by Stella Rhys
“This is far enough, Aly – just fucking talk to me already,” Emmett demanded, his footsteps finally stopping behind me. My heart was pounding as I spun around to find him standing there, arms out, looking somehow pissed off, fired up and exasperated all at once. “What is it? Huh? What are you leaving for? Just tell me that.”
I felt my throat already trembling as I tried to word my reply.
“If you really need to know, Emmett, it’s because I woke up this morning and felt like shit about myself,” I confessed harshly, my stomach clenching at the instant look of hurt on his face. “I cried in the bathroom for ten minutes because as good as I felt last night, I felt stupid this morning. I remembered the fact that I don’t trust you, Emmett. Every time I think long enough about you, I feel angry. I feel embarrassed and stupid and lonely, so even if I did want you, in what world would it make sense for me to be with you?” I demanded, my eyes stinging. “Answer me that.”
“Who’s the one you’re really pissed at? You answer me that,” Emmett sneered as he came close to me. “You think I’m the enemy, Aly, but if you just take a second to remember everything that happened twelve years ago instead of running from it and sticking to whatever story you made up in your head, you’ll know that as much as I fucked with you in high school, I’m not the one who’s really your problem. I’m not the one who ruined everything. You just want it to be me.”
My stomach lurched.
“No.” I shook my head adamantly. “That’s not true, that’s – ”
Fuck. I searched myself for a comeback but came up pathetically empty.
“You know what, I can’t talk right now, Emmett,” I muttered, feeling the heat of his glare as I rushed past him.
“No, you won’t talk about this – now or ever, because you don’t like thinking about how I’m just your scapegoat,” Emmett ground out as he followed. “You don’t like thinking about how it’s easier to blame me and let the real asshole off scot-free.”
His words hit me like a sledgehammer but I refused to react. My heart was pounding out of my chest by the time I reached the door, but like some kind of masochist, I turned around when he said my name and let him drop one last scathing remark.
“You lied to yourself all these years, Aly, and I let you because I knew you were hurting. I figured I might as well let you believe what you wanted, because I was never going to see you again,” Emmett growled furiously. “But now that you’re here, I can say it – I’m not the one who made your life miserable. It wasn’t me, and fuck it, I’m done letting you pretend that it was,” he seethed before turning around and forcing me to stare at his back as he walked away.
14
ALY
Had anyone told me even a week ago that I’d have a date with Drew Maddox but desperately not want to go, I’d have probably laughed in their face and continued my giddy Empires fangirling.
I mean for God’s sake, the man was literally my favorite player on my favorite team. The team I’d grown up watching with my family.
Yet I wasn’t remotely excited to see him.
“Evie… no,” I protested weakly as she sat on the floor next to her closet, taking out her one and only box of Louboutins. “Seriously. I can’t.”
“Except you can,” she countered, opening the box. “And you will,” she added, crawling over to manually insert my feet into each glossy, patent leather pump.
Sitting at the end of her bed, I raised my eyebrows. Damn. They felt incredible and if I didn’t feel so incredibly shitty and confused since yesterday morning, I would’ve probably wept over the glory of having Louboutins on my feet.
“I mean you have to look good, Aly. You’re going on a date with Jude Maddox.”
“Drew Maddox.”
“Whatever. If he’s the type to draw paparazzi, you need to be camera ready, and nothing says camera ready like red soles,” Evie declared just as Mike called into the bedroom from the kitchen.
“Evie! Are we out of frozen pizzas?”
“Yes!”
I could practically hear Mike’s shoulders slump.
“Dude. What am I supposed to eat for dinner then?”
Evie’s jaw dropped and turned her wide eyes to me as if to ask can you believe this shit?
“Please refrain from dude-ing me, Michael – I sent you a text that said ‘remember frozen pizzas’ when you were at the grocery store! So don’t talk to me about your dinner – okay?” Evie shouted back, heaving a massive sigh as she turned back to me again. “See?” she lowered her voice. “If you had any doubts about why you need to go out tonight, it’s because one day you might spend your Friday arguing with your fiancé about frozen pizzas. So before that happens, you better have all the fun in the world, and that starts with you looking happy that you’ve got this severely hot date.”
“I know. I just…”
Don’t know how to have fun when I keep thinking about Emmett.
I wanted to confess that much to Evie, but I also didn’t want to tell her the details about yesterday’s run-in outside the restaurant. I was still processing it myself – specifically everything Emmett said.
You lied to yourself all these years, and I let you because I knew you were hurting.
But I’m not the one who ruined everything.
You just want it to be me.
I kept telling myself it wasn’t true. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night at the motel, so I spent evening till sunrise trying to tell myself why Emmett was wrong. I mean he was the one who tortured me throughout high school. He was the one who ratted on me at the end of junior year. To everyone. He’d cost me my home, my reputation – all the friends I’d known since childhood.
These were the arguments that had been working for more than a decade, but after being called out by Emmett, they weren’t fully convincing me anymore.
Somehow, they were falling flat.
“Aly? You said you wanted this dress, right?” Evie said, waving a hand in my eye line to draw my stare back to the slinky number in her hands. I blinked at it. Then at her.
I was tempted to finally ask Evie about what she really thought ten years ago – on the first and last night we’d spoken about the junior year fight between Emmett and me. I had a feeling it was time to finally talk about it. Even if it meant facing every lie I’d convinced myself of in the past twelve years.
Every lie I’d molded my entire life for.
For the first time in forever, I felt almost brave enough to talk about it. But just as I opened my mouth, a text pinged in my phone.
“Oh, no!” Eyes wide, Evie crawled over to where it sat charging and looked at me. “Shit, Drew says he’s outside!” she said, tossing me the dress. “Hurry, hurry! Put that on!”
I caught the dress as a frantic Evie rushed up to help me squeeze into it.
And just like that, the moment was gone.
15
ALY
Evie’s dress was tight, short and a blush pink color that bordered on nude. It was a perfect match with the Louboutins on my feet, which Drew raised his eyebrows at as he helped me out of the car.
“Yeah, I don’t know how you girls walk in those, but I’m not complaining,” he chuckled, his green eyes sweeping up my legs before he put a hand on my back and ushered me into the restaurant.
The second we walked through the doors, eyes were on us because, well, Drew. But since we had so much immediate attention, I did my best to look less nervous and more excited. I mean I’d technically been wanting to come here for awhile. The name of the restaurant was Cantina. They were known for their lobster tacos and being the town’s toughest reservation – mostly because celebrities like Drew Maddox liked to spend their Friday nights there.
“I take it you come here a lot?” I said, making crappy conversation as Drew and I bypassed the massive wait at the door. As we followed the hostess to our table, I could feel the eyes of the crowd following us – or maybe just Drew.
“Yeah, we’ve been coming here pretty much twice
a week,” he said as I let myself take him in for the first time tonight.
He looked like a Viking with his long-ish dark blond hair and massive build. He was about the same height as Emmett, but his muscle wasn’t nearly as lean. It bulged against the light grey shirt he was wearing and made me wonder if he was even comfortable under there.
I mean he definitely could’ve gone a half-size up on the shirt, I thought before scrunching up my face at myself. Because that’s what you should be doing right now – criticizing the way Drew Maddox dresses. I shook my head, trying to physically shake away my negative thoughts. Seriously, why are you being so weird? I asked myself though in the back of my head, I knew the answer.
I was nitpicking Drew to explain to myself why I wasn’t completely thrilled to be here.
I wasn’t even a little excited. I felt restless and antsy – like I had unfinished business hanging in the air. All I wanted was to go home, but I didn’t even know what that meant because I certainly didn’t think of the motel when I thought of home, and I wasn’t thinking of Evie’s place either.
Which meant I was probably thinking of Emmett’s.
Really? I asked myself. For God’s sake, I had been the one to push him away. I had been the one convinced that I couldn’t be around him because he made me feel like shit. But for the past twenty-four hours, I’d been questioning my reality as I knew it.
Because with Emmett’s harsh words yesterday, I felt the dam starting to break.
I’d built it ages ago to keep away the truth, but now it was starting to seep through me, forcing me to realize that maybe I had in fact altered the story for my own sake.
That maybe Emmett wasn’t the bad guy.
And I was just an idiot in denial.
Fuck, I cursed, completely overwhelmed and steeped in my own paranoia till Drew laughed to break me out of my haze.
“Well, shit. What do you know,” he said. I blinked up at him.
“Huh?”
“Should’ve figured. The whole crew’s here,” he said, nodding over at the group of beautiful people at the bar.
My pulse picked up the second I looked over at the wall of well-dressed guys and willowy girls in mini-skirts and giant heels. There had to be almost a dozen people there, laughing, drinking and having a glamorously fabulous time.
But all I saw was that V-shaped back I knew too well.
Emmett’s.
Holy shit.
He was here but crazier than that was the fact that I was – wait was I? My eyes fluttered when I realized I was relieved. Practically happy to see him.
“Shall we go say hi?” Drew asked.
“Okay,” I blurted, a bit dazed as I let my heeled feet float over to the bar.
And just like that, I was walking voluntarily toward Emmett, my heart pounding as I waited for him to notice me. But instead, a figure in a red dress burst out from the group to greet us first, and my heart sank when I realized who it was.
Britt Heatherton.
“Drewsie-poo!” Britt gasped, arms outstretched.
“Christ, that nickname sucks,” Drew said, letting her lean in for a kiss as Emmett turned around in his chair.
My heart pounded the moment those blue eyes landed on me, because I wasn’t used to this look on him. His gaze devoured me on contact. It flickered over the sweetheart neckline of my dress before landing on my single layer of lipstick. But that lasted all of a second before he turned away, his face devoid of even a twitch of expression till Drew greeted him.
“Hey, asshole,” Drew laughed, holding out a hand for that handshake-hug thing that guys just naturally did. It prompted an unreadable look from Emmett, though his lips did slightly curve into some kind of smirk as he eyed Drew.
“What’s up,” Emmett said just as Britt stopped sizing me up and suddenly gasped.
“Whoa. Wait. Seafood Girl?” She clasped a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t even realize it was you! Omigod! Who would’ve guessed that you could clean up so well?”
Drew snorted as I stared at her.
“Thanks. I’m sure.”
“Oh, it’s a compliment! Duh,” Britt giggled, her bright eyes on me as she wrapped her lithe arms around Emmett’s neck. “So funny that you’re here because E and I were just saying how we’re the only two who haven’t eaten yet. So if you’ve got extra room at your table…” She trailed off to give two exaggerated winks while literally narrating herself. “Wink, wink. Hint, hint. What do you say, Drewy?”
“I’m sure that’s fine.”
My eyebrows went up at the reply, and it took a second for me to realize that it hadn’t come from Drew but from me. I blushed as all three heads turned to me.
“Yeah?” Drew said, looking surprised but delighted. I caught the smirk he shot Emmett before saying, “Shit, Ellie’s right. This could be fun.”
I would’ve reacted to the fact that he got my name wrong, but I was too distracted by Emmett’s stare and Britt’s ridiculously high-pitched squeal.
“Yay, yay! Double date! Double date!” she chanted, hugging Emmett’s arm between her boobs before leaning over to whisper something to him. I should’ve looked away, but all I did was return the empty stare Emmett pinned on me as Britt giggled with her lips so close to his ear that I was convinced she might lick it. Heat rushed to my cheeks because when she finished whatever she was saying, I spotted the slightest hint of a smile curve Emmett’s lips.
It was barely there, but my heart pounded and my brain went into overdrive.
They had sex before they came here.
Or they’re planning on having sex when they leave.
Maybe they already had sex in the bathroom.
I was so on edge so instantly that I jumped when Drew touched my back.
“Shall we? The hostess is waiting,” he said, draping a heavy arm over my shoulders and bringing me over to our corner booth for four.
My body was rigid as we walked ahead of Emmett and Britt, and I did my best to eavesdrop on whatever he was muttering to her, but all I heard was her giggling response.
“Why, dirty boy? So you can stare at my ass?”
Ugh.
What the hell did I just get myself into?
16
ALY
Karma.
The word played on repeat in my head because I was convinced this was it. I’d said yes to Drew’s dinner invitation a few days ago to get Emmett out of my head. I wanted so desperately to have anything to distract myself from him.
But now, despite Drew Maddox sitting next to me in a tight booth, all I could do was stare at Emmett.
Angry Emmett.
He hadn’t looked at me once, and he hadn’t said a word to anyone since sitting down. That said he did lean back whenever Britt wanted to whisper in his ear, and he didn’t remove her hand whenever she let it rest in his lap.
This is karma, Aly. This is what you get, I decided, bouncing my knee restlessly under the table as I watched Britt once again burst out laughing at something and slap her hand onto Emmett’s thigh.
But this time, she started moving it in a circle, massaging him.
Her hand stayed there even as she launched into some story about her vacation last year to Mexico, and I couldn’t help my racing pulse as I stared at it, watching it inch closer and closer to Emmett’s dick as she rambled on. My cheeks burned at the thought of her touching him there.
But they burned even harder when I looked up to find Emmett’s eyes on me.
My neck tightened, and I held my breath in my throat as for the next few seconds, we stared at one another, both of us well aware of the fact that Britt’s hand was closing in on his cock. For a moment, I was convinced Emmett was punishing me, watching me just to revel in my reaction when she finally palmed it and started stroking under the table.
Really, Emmett? I groaned inwardly.
But before she could reach it, Emmett sat up straight, removing Britt’s hand from his lap and prompting me to let go of the breath I didn’t even know I w
as holding.
“Whoa. You alright?” Drew turned to me, raising his eyebrows as he looked down my body. “Christ. You’re jiggling.”
My eyes went wide as I looked down at my heaving chest in my too-tight dress. Drew smirked.
“I was talking about your knee, but yeah. That too.”
“Oh.” I blushed hard, realizing what a mess I was acting like. “Sorry. About the fidgeting,” I blurted, forcing myself to stop jiggling my leg under the table. But two seconds later, I started again, making Drew both groan and laugh as he clamped his massive hand down on my knee.
“You gotta stop,” he said, his long fingers squeezing me so tight I felt a shiver run up my spine.
But it wasn’t so much a result of his touch as it was my peripherals detecting Emmett’s shift across the table.
Sitting slack before, he was suddenly tense. Rigid. I could see his shoulders broadening with every breath he drew in, and I didn’t have to look over to know that his eyes were locked intently on me. Not only could I feel the heat of his stare, I could sense Britt’s growing impatience for the fact that she was losing her audience.
“Excuse me, I do believe I was talking,” she said in singsong to play off what I could only guess was genuine irritation.
At this point, she was so adamant about having Emmett pay full attention that she cupped his jaw in her hand and manually forced him to face her.
“Babe. You’re gonna wanna hear this part,” she grinned flirtatiously. “It’s the part where I got a little too drunk after the mezcal tour and skinny dipped in the pool – in front of everyone,” she giggled, throwing in another one of her winks.
As she went on about that, Drew leaned in close.
“Hey. So I need to confess something,” he murmured, his breath tickling my ear as my breath hitched in my throat. He’d been squeezing the hell out of my bare knee a minute ago, so I was briefly afraid that he’d tell me he wanted to go home now and touch the rest of my body.