzziness he usually felt when he’d had that much to drink.