Page 86 of Hard To Love

Chapter Thirty

“You wantto tell me what the hell is going on?” Cassie asked, rounding the corner with a bowl of popcorn in her hands as the apartment door slammed behind me.

“Brad invited me to dinner tonight.”

She tilted her head to the side, “well that’s good, right? I mean… wasn’t the whole point of this charade to reel him in and get him to talk? Or is this starting to turn into something else?”

“It sure was.” I conceded while my head rested against the back of the chair, with my eyes fixed up at the ceiling.

“I’m just not looking forward to being on the receiving end of Chase’s anger when he finds out about my plans tonight.”

She looked down at me, and her jaw dropped open. “Please tell me that you learned your lesson last time?” Her blue eyes were questioning as she set her bowl of popcorn down on the table. When I didn’t respond, she shook her head then reached over the couch and grabbed my phone out of my purse.

“Why the hell are you stalling?” She asked, and then threw my phone into my lap. I silently stared at it, because I knew this phone call was going to change everything.

In order to prevent a major blow up with my boyfriend, I convinced myself that I needed more time to think about how I wanted to approach the topic with him. Just the fact that I was sitting here in my old living room staring at the clock on the wall, told me my time was up.

“Cassie, I don’t need this lecture right now.” Brad was goingbe here in a few hours, so there was no more time to obsess over this.

“You have to tell him.”

That was the understatement of the year and the reason my thoughts were all over the place. “I know,” my eyes shot to hers, “I’ll tell him.”

I was running out of excuses, there was no way I could avoid this conversation any longer.

“Hallelujah!” She shouted throwing her hands up in the air.

Before I lost my nerve, I picked up my phone, feeling the weight of it in my hands. For a small little thing, it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.I swiped the sweat from my eyebrow and shot him a quick text.

Hey, I know you’re busy, but can you call me when you get this?

Bubbles started to jump across the screen letting me know he was typing his reply. My knee shook nervously as I bit down on my lip so hard I had to force myself to stop before I required stitches.

What’s up?

I closed my eyes and tapped out my response.

Brad called me this morning after you left and invited me to dinner tonight and I accepted.

Cassie’s head peered over my shoulder while we both waited for the bubbles to reappear on the screen. Nothing happened. My leg started to bounce again with nervous energy. Then the bubbles started to skate across the screen.

Where are you?

My head lifted to Cassie. She squeezed my shoulder then I typed back as fast as I could so I could wipe the sweat that was starting to seep through my pores.

Cassie’s.

I’m on my way.

Tossing my phone across the table, I threw my head back and closed my eyes. Cassie jumped off the couch and walked into the kitchen. She returned seconds later balancing a bottle of wine and two wine glasses. She held them out.

“It’s five o’clock, somewhere right?”

My stomach was in knots. “I’m not sure how much more of this double life shit I can handle.”

Cassie placed a freshly poured glass of wine in my hands. “Drink up; it will help calm your nerves.”

My stomach tightened with tension, as my hand circled the rim of my glass. The wine didn’t even appeal to me. Something in my gut told me that tonight was going to be the night that all hell broke loose. Either, my nerves were rattled because I was about to engage in an intense fight with my boyfriend, or things were going to go horribly wrong with my ex. Either way, things were not looking good for me.

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