by Elle Harte
“Oh wow,” she said. “I feel like such an idiot! Listen, I’ve been looking for a roommate for so long! When I come let’s move you to my place.”
“Chloe, I don’t want to do this, you know?”
“What? Take a friend’s help?”
“Well, yes.”
“You do realize that’s the most ridiculous statement anyone in the entire world has ever come up with?”
“I’m starting to see that.”
“So, shut up and I will see you soon. Make sure you dress up because we’ll be going out on the prowl. It’s Friday! We’ll make sure Nick isn’t even a problem after tonight.”
“Just come!” I said, unable to conceal my cheerfulness. “I’ll text you the address.”
Even as I was talking to her I kept getting texts and calls from Nick. He barely had time for me in months. But now apparently, he was so into me that he had done nothing but texted and begged all day. Of course, this made me despise him even more than I did the night before. And when I looked around at the motel room I realized sitting in here moping wasn’t going to be a good start of a new life. So, I decided to take a walk. I looked in the mirror and brushed my unruly red hair. This was a new life and a chance to correct whatever went wrong before. A chance not to repeat the previous mistakes.
I had barely stepped out of the room when a man, dressed in what appeared to be a driver’s uniform, got out of the black limousine parked right outside. It was when he spoke in my general direction that I realized he was standing there waiting for me. On closer inspection, it was Stanton.
“Miss Worthington?”
“Yes?” I said, trying not to sound too surprised.
“My employer sends his regards. The car is for you. Mr. Cooper would be delighted if you could see him for brunch.”
“Who?” I asked, acting like I’d forgotten his name would be a good way to discourage both Stanton and his employer.
Stanton helped brush up my memory. “Chase Cooper?”
“Cooper?” I said, as though I was starting to remember.
“Perhaps you would like to talk to him?” Stanton said patiently. I realized this was just a job the poor guy did and I didn’t want to be rude to him, but I also didn’t want Chase getting the wrong idea. I accepted the phone he gave me and Chase was on the other end. “You know Stanton has things to do,” Chase said. “If you don’t pick up my calls, then I have no choice but to send him over.”
“Chase?”
“Blayne?”
“Yes—”
“It’s good to hear your voice,” he sounded genuinely happy. “Are you joining me for brunch, then?”
“Chase,” I said. “I don’t like being stalked.”
“I’m not stalking you.”
“Really?”
“I was worried.”
“Well, I appreciate your concern and now that you have learned that I’m fine, perhaps we can get back to our lives?”
I said this and handed the phone back to Stanton.
“There’s just one more thing,” Stanton said, and I almost rolled my eyes at him. But he was holding out his palm. There was something in it.
A fortune cookie.
“Thank you, Stanton,” I said. “You can go back now. Enjoy your day.”
I had no idea who this guy was but in the light of day that smile looked like a mirage. I might have been vulnerable that night, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stay weak. I couldn’t believe he thought this was cute? The whole stalker romantic-hero routine? The way he was talking to me on the phone just now, he was certain I was going to say yes. Was he that presumptuous?
But I wasn’t about to let him ruin my walk into a brand-new existence.
I broke apart the fortune cookie when I was away from Stanton.
Every day is the first day of the rest of your life.
Chase
She sounded angry. Of course, she sounded angry I was being an idiot! What was I thinking? I should have been careful but when it comes to Blayne sometimes I tend to forget my manners, or my sense of reasoning. But that needs to change. People look up to me, I’m Chase-fucking-Cooper, not some doormat stalker-boyfriend wannabe. I need to rethink this. But for now, my mother, dressed in a Valentino that she must have bought for the brunch with her friends, was standing next to the breakfast bar and despite the wine glass in her hand with some of my best Cabernet, she didn’t look happy. I could tell there was something she wanted to get off her chest and I was afraid I knew what it might be.
“Why is she here?” she asked, bluntly.
“Kira? She needs a break so she’s staying here. What’s the big deal?”
“Why isn’t she staying with Ben? Let him take care of her. You think you can keep an eye on that girl? You’re not even around most of the time. Are you going to leave your work and babysit her from now on?”
“Mom—”
The door opened and Kira barged in, wearing her running clothes and I could hear the distant beats coming from her iPod. The minute she saw us she stopped and took out the earphones. “Mrs. Cooper,” she said. She looked like she didn’t know what she could possibly say after that. It seemed impossible that these two used to be friends not that long ago. I hated when they dragged me into their petty affairs.
“She’s just going to be here for a few weeks,” I said.
Mom glared at me. “Is she also going to be whoring with other men behind your back?”
I could tell Kira was losing her shit. “Mom!”
Kira looked like she had a few comebacks but she didn’t say them. “I’m going to take a bath,” she said to me instead and disappeared to her room.
“Mom,” I said the minute Kira was out of earshot. “Why’re you making this difficult? What happened wasn’t her fault. We’ve been through this before.”
“I just don’t trust that girl,” Mom said, and stood.
“And we all know why Mom,” I said, a bit angrily this time. I couldn’t stand people talking bad about my friends, even if it was my mother. “And it’s got nothing at all to do with what happened a year ago.”
Of course, Mom knew what I was talking about but as always, she tried to ignore it. “Just be careful around her,” she said. “You never know what that prostitute might be up to.”
“Mom!”
“Don’t take that tone with me, Chase. I’m your mother. It’s my job to look after you.”
She wasn’t one to listen to reason. It was best to just let her go and see her friends. Perhaps they would be better company for her. At this point, I was just dying to get rid of her because I didn’t want Kira and her arguing. Kira showed restraint just now where a year ago she would have stood and fought and given her hypertension. Now, she just avoided the situation by distracting herself with a shower. That was progress. If only I could get my mother to show some as well.
A few minutes after she left, Kira walked down the stairs in a towel. She sat at the breakfast bar. “I need to eat,” she said. “Don’t you have a maid or someone who cooks?”
“She’s got some errands to run,” I explained. “She should be back soon.”
“Good.”
“But,” I said, picking up my car keys from the counter. “How about I take you out for brunch?”
Kira leaped off the bar. “You’ll drive? What about Stanton?”
“I gave him the weekend off.”
“Are we going in the Audi or the convertible?”
“The convertible of course.”
“Nice!” she said, excitedly. “Can I drive?”
“Kira—”
“I know. I’m not supposed to drive.”
“I’m sorry…”
“No,” she said, clearly hurt, but trying to hide it. “I get it. Can I at least pick the place?”
“Anywhere you want.”
“Okay then, let’s go. I’m starving!”
As I watched her go toward the front entrance, I knew there was no way to tell if she truly felt that hap
piness she was claiming to feel. Maybe it was Mom’s constant warnings that had gotten to me, or the fact that I knew Kira more than she thought she did, more than she showed anyone, that I felt suddenly afraid. What if there was something wrong? What if she had come here because there was something going on that she didn’t want to talk to me about?
I went outside anyway, hoping I wouldn’t have to find out. Hoping that my best was friend was truly happy and not just pretending to be.
Blayne
Look for flames in burning embers.
People tell you how you’re supposed to work on broken relationships, instead of throwing them away. Only, not all broken things can be fixed. Sometimes it’s better to just give up and move on before you hurt yourself in a worse way.
In a relationship, you could go years without feeling like there’s a problem and then there will be that one moment where you just know everything is lost forever. For me, that moment came when I saw Nick with that woman and I just couldn’t keep it together. I knew I couldn’t let him do this to me. There was something about Nick that always made me feel like I was the bad one in this story. Even though he was always the one cheating and lying, he somehow managed to make me feel like I deserved his rotten behavior.
And it’s not just me. Nick is the kind of guy who manipulated you so you would forget why you were mad at him and instead think about what you were doing wrong. He does this with just about everyone. He’s never even been supportive of anything I did, because Nick tends to think that unless something makes you money it’s not worth doing at all. He was constantly reminding me that I was living in fantasy, that I was one of those dreamer types who like to think they’re special when they’re not. Always telling me how I wasn’t pragmatic, and how my unrealistic standards and desires were simply not something that one can survive with in this world.
Chloe, being the good listener that she is didn’t say a word while I let it all out that morning in her apartment. She rents an apartment in Williamsburg, in one of the less expensive locations and that allows her to remain part of the hipster landscape while still retaining her never-fit-in charm. It also allowed her to go to all the swanky clubs with all the hot guys and bring them to her eclectic apartment with the Indian door cabinets and vintage accents in the living room. She even had an alternative wood palette bed.
She stayed supportive and waited until I had related the entire account to her. Nick had always been a kind of riddle to me. Up until then I kept giving him second chances even though Chloe always advised me against it. As I was unloading about this to Chloe, it was like Nick’s spell broke. I could see things I wasn’t even seeing before. I know now that I was being blinded by the idea of a fairy-tale ending to our romance, a relationship that was never passionate to begin with.
“Listen,” Chloe said when I was done talking. “I don’t expect you to start dancing around right away, that would be wrong. Take all the time you need, I’m right here. But if he starts talking to you again or tries to see you and you go back to him, remember I’m still here for you whatever you decide, but I can’t support that decision. I’m not going to stop you but you’re going to hurt yourself.”
I don’t think Chloe understood how much I wanted to get away from Nick. She didn’t know how much I really hated him now, and how being with him was the last thing I would ever want. It was hard to believe but something broke inside me the minute I saw him naked in bed, in our bed with her, sharing that kind of intimacy. Just thinking about it made me want to cry again so I started to look for a distraction. That’s when it occurred to me that I hadn’t told her about the Chase Cooper incident.
“Chloe,” I said. “I might have had a one-night stand.”
Chloe stared at me like I’d sprouted a million horns on my head. “Wait… what?”
I thought about how I was going to tell her and how much. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“The hell you don’t!” she screamed. “Give me details, woman! Or I will make your life a living hell.”
Shoot. “Well, I ran into this guy,” I said. “And I don’t know, I guess we hit it off. He was helpful and good to me. I’m not proud of it but it happened Chloe. And I don’t ever want to talk to him again but he keeps trying to talk to me in really strange ways!”
“Where did you meet him?”
“That day, when I was trying to figure out where to go because you weren’t answering your phone. I met this guy. I was messed up with what happened with Nick, and it was late and cold outside so I took up on his offer to sit inside the bistro and get coffee. He was all smiles and big blue eyes and everything. He saw me crying and I guess he felt sorry for me or something. So anyway, we’re there, having food and talking and when I’m leaving he asks me if he can drive me someplace. Of course, I said no but he kept trying to convince me. Anyway, so then I ran into Jason, and you know the rest.”
“What happened? How’d you guys finally get it on?”
“We went to his hotel suite, he has one at the Ritz Carlton, I don’t know. Anyway, there was something going on between us, from the beginning. We were both kind of drunk and it just happened. The next morning, I ran.”
“Why?”
“Because, I don’t want that. It’s not right falling for someone right after Nick… it’s not right.”
“But you like him?”
“Yes.”
“And he likes you?”
“I guess.”
“Then why did you run?”
“I don’t know okay!”
“Do you know his name?”
It took me a while to get that name on my tongue. “Chase… Cooper.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“What do you mean?”
“The Chase Cooper?” Chloe said. “Six-foot-two, dark hair, blue-eyes Chase Cooper who looks like he just stepped out of a Calvin Klein billboard and forgot he was in it?”
“You know him?”
“Know him? Blayne, he’s been in Forbes list forever! My company works with his sometimes and I once met him at some corporate event. Aside from being extremely loaded, he’s also a major asshole.”
“He is?” I said, unconvinced. “I thought he was gracious.”
I wondered if that whole affable personality was just a front like the one Nick had, but Chloe knowing the guy made him sound more real. It also made him sound like less of an axe-murderer which, by the way was my main concern with the whole stalker bit.
“He’s pleasant now because he wants you in his bed again,” Chloe said. “Men are always great until that happens.”
“You say men like they are an alien being.”
“Did you know some evolutionary biologists think men and women are going to become a separate species altogether?” Chloe said. ‘Something to think about, isn’t it?”
“So, what? Never the twain shall meet?”
“Something like that,” she said. “But more importantly, every guy turns into the incredible hulk when you’ve been with him long enough.”
“I get it,” I said. “I’ll be careful when it comes to Cooper. You don’t have to scare me off the whole male population.”
“You need to be careful, period.”
Chloe took a glance around the room. “God,” she said. “This is just depressing.”
I couldn’t agree more.
“Most of my stuff is still with Nick,” I said.
She turned toward me and grinned. “Can I go and bring it?” she said. “You know how much I enjoy insulting people like him!”
“You do what you have to do sweetheart,” I said. “Just get my things back.”
“No insulting until said things are in possession, I promise.”
When there was silence in the room again, Chloe didn’t allow it. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go out.”
“Can’t we please stay in just for tonight?”
“I told you hon, there will be no sitting here wallowing in despair for some stupid jerk. We have a li
fe to live!”
“Okay, tell you what. If you stay in with me tonight, I’ll agree to go anywhere you take me tomorrow. After we bring my stuff back from Nick’s place of course, because otherwise I have nothing to wear.”
“Anywhere?”
“Anywhere.”
“Sounds fair,” she said. “Tonight, we have one of those good old-fashioned pajama-parties at my house.”
Pajama Party was Chloe’s code for a slumber party with alcohol.
“Thank you,” I said, truly grateful.
She gave me a huge hug. “Just don’t forget you promised me this is only for tonight.”
We had barely changed into our PJs when the doorbell rang and Chloe answered it. I could hear her conversation with someone and then she closed the door and she had something in her hand.
A box.
Pretty pink with purple ribbon flower. “This came for you.”
I was completely perplexed. “Open it.”
Chloe opened the box excitedly and looked at the object inside. I knew what it was before she even told me. “I don’t understand… what is this?”
I looked at her and my hands were shaking.
“It’s a fortune cookie.”
Chase
Kira’s idea of his favorite breakfast turned out to be this tiny place in downtown that I had never seen before. It was a surprise to know that Kira had been anywhere there but apparently there were things about her that I was still learning. “You didn’t tell me we were supposed to come this far,” I complained as we entered the joint. Everyone’s eyes were on us. The place looked full at first glance but the waiter found us a terrific table to sit by the window. The same breakfast that she wanted to have, she was barely touching it once it arrived.
“So,” I tried to make conversation. “What’s going on?”
“Not much.”
“That’s all I get?”
“Did you bring me here so you could interrogate me? I told you I’m fine. I know no one believes it but it’s true. I’m not about to go crazy any time soon.”