Page 15 of Chance Happenings
We’re all interviewed, but Alexa and I are the main focus of the room since her retelling of the story included our encounter that ended in me abruptly leaving and going for a run. When I listen to her recount all the details, I know the suspect is connected to me somehow. I feel even more guilt knowing that if I would’ve been able to keep my shit together and stayed with Alexa, this wouldn’t have happened. Or that if I wasn’t the man whore, everyone accuses me of being… there would be no unknown crazy chick. A lesser man would be embarrassed or proud as hell when I run down the list of possible suspects. But I just give the unfiltered and unfluffed version to the police. Solely focused on keeping Alexa safe.
It’s nearly dawn before the police have taken statements, dusted for prints and cleared the scene. Cacey’s called our maintenance man to come to work on securing the door and I’m sitting here thinking of a way to fix this. How could I not know there was a nut job in my midst? If I had, I would’ve handled things differently, that’s for sure.
I had freaked the hell out, overwhelmed by the significance of what Alexa and I had finally done. If I had known this was going to happen, I would’ve found a way to keep it together and stayed with her. I had every intention of coming back to her eventually and manning up about my feelings for her. But in true Chance fashion, I somehow fuck up again. For one, Alexa clearly took my chivalrous act of refraining from taking her right there on her couch and turned it into some type of rejection sob story. She acts like I wasn’t just face down between her legs just hours ago for her benefit.And mine if we’re being honest. And for two, I can’t stress this enough. If I would’ve been here instead of punking out, things would’ve gone differently.
The only good thing in this scenario is that I’m no quitter and I have plans to make this right. I’ll address the elephant in the room of our relationship and this crazy chemistry we have that just won’t go away.
Alex
Really though,can this not get any more embarrassing. I swear first thing tomorrow I’m taking Cacey up on her offer and will look in to those self-defense classes. This makes two times in amonth that someone got the drop on me. At least this time I stayed conscious, so there’s that I guess. And if it wasn’t bad enough, it was by one of Chance’s bed warming skanks. I can’t believe that I not only let him inside my body in any capacity, but then get rejected. Only to have some stalker ish skank take it the wrong way and end up on my ass with a knot on my head, not even three hours later. Maybe I should count myself lucky. If his sex drives females to such lengths then us not happening is a blessing. Especially after hearing the detailed list of possible female suspects he gave the officers. I figure besides Cacey, I’m the only woman that he hasn’t had sex with within a ten-mile radius.The only bright spotof the night was him leaving and me dodging a big bullet of being just another notch on Chance’s worn-out bed post. Who am I kidding, I would probably let him tie me to said bed post, even after tonight because secretly, I want to know what it feels like to be wanted by him. I want to know so bad.
After Chance ran away like the house was on fire, I promised myself never to let that happen again. Then I turned around and gotmy hopes up when I heard someone at my door. I’d heard Chance go out earlier, so I hoped maybe it was him and he’d changed his mind about tonight. When I heard glass breaking, I circled back to get my gun before going to check to see who was downstairs. Why I didn’t call 911 first or even grab my phone was beyond me. But like I said, I was holding out hope that it was Chance. As soon as I stepped off of the landing, a shadowy figure tackled me from the side, so hard I ended up firing off a shot in my wall before the gun gets knocked out of my hand. Initially, I had thought that it was Pearce or one of his goons that has been following me as of late, and figured they were now escalating to breaking and entering. But as the shadowy figure and I began to struggle, I noticed the flowery scent and the set of breasts on the attacker that couldn’t be disguised… no matter how much she tried.
We were evenly matched physically. But mentally, the bitch was crazy, and that tilted the odds in her favor. Once she started ranting that she wouldn’t let me have him, I knew this had nothing to do with Pearce and everything to do with Chance. The very moment I had that epiphany, I get hit hard. Chance starts kicking at the door so hard he was matching her crazy. I got distracted for a second time. Then she got in a cheap shot, stunning me and giving her a chance to run away before Chance kicks the door in. So yeah, it's definitely time to put in some work at the gym.
After the police have taken our statements, I’m exhausted but everyone else seems to have gotten their second wind. Cacey is out with the maintenance man getting the door fixed. Chance and Dane are having a heated discussion off in the corner. I decide to start cleaning up some of the mess when Dane stops me in my tracks.
“Don’t touch anything until my guys can go over the area. They’ll handle the cleanup. Just go get a bag ready so you can go to Cacey’s for a while.”
Between my exhaustion and Dane’s strangely authoritative tone, I immediately go pack a bag, not even asking the obvious question. Like what guys? From my understanding, Dane was a finance contractor who specialized in tracking down misappropriated money. I didn’t know he had guys that dealt in this type of investigating that could do a better job than the police, and when I mentioned self-defense classes, he passed me a card of a gym thatheowned that offered that service as well. When I get back downstairs with my bag, there are two strange guys in the house now,apparently Dane’s guyswho are taking pictures and combing the area for anything that may have been missed. The maintenance man is putting the door in, and Chance is coming to take the bag out of my hand.
“Come on, you’re staying with me.” If anything else tonight didn’t give me pause, that sure did.
“Um no… what happened to me staying at Cacey’s?”
“Cacey’s not going to be there, and you’ll be safer with me. We can carpool to work together, and I can keep an eye on you at all times.” I’m in a fit of laughter before he can even get all the words out of his mouth.
“Are you kidding me right now? You’ve done a bang-up job in keeping an eye on me so far. And since we have deduced that the suspect in question is one of yourfriends,don’t you think this will make the situation worse, not better?” I ask, with all the attitude I can muster at six in the morning and no sleep. I even drop air quotes to put an emphasis on the friends part, but Chance doesn’t miss a beat continuing on with his well thought out logic.
“Well, Dane and I discussed it and decided that this would be the best course of action. We still have Pearce to worry about and now this new person who’ll be more motivated to attack again if we’re living together.”
“So, you’re saying that you want to use me as bait and purposely antagonize some crazy bitch who's already tried to kill me once?” Here I thought he was being chivalrous, but once again I’m wrong….unbelievable.
Chance
How this girlalways spins a situation to make me feel like an asshole is beyond me. But right now, looking at that hint of fear in her eyes… that’s how I feel. I do want to protect her but, we just need to draw out this psycho bitch in order to do that. She's looking at me with expectant eyes, so I'm struggling with how to answer her question without being a dick. “Look, we’re only trying to keep you safe, and the best solution to this problem is for you to stay with me so we can draw your attacker out and catch them. Once that's done, we'll be able to focus all our energy on Pearce.”
Seemingly satisfied, Alexa dutifully walks out of the door towards my townhome. She looks exhausted and now I'm trying to work out the logic of my plan. She will not be too thrilled about sleeping in the guest room once she realizes where it is. When renovating the townhome, I opted for three bedrooms using one as an office and the other as a guest room, which is the room that shares a wall with her bedroom.
“Are we leaving or are you just going to sit there staring into space?” Alexa asks, breaking me out of my internal thoughts. Before leaving, I remember something and turn towards my sister, willing her to look at me and give her a knowing stare. She knows she has some explaining to do.
As soon as we get in the door, I can tell Alexa has shut herself down from me. “Just show me where I can shower and sleep.” Making a quick decision, I put her in my room instead of the guest room.
Alexa
Too exhausted to even put up a decent fight with Chance AND Dane, I resigned myself to the logic and make it out of the door and into Chance’s home. Not bothering to look at any of the decor, I blindly follow him to the wrong side of the house, or at least I think it is. Because his bedroom shares a wall with mine and the guest room is on the other side. When we reach the room, I'm taken by surprise as I see a room way larger than my master that has a big plush bed with rich wood, some metal finishes and a mix of dark blues, greys and random pops of color placed throughout the room. It screams designer finish and not bachelor pad. This room is huge. It’s not the room that shares a wall with mine. The one that I’ve become intimately familiar with over the last few months.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Chance chides as he looks over at me, clearly trying to cover up his anxiety with some bravado over me being in his home. Instead of fighting my fatigue to form a response, I ignore him and plop down on the bed, totally prepared to let sleep take me and forget about last night’s events. I thought I would feel weird or even disgusted lying anywhere in Chance’s house, but I feel nothing but a sense of calm that comes over me as Chance’s familiar scent completely engulfs my senses. This may not be his room, but I can smell him everywhere. At the risk of looking like a weirdo, I even sniff the comforter before falling into a deep sleep.
Chance
Damn. I know that I’ve been harboring some fucked up feelings for Alexa for as long as I can remember. Feelings that have ranged from hatred and jealousy to admiration and lust. But seeing her on my bed right now is like a punch to the chest. I’m winded. If I was on the fence about pursuing her before, I’m now 100% sure that by some twisted sense of fate she belongs to me. From this point on, I’ll do everything in my power to keep her safe and make her mine. So instead of doing what I want to do right now,which is stripping down naked and curling up beside her like a little bitch, I head downstairs and text Dane. I need to make sure he comes to see me before he and Cacey head back to his house.
Ugh, I need a drink. I don’t even want to think about that conversation with my sister… about the secret both of them been keeping from me.
Thirty minutes later I’m showered, dressed and have grabbed a beer instead of drinking anything harder before I head to my office, where Dane is already there waiting. Pushing thoughts of him and my sister to the back of my mind, I get down to business.
“Tell me what you know.” I demand before Dane can get two words out.
