Page 129 of The Baby Bargain
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chase
Between my next appointment and a pow-wow with Forest, my morning flies by.
On my lunch break, I get the fuck out of the shop. Grab a sandwich at a nearby coffee shop. Find space to think.
The smooth, chocolate cold brew hits the spot. It's a million times better than the instant shit. But it's not why I'm here.
Yeah, I usually eat leftovers for lunch. And last night, I gave the other half of dinner to Ariel.
But that—
Well, I guess that is why I'm here.
I stare at her texts, trying to figure out what they mean for us.
Ariel: I got home when Forest was leaving. He gave me the third degree about being safe and not getting my heart broken and blah, blah, blah. But then he asked something weird. He asked if it was you.
Ariel: I didn't say anything, but I think he's suspicious. He knows I had a crush on you. I guess everyone knows.
Ariel: Not that I do now. I like you a lot, but I know what this is. You're helping me. I'm helping you.
Ariel: Just play it cool. You're cool. It should be easy.
She is helping me, but it's not like her to realize that.
Fuck, Ariel is something else. It's easy to talk to her. And the way she looks at me—
For once, it's notdamn, that guy is a lost cause.
She treats me like an equal. Like a person capable of understanding the complex concepts she studies. Like a person capable of moving on.
And even when she gets thatshit, Chase really is hung up on his exexpression, it's not in a condescending way.
She gets it.
She must.
She left her boyfriend less than a month ago. She thinks he left her, but that's not how it went.
She made an ultimatum. He said no. She left.
God, it's hard to believe she can't see how much that must hurt him.
All right, I'm not exactly a mind reader. I'm getting a lot of this from his social media. Which I should probably ignore.
But it's more fun checking on her ex than mine.
Grace's feeds—
Fuck, I can't go there. I haven't. Not recently.
The last time I saw her with that new guy, the musician, the smile on her face, the fresh semi-colon tattoo on her wrist—
I'm sparing Ariel this pain.
Okay, that's bullshit. I want to know how I stack up to her ex.
