Page 128 of Chasing After You
“Yeah, itreallyseems like you are.” Quinn scoffs.
“Sorry, I’m not in the mood to pretend I’m fine. Everything is a wreck,” I mumble.I’m sure if Andrew could see me now, he’d push my ass into the pool and tell me to sober up.
“No, not everything. You had the girl, but you pushed her away. That’s your own damn fault.”
“I didn’t push her away, she left,” I retort, racking my brain again for another scrap to add to my memory of the conversation in her bedroom.
“If that’s what you want to call it, but I can’t imagine a scenario where Mira would ever leave you willingly. It was a dick move for me to ask her out, knowing I never stood a goddamn chance, Walker. I felt like a third wheel on a date in my own home because she spent the entire time talking about you with stars in her eyes.”
Why can’t he see that I don’t want to talk? I don’t want to do anything.
“I think the happiest I’ve seen you is when you’re with Mirabelle,” Quinn continues, and my jaw clenches. He’s not wrong.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?Point out what a fucking idiot you are by letting her leave?”
“She deserves better,” I say, despite my stomach rolling at the thought of Mirabelle with someone else.
Quinn looks at me with clear disappointment. “Yeah, maybe she does.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Henry
IT’S BEEN RADIO silence from her since the article came out announcing we had gone our separate ways.
What a pretty way to say something so ugly.
Mirabelle and I are unofficially broken up since we never had a conversation where we explicitly said we were done; however, it’s implied.
Owen and Blake welcomed me into their home for Christmas since my family and the Walkers were in France. I had a few days off in my schedule when I could have flown to meet them, but I chose to see Andrew instead. While I was there, photos of Mirabelle and Julien Dubois, a popular French actor, at a quaint bistro in Paris hit headlines. I stared at the pictures for hours, trying to dissect her smile directed at him, and what he could have possibly said to make her laugh so freely.
I asked Kaitlyn, and all she could tell me was Julien stopped by Thalia’s gallery in Paris while Mirabelle was picking something up, and he asked her to go with him to the premiere of his movie. I couldn’t bring myself to ask my sister any further questions about Mira during their trip because I’m a coward.
The pictures from the premiere gained more traction, and rumors started swirling that Mirabelle was moving on from our whirlwind relationship.
On the other hand, Greg loosened my leash, and while Stacey still accompanies me to everything, they didn’t assign another intern.
I’ve become more of a recluse as I spend my nights drinking probably too much, but football is the only thing going right at the moment. We have one regular season game left before playoffs begin, and my approval rating among the Panthers’ fan base is much higher than where I started last summer, which should feel like a relief.
Yet, it doesn’t feel like I thought it would feel.
There’s something missing—or rather,someone.
My jog slows to a walk as I barely make it to the bushes where I sometimes throw up any leftover alcohol from the night before.I might need to buy a new plant for them if this trend continues.I feel disgusting, but I continue on the last half mile to my house.
I spot the news vans parked on the road and the photographers on the sidewalk in front of my house before they see me, and I don’t have the patience for this today.What the fuck do they want?
The second they catch sight of me, flashes start going off, and I regret having taken my shirt off on the last stretch.
“Henry—”
“What do you have to say about the photos of Mirabelle? What about the ones of the two of you?”
“Henry, over here!”
“Have you seen Mirabelle?”
