It wasn’t even eight in the goddamn morning.
I stood there watching them practically skip down the sidewalk with his arm around her warding off some of the early morning chill.
What in the ever loving fuck?
I get that’s one way to nurse a heart break. Hell, was she even ever heartbroken? Did she even give a fuck that she hurt me? How in the hell could she jump into bed with another guy in a matter of hours? Was she that cold fucking hearted?
I let out a cold, hard laugh. Here I was, up all night trying to figure out how to rectify this goddamn mess and she was already curled up in bed with some other dude.
I got back into my car and drove over to Julian’s. I needed to use him and his basement. Working out at home wasn’t going to exorcize everything I was feeling. I needed a good fight and I could only get that from Julez.
Twenty minutes later I was slamming his front door shut and I had never been so thankful for the aroma of brewing coffee. It meant he was already awake.
I strode into the kitchen and saw Julian pouring a cup, clad in only his pajama pants. “I need to use your basement and I need you down there with me.”
He turned around and blowing on his coffee he arched a brow. “You need me to spar with you?”
I shook my head. “No sparing.”
His face lost all its sarcastic expression. “What’s going on?”
“How much do you know about what’s going on with me and Quinn?” I was wound so tightly I couldn’t sit down. I paced his kitchen.
He took a sip of coffee before answering, “Just what Nick’s told me. Quinn saw you with Olivia and jumped to the wrong conclusion. Isabella mentioned that she was out of commission yesterday due to a massive hangover, but that’s all I know.”
“Well, shit got ugly yesterday afternoon and she said some shit and I said some shit…”
“Come on, Chase. Quinn’s a hothead, I’m sure-”
“I saw her coming out of her apartment this morning with some guy, Julez.”
Julian’s entire body stilled. “Maybe-”
“I saw them come out together with his arms around her laughing and acting like all was right with the world.”
He nodded his head and set his cup down on the counter. “I’ll go change.”
I didn’t even acknowledge him as I headed towards one of the spare bedrooms. The spare bedroom held clothing and other shit that belonged to me and Nick in case we ever needed to crash here. I changed into a part of sweats. I headed downstairs into the basement and found Julian already in the caged ring.
The fighting ring sat smack dab in the middle of the room with a weight bench, treadmill, stair climber to the right of the ring facing an, honest to God, rock wall for climbing. The left side of the room was made up targets with which you could embed with knives and half mannequins that could be wrestled, beaten, stabbed or shot. There was a sauna big enough for three people and a spa that sat behind the stairs. The basement was so huge, everything was spaced out enough that me, Julez and Nick could all be down here and not get in each other’s way.
I opened the gate and met Julez. “Why are you padded up?”
He smirked. “I don’t want to fuck you up more than I have to.”
“Fuck you, Moretti.”
The fucker laughed. “We’re here for you, dude. Do your worst.”
As much as I wanted to bare knuckle it, Julian was right. We were business professionals damn it. We didn’t need to show up to work on Monday looking like brawling street thugs. Julian could probably get away with it because he could lock himself up in his office. I couldn’t though, because I was the one who dealt with the clients. So, I padded up as well.
I wasn’t fool enough to think I could take Julian down, but I needed to take out my frustrations, pain, anger and heartache out on something…someone, and I knew Julian could handle whatever I had to dish out. Nick and I were strong in our knuckle game and could throw a punch with the best of them, but Julian was a beast. Julian harbored violence in his blood. I’ve seen him at his worst, and I gotta say, the fact that a little slip of a thing like Isabella could control all that energy, was something else.
Julian swung and missed. “You know, Chase, not everything we look at is what we see.”
I bounced around and swung back missing everything. “What the fuck does that mean?”
He went to swing, but switched up and swept my legs causing me to land flat on my back. “It means you and Quinn keep jumping to the worst possible conclusions and causing more problems than are warranted.” He paused long enough to let me get back on my feet. “Why didn’t you just fucking walk up to them and ask them what the fuck?”
I jabbed at him and managed to get a small lick in. “She’s fucked with me enough, Julez. I didn’t need to be humiliated in front of her new fucktoy.” Julian groaned and came at me full force.
We went around and around until I was so spent I wondered if I was going to have enough strength left to drive myself home. I was able to manage, but I got out of my car and headed towards the stairs groaning like a ninety year old man.
It took two cries of my name before I realized someone was calling me. I turned around to find, Lydia, one of the condo residents, walking towards me. “Hey, Lydia.”
She didn’t smile, but instead had a look of concern on her pretty face. “Are you okay? I saw you getting out of your car and it looked…uh, painful.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I was sparring with a friend, and let’s just say, he’s better at it than I am.”
She laughed. “Oh, ok. I was worried there for a second.”
I stood there and took in her appearance. She was a pretty woman with dark blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a figure that you could tell she worked on. She was tall for a woman, about 5’9”, but considering I was 6’2”, that wasn’t a turn off, at all. Jealousy was an ugly emotion, but when you coupled it with anger…it can be downright destructive as evident by my next words. “Hey, Lydia, do you have any plans this afternoon?”
She cocked her head. “No. I was actually going to binge watch Shameless and be a lazy bum.” She shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve been pulling some extra shifts lately and I’m finally conceding defeat. I’m beat.”
I knew she was a triage nurse but not much else about her. I didn’t avoid my neighbors, but I didn’t go out of my way to embrace them either. I worked so many hours and already had the only friends I’ll ever need that I just didn’t make the effort.
I knew jealousy and anger were pushing me to make the effort now, but I didn’t care. “Want to go to a barbeque with me this afternoon at my mother’s?”
Her brows shot up. “A barbeque?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing fancy, but since you were neighborly enough to come make sure I wasn’t falling to my death, it’s the least I could do.”
She smiled a very sincere smile. “As neighbors?”
Her simple question had me questioning what the hell I was doing. I was going to use this innocent woman to eradicate my jealousy, but thank God, I came to my senses before it was too late. I wasn’t the type of man to play games and lead a girl on. “Just as friendly neighbors, I promise. I’m madly in love with a woman whose sole mission in life is to drive me to madness, so yeah, just as friends.”
She let out a sweet laugh. “I word of advice, Chase. If the woman you love can’t drive you to the brink of madness, then she’s not the one.”
I shook my head. “I misspoke. She’s not driving me to the brink of madness. She’s got me swimming in the waters of insanity, Lydia. I passed the brink a long time ago.”
She eyed me. “Okay, I’ll go, but I have to warn you, Chase. The second I feel like this wasn’t a neighborly invite and I think you’re using me to upset your girlfriend, I will walk ou-”
I held my hand up to stop her. Hearing the words come out of her mouth made me realize just what an asshole move it had been, but I couldn’t rescind the invitation. I try to limit just how much of an assh
ole I am from time to time. “Just a friendly neighborly invite, Lydia. I promise.”
She smiled and nodded her head. “What time should I be ready?”
“I’m heading over at around eleven.”
She started sauntering off backwards. “I’ll be knocking on your door at 10:15.”
I watched her until she turned around and was out of sight. I hobbled my broken ass up the stairs anticipating a long hot shower. I could have taken the elevator, but I didn’t want to look like a total pussy after Julian kicked my ass.
After finally making it into the shower, I stood under the hot spray of the water and replayed all the shit Julian said to me while we sparred. But out of all the shit he said, what stood out the most was when he informed me that this shitstorm was all my fault. Of course, I had taken exception and called him a traitorous backstabbing dick right before he knocked me on my ass and kept on.
“You can’t love an unpredictable woman and not trust her completely, Chase. Because you never know what she’s going to do, you have to trust that whatever she’s doing is okay because you trust that she loves you and isn’t going to risk that by doing something irreversible. Plus, had you told her about your parents ages ago, like Nick suggested, she would have known your stance on cheating.”
Standing in the shower, I knew whoever that guy was, he wasn’t my replacement. Quinn doesn’t love easily and she’s not the type to tell me she loves me and then sleep with someone else within hours. My insecurities and daddy issues were creating problems that weren’t there. I need to make this right.
I needed to win her back.
Quinn~
I wanted to be anywhere but here.
I didn’t want to see Chase.
I didn’t think I could face him after everything he told me yesterday. I had never felt so small, and I had never been so ashamed of my insecurities and fears, as I did when he slammed my front door shut.
I had crumbled into a heap of tears, and that is how Aud found me when she came back from picking up dinner. I couldn’t remember how long she had held me, but I was so grateful when Michael showed up and he graciously agreed to stay the night so I wasn’t alone.
They’re the reason I’m at Chase’s mother’s house for Avery’s barbeque now. They pep talked me into not giving up and suggested I talk with Chase and clear this entire mess up.
The guys were all over by the barbeque basking in the warmth of Teresa Alexander’s love and obvious affections, while us girls were sitting around the benches. The only person missing was Chase and I was beginning to wonder if he was even going to show. Hell, even Kane was here, and I had invited Audrey and Michael, so all of us really were here except for Chase.
Teresa had taken in Audrey and Michael like they had always been a part of the family and I thought it was one of the most beautiful acts of unfiltered love and acceptance I had ever seen. This woman was amazing.
I was so anxious about whether or not Chase was going to show that I tuned out most of the banter that was going on at our table until I heard Ace’s very distinct ‘what the fuck’. I looked up over at what had her attention, and my entire body froze.
Chase had finally arrived.
Only he hadn’t arrived alone.
On his arm was a beautiful, sweet looking blonde.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Isabella hissed out.
“I’m going to fucking kill that sonofabitch!” Audrey promised.
“I’m going to kill him slow and painfully,” Avery threatened.
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m going to tell Julian to break him in fucking half!” Whoa! Isabella must really be pissed to use Julian as her weapon of destruction.
I finally found my bearings. “No. Just…no.”
“What?!” they chorused.
I pulled my gaze away from Chase walking over to the guys with his date and focused on calming the homicidal tendencies threatening to ruin the barbeque. And to think I woke up this morning feeling like I needed to apologize to him. “Listen to me and listen to me well, ladies. I’m going to say this quickly so I’m going to need you guys to absorb and comply.” I looked each one in the eye so they would know I was serious. “The only thing holding me together right now in this moment is my pride. I am going to get through this barbeque with a smile on my face and I am going to pretend to be completely unaffected by this new little development and I need you girls on me with this or Chase and his date won’t buy it.”
Audrey tried to interject, “Qu-”
“No. I need you girls to all pretend like everything is okay more than I have ever needed you guys to do anything for me ever before. If you guys can’t go along with this for the sake of my pride, I will fall afuckingpart. Please,” I begged.
They all shot each other questioning glances, but eventually they all quietly nodded in agreement. “Thank you…just…thank you.”
Audrey went first as she hollered at the men, “How much longer until the food is done? I’m starving you grill masters you.”
Michael laughed back at her. “You wouldn’t be starving if you had gone to breakfast with me and Quinn this morning, sweets. That’s what you get for being a lazy bed bug this morning.”
“A real boyfriend would have brought me back a muffin or something,” she countered.
Michael just snorted. “A real girlfriend would have been so happy to see her real boyfriend after two days, she would have gotten her lazy ass up.”
And in true Quinn fashion, Quinn Junior flipped him off.
As painful as my life was right now, I couldn’t help but join the laughter. It was wonderful to watch how happy my sister was now that she had Michael in her life.
Michael walked over and Julian followed. I smiled at them both as Michael took up residence beside Aud and Julian sat down and straight up dragged Izzy onto his lap. God, those two were like a fairy tale come to life.
Julian was looking at me like he could see straight into my soul and it had me wanting to pull off this charade more than ever. “What kind of party is this?”
Ace picked up the cue. “A party where Teresa is in attendance,” she warned.
“So, you’re telling me I have to cancel the booze, hookers, cocaine and glitter?”
“You don’t have to cancel the glitter,” she compromised.
Audrey chimed in, “Depends on the glitter, Avery. I know for a fact that Q can get her hands on penis shaped glitter. I don’t think we ought to be sprinkling that on Mrs. Alexander, do you?”
The table was laughing at the image. Even Julian couldn’t contain his mirth. “Can we get some music, at least? Is music okay?”
“Music I can do,” Ace announced.
And I did my best to be me. “And for the record, I take exception to the exception over my penis shaped glitter. A little penis shaped glitter never hurt anyone.”
Iz joined in, “Is there vagina shaped glitter?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “How would I know? I like penis. I’m not a vagina type of girl.”
Michael groaned. “Can we discuss something else? I don’t want to be at a barbeque with my sister and girlfriend talking about penises and vaginas.”
I pointed my finger at him as Isabella synced her playlist to a bluetooth speaker that was bracketed to the picnic table. “Then you might as well break up with my sister now, Michael, because all our conversations are about penises and vaginas.”
Chase chose that moment to walk over to us with his date. Nick and Kane stayed by the barbeque helping Mrs. Alexander set up all the fixings and desserts. They sat down across from Iz and Julian putting them on the same side as Michael and Audrey, while I was next to Ace and she was next to Iz on Julian’s lap.
His date spoke first and it took all I had to look at her and ignore Chase altogether. “Hey, All, I hope you don’t me crashing your barbeque. Chase said you guys wouldn’t mind.”
Her question was met with a round of ‘no problem’, ‘of course,’ etc. I even added my own ‘the more the mer
rier’.
Isabella smiled at her. “I’m Isabella,” she pointed at each of us as she made the introductions, “this is Julian, Avery, Quinn, Audrey and Michael.”
She gave us all a beautiful and welcoming smile. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Lydia.”
Michael, bless his heart, went back to our conversation. He saw me last night and knew exactly how much of a mess I was over Chase. He had to know it was killing me that Chase brought a date to this barbeque. It was hard to breathe knowing that he brought this woman around to meet his mother. I knew how sacred his mother was to him. “Back to your nonsense, Q,” he resumed. “You can throw all the penises and vaginas you want at me, nothing will make me break up with your sister.”
Lydia looked shocked and choked out, “I’m sorry, penises and vaginas?”
I looked over at her and gave her my most serious look. “What’s your stance on penis and vagina shaped glitter?”
She scrunched her lips together and took a second to mull it over. “I’d totally sprinkle some of it in the potpourri dish sitting on my coffee table at home. I mean, talk about an awesome conversation starter.”
I smiled and the girls laughed. I wanted to hate her, but that wasn’t fair, and so far she was very likeable. I moved my eyes to Chase and ignored the punch to my stomach. “She’s a keeper, Chase.” I looked back at Lydia and added, “Well, not to kill the surprise, but now you know what you’re getting for your birthday, right?”
She laughed and waved my comment away. “Awesome, but I’m not-”
“The food’s ready, kids!” Chase’s mom announced, saving me from this hell.
Everyone stood up and started making their way to the barbeque area and I was following suit when my phone rang.
I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was an unfamiliar number. Normally I would let an unfamiliar call go to voicemail, but as I glanced up I noticed Chase hanging back a little and I was so terrified I’d lose my shit if he got me alone, I did the unthinkable.
I answered my phone, not recognizing the number flashing across the screen.
I put the phone to my ear and walked away from the crowd towards the back fence. “Hello?”
Chasing Quinn Page 22