“What?” Chace was going to drop something if he didn’t set everything down soon. “Hold on.” He managed to get the door to his apartment unlocked and open without dropping anything. He then walked into the apartment. Amy followed him.
“She really misses you.”
He set everything on the dining room table and then turned to face Amy. “What?”
“It’s really immature, the way you’re ignoring her calls. What if she had something important to tell you?” Amy said, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping a foot against the floor.
“She can leave me a voicemail. Which she’s been doing. I check my messages.”
“Still, she really wants to talk to you. Why won’t you just pick up the phone? Just once?”
“She left me. Not the other way around. And weren’t you the one who told me I was better off? You were right. So why are you trying to get me to talk to her?”
“What if she has something really important to tell you?” She avoided his eyes as she spoke.
“Are you trying to tell me something right now?”
Amy looked around the apartment. She ran her hand over the empty bar counter. “Where’s all your stuff?”
“In my car.” He flipped through his mail. “I’m getting out of this place. You know I was only ever here for Kelly, so I don’t see how you can be surprised.”
“But you just—and your lease—when are you leaving?”
“Later today,” he said. He crossed the room and sat down on the edge of the sofa. “Ethan is coming to get my furniture for his place when he gets back into town. My new roommate’s place is fully furnished. January’s rent is paid here, and I’m breaking the lease after that unless Kelly wants the place. If she does, tell her to call the landlord. I told him she might be calling.”
“Okay, not commenting on how messed up that is that you would leave town without even saying anything to her,” she said.
He shrugged.
“If I hadn’t caught you today, how were you planning on letting Kelly know that?”
Chace snorted. It wasn’t like he had to tell her anything. “I was going to send her an email after I got to D.C.”
“Why not before?”
“To prevent a scene like this with Kelly instead of you.” He sighed. “Or maybe even both of you. But looks like I didn’t really do that anyway.”
“You really want to talk to her. Trust me.”
“I don’t want anything to do with her, Amy.”
“You’re making a huge mistake right now. You don’t even know how—disastrously huge.”
“Are you kidding me? She’s the one who left me for that old lawyer dude. Why should I talk to her if I have nothing to say to her? Why shouldn’t I cut her out of my life after what she did to me?”
Amy folded her hands into the sleeves of her sweater and stared up at him. “Don’t do this. Believe me, you really don’t want to.”
“Why don’t you come out and tell me what you’re trying so hard not to tell me?”
Amy sighed. “It should come from her. Please just call her. Or answer when she calls you.”
“Amy, you’re cool, and I have nothing against you. Your husband’s a great guy and I’m gonna miss playing ball with him. Tell him I said bye. But I’m done with Kelly’s games. My time with all of that ended on Christmas Eve.”
Amy started to say something else and then she just smiled.
Chace ran a hand through his hair, temporarily lifting it from his forehead. “What?”
“She’s a real idiot. I love her, but she is. If I weren’t married…I’d show her what you do when you find a good looking man with a good heart. How could you ask for more?”
Chace grinned. “Thanks, Amy.”
She walked over and hugged him. “Goodbye, Chace. And good luck. You’ll do a lot better with your photography up there, I’m sure.”
Chace laughed off her compliment. “I’ll see you around.”
“That’s right. You don’t like to say goodbye. Well, later, bud.”
He walked her to the door and then slumped against it after closing it behind her.
* * *
When Whitney arrived that afternoon, Chace leaned against his white SUV in the parking lot, hands shoved into his pockets, waiting for her. He had the engine running, warming it up.
“Aren’t you cold?” was her greeting to him, her eyebrows raised.
“A little. More than that, I’m just excited to go. Get out of this place,” Chace said. He breathed in the scent of her perfume, which he could smell over the exhaust fumes from their vehicles.
“Yeah,” Whitney said with a sigh. That sigh contained more than just a little exasperation. Worry was written all across her pretty face.
“Hey. What’s wrong?” He rubbed her shoulder briefly. He made himself move his hand even though he wanted to let it linger there longer than what would probably be appropriate.
She shook her head. “Just family stuff. My aunt’s stressing my mom out.”
“I’m sorry. Wanna talk about it?”
She bounced up and down and hugged her arms to her chest. “Man, it’s freezing out here.”
“Yeah.” He knew what would warm her up.
“We should get going. We’re going out tonight, remember? Let’s get you there and unpacked.”
He couldn’t argue with that, although he would have liked to replace “unpacked” with “undressed.” He pushed that thought aside, though. He didn’t want Whitney to think he was some rebounding creep only out for one thing. There were already signs that was what she thought. And why wouldn’t she think that? But it wasn’t true. Yeah, he wanted that one thing, but he wanted the rest of her to go with it.
“Chace?”
He slapped his driver’s side door a couple times. “What are we waiting for? Lead the way to the big city.”
Laughing, they got into their cars.
Chace followed Whitney north for over two hours out of Virginia and into D.C. She took them through the city to a part of town near the Shaw neighborhood, not far from U Street. They parked on the street. Whitney called him and told him to take the space that happened to be in front of Rob’s building since he had most of his stuff in his car. She parked around the block a bit and came back to meet him.
“Well, let’s go meet your new roomie,” Whitney said, taking his hand and heading to the building.
He squeezed her hand.
“I can’t wait for you to meet Rob. It’s eerie, but you’re actually kind of perfect for each other. It’s like you two were separated at birth.” She rang a bell and Rob buzzed them up.
Chace saw what she meant immediately. The door flew open and a Korean-American man grabbed Whitney, pulled her into the apartment, and swung her around. “Whit!” He then turned back to Chace. “Brother from another mother. What up?” Rob held out his hand and Chace shook it.
“Rob. Hey,” Chace said as Rob pulled him into a half hug, still grasping his hand.
“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Rob dragged out the word “beautiful.”
Chace grinned. That reminded him of the night of Beautiful Whitney. “You know it.” He looked around the apartment. High ceilings and hardwood floors. Spacious. The place had originally been built as a factory in the past century.
“So let’s go get your crap so Whit can go home and purdy herself up for the night. Otherwise, we’ll never get her to come out with us.” Rob bounded out of the apartment and was already halfway down the stairs before Chace and Whitney made it to the door.
“I like that guy,” Chace said.
“I thought you probably would,” Whitney said.
“I didn’t think you’d know anybody so…chill.”
She laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing. Just…he said the same thing about you.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. After all, you’re the girl who plans her planning.” Chace laughed as she pre
tended to strangle him, savoring the feel of her gloveless hands against his skin. He barely noticed that they were cold.
Chapter 12: If I’m Going to Fall in Love with Someone, Please Don’t Let It Be Him
It was good to be home, back in her condo, surrounded by all her favorite things. The sleek, black television with all the latest gadgets attached. One of her iMacs sat on her desk in the corner. The other one was in her office. She kicked off her shoes and sank her toes into her plush, custom-designed beige carpet. The carpet was a unique feature available only from the developer from whom she’d purchased her condo.
They were just things, objects. It was nice to have them, but that was all. Might as well enjoy what made the golden handcuffs golden.
She sank into her suede couch and placed her hands over her eyes, resting them for a moment. She’d spent almost every moment of her life over the past few days either with Chace or on the phone with him. It was taking its toll. She was feeling all sorts of things she couldn’t afford to feel. She hadn’t thought about work much at all in the past few days, and the fact that she hadn’t scared the crap out of her.
She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but she realized she had when Erika’s knock at the door woke her up.
Erika had come over so that they could get ready for the night together. They hadn’t seen each other in over a week. So when Whitney opened the door and Erika hopped into the apartment, there was a lot of squealing and hugging involved.
“Is that your dress?” Whitney grabbed a garment bag from Erika.
“How was your trip? Yeah, that’s it.”
Whitney slid a slinky maroon dress out of the garment bag. “Fine. Oh, this dress is gorgeous. A.J.’s really not coming?”
Erika looked down and shook her head. “He doesn’t feel like going out.”
“Erika…”
“Hey. Show me your dress. You’ve been talking about this dress for weeks. I haven’t seen it since it came back from the tailor’s.” Erika grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the bedroom.
Erika could do so much better, but she wouldn’t listen to Whitney or Rob or anybody. She said that she was in love with A.J. and no matter what anyone said, they were made for each other. If that was love, Whitney wanted none of it.
But if Chace was love, she wanted all of it.
She couldn’t let herself start thinking that way. The next thing she knew, she would be distracted from what was important in life, Chace would be over his rebound slump, and everything would be wrecked.
* * *
Whitney and Erika went to Rob’s place after they were done getting ready for their night out. Voices echoed around the vast, high-ceilinged apartment. Ulrich and Abbott stood on one side of the living room, laughing about something. Delaney was trying to get Rob to stand still so that she could straighten his bowtie.
Erika wore her maroon dress, and Whitney wore a slinky black dress that hit perfectly at her ankles. It fit as if it’d been made for every curve of her body. She couldn’t stop herself from hoping Chace liked it.
Erika walked over to Ulrich and Abbott. Whitney started to follow her, but then Chace walked into the living room. If she thought he’d looked good before, then she didn’t know what to say about him that night. Where had he found a tux so quickly?
For a moment they just stood there staring at each other. She wanted to run her hands over his broad, black clad shoulders. The crisp white at his throat contrasted sharply with the black bowtie. He looked a lot different from the way he had in his fuzzy sweaters and threadbare T-shirts. Not that he hadn’t looked good in those. Especially the T-shirts, leaving so little to the imagination, so closely molded to his pecks.
“You look amazing,” Chace said, breaking her out of her lecherous reverie.
A grin spread across her face. “Thanks. You, too. Where’d you find a tux?” She moved her shawl from her shoulders to her elbows.
“Apparently, Delaney’s brother and I are just about the same size. He doesn’t like to rent them, so he had this one lying around.” His gaze dropped from her face to the plunging neckline of her dress.
Whitney nodded, her eyes once again roaming over the fabric of the tux. Suddenly she was aware that there was no talking going on in the room. And she felt eyes all over her. She turned away from Chace and turned to her friends. They were all watching her and Chace with intent stares.
“What?” Whitney said.
They all mumbled responses and pretended they’d been looking in different directions. Whitney stepped away from Chace, very much aware of his eyes still on her back. She went over to Rob and Delaney. Apparently, Delaney had finally gotten the bowtie to do what she wanted it to do because she’d stopped readjusting it.
Rob put his arm around Whitney. “So. Did you convince our friend to come to her senses while you two were taking forever to get dressed and do whatever else it is you do that takes you so long to get ready to go anywhere?”
“You know the answer to that,” Whitney said.
“Ah. Unfortunately, I do,” he said. They laughed.
A tight smile twisted Delaney’s thin lips. She slipped a skinny arm around Rob’s waist. Delaney was jealous of Whitney for some reason. Rob had told her so. But he’d also told Delaney that friends came first and there was no way he’d stop being friends with Whitney for anyone. So Delaney tried to get over herself. Most of the time.
Delaney really had nothing to worry about, though. Whitney had known Rob long before Delaney had, and there’d been plenty of time for something to develop if it was going to. But it wasn’t going to. Rob was the best guy friend she’d ever had and the idea of him being something else was just unfathomable—whether that be not in her life at all or in it as a boyfriend.
“Yeah. Mine was great until Delaney here dragged me through two states and the district, looking for what, I couldn’t tell you,” Rob said. “I was just counting down to the end of the horror.” They all laughed except for Delaney, whose ears turned pink. Whitney would have never put her with Rob, but apparently they had something going she just couldn’t see. They’d only been together a few months, but Rob was crazy about her.
“Well, I didn’t mean to bore you,” Delaney said, looking put out.
He squeezed her shoulders. “I was kidding. You really can’t take a joke, huh?”
“Speaking of countdowns, shouldn’t we get going soon?” Abbott, who’d wandered over to them, looked down at her watch. Ulrich followed her.
“Yeah. I didn’t get all dressed up just to waste it on you people,” Ulrich said, grinning.
“Okay, people, let’s hustle,” Rob said. “Since loser Chace there doesn’t have a ticket, we have to get there early so we can be sure to get him in.” He laughed and ducked as Chace took a lazy swipe at his head. The two of them walked out of the apartment together behind Whitney and Delaney, talking about decorating the apartment. From hearing them talk, it was hard to think they’d only met a few hours ago. And that they’d only been roommates for that length of time as well.
* * *
When they arrived Rob went to the front of the line to ask to speak to the promoter. Whitney pulled her shawl tight around her. Her black heels clicked against the sidewalk as she paced back and forth for warmth. The muffled sound of the bass from the music inside the club mixed with the chatter of people waiting in line. She made sure to keep at least one person between herself and Chace at all times. She didn’t trust herself any closer to him than that.
Ulrich pulled Whitney aside. “What’s the deal with you and this Chace?”
“Nothing. Why?” Whitney shrugged and tried to laugh off his words.
“No reason. Besides the fact that he moved to D.C. today from your town, right?” Ulrich glanced over his shoulder. He lowered his voice. “And you stare a hole into his head any time you think no one’s looking.”
“No, I don’t.” Did she?
“Whitney, you’ve never been the impulsive type. It seems a little suspect to
me is all.” Ulrich’s brown eyes swept over her. “I’m just trying to look out for you.” His handsome dark face clouded with suspicion.
“Okay.” She looked at her hands, which were still wrapped in the ends of her shawl.
“Is he the reason you didn’t check in with the office while you were gone?”
“I was on vacation. That’s the reason. I don’t have to check in with Kim every minute of my life. Gibson and Grey does not own me.” Whitney suddenly felt defensive because Chace had been part of the reason. When she was with him, she just lost track of time. She lost track of—everything.
Ulrich laughed. “Oh, yes they do. They own both of us, at least until we make partner. You know Kim is looking for reasons to throw you under the bus. Don’t make it easy for her.”
Ulrich knew about Kim’s animosity toward Whitney. She was surprised that no one else had picked up on it. She said, “I guess that means that you’re checking in. Did she say anything about me?”
Ulrich shrugged and frowned—his trademark evasive move. “She grumbled a little. She’s always grumbling, though. I think she’s really antsy about this new case. Apparently it’s the kind of thing that could make her look really good to the senior partners. I think she’s going to be worse than usual on this one.”
“Worse than usual? Is that even possible?”
He grinned. “I guess we’ll find out Wednesday.”
Whitney groaned. She didn’t want to think about Wednesday.
He laughed. “It won’t be so bad. We’ll get through it together.”
“We always have.” She bumped her shoulder against his arm. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t in my class.”
“The Kim face would have probably killed you by now.”
Whitney laughed. The Kim face was the look Kim gave them whenever she was pissed. The face was usually sighted several times a day by various people in the IP, or intellectual property, group. “Probably.”
“So you’re not going to tell me anything, huh?”
“About?”
“Your new friend over there.” He nodded in Chace’s direction.
Holding Her Breath (Indigo) Page 10