Page 50 of Reckless Chances
Chapter 19 – Emma
Emma pulled the sweatertight around her chest. Even though it was summer, the nights in the mountains were still chilly, and the fresh air was sobering her up, just a little. The first stars had appeared over the dark triangular blocks on the horizon that she could now identify as the mountains. A lone light shone brightly on top of Sugar Peaks.
They could feel and hear the music as they approached The Last Chance. A woman in heels and a skin-tight club dress was standing smoking outside the bar.
Emma looked down at her sweater and running shoes and wished that she had worn something different to work that day. The doorman collected twenty dollars from each of them and then dabbed their hands with a smiley face stamp.
They stepped inside the bar, and even though Emma had only lived in Chance Rapids for a short time, she had never seen the Last Chance look like it did that night. Sequins, gambling tables, strippers, extremely intoxicated men stumbling around. Jenni leaned in and tried to whisper something to Emma, but everything around her ceased to exist. The music faded away, the lights went dull, and her breath caught in her throat when she saw him.
And he saw her.
“Emma, we should leave.” Emma finally heard her friend’s voice but didn’t know what she was talking about.
On their walk to the bar, Emma and Jenni had role played all kinds of scenarios with Charlie. Emma’s favorite was taking the drink from his hand and throwing it in his face, but when she saw him all the anger faded. She just wanted to know what went wrong.
“It’s okay,” she said to Jenni and headed off into the crowd to find Charlie. She wasn’t going to throw a drink in his face, nor lob any of the snide comments they’d jokingly made up on the way over. In her tipsy state, it only made sense to go up to Charlie and straight out ask him. He stood taller than most of the people in the bar, and every so often she’d catch a glimpse of his plaid shirt through the sea of strangers. She couldn’t tell if he was heading towards her, but it didn’t matter. She was a woman on a mission.
She elbowed her way past some guys waving money at the woman on the pole and it was like she was no longer under control of her hand. She saw it reach in front of her and saw her finger tap the shoulder of the man she thought she loved. He turned, but as he did, someone grabbed her wrist hard enough to jerk her backward.
“Ow.” She turned and yanked her hand away.
“What are you doing here?” Jason said. “Haven’t you done enough already?”
Emma rubbed her wrist. “What are you talking about? I’m here to talk to someone.”
Jason glanced behind Emma’s shoulder. “Who? Charlie or Adam?”
“Adam? Why would I want to talk to him?” Emma hadn’t thought about Adam since the day she left the city. Now, his best friend had shown up in Chance Rapids, not once, but twice. “Why the hell would I want to talk to Adam,” she repeated.
Emma turned and saw Charlie’s shirt getting further and further away. “Jason, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I have to go.”
“Wait.” She stopped. “How do you know Charlie?”
Jenni arrived at Emma’s side. “Emma, we should go.”
Emma was thoroughly confused. “Why? You’re the one who made me come here.”
Jason crossed his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at Emma. “You already ruined my best friend’s life; I’m not going to let you ruin my brother’s.”
“Brother?” Emma took a step back. “Charlie is your brother?” She felt like she had been slapped. There was no resemblance at all between Charlie and Jason.
Jenni grabbed Emma’s bicep. “We have to go now.”
“Hey, drunk girl. Listen to your friend,” Jason said.
Jenni pulled Emma away hard enough to bruise her arm. “I just found out why the groom fired you from the wedding,” Jenni whispered as she escorted her through the crowd. “The groom of the bachelor party is Adam. Your ex.”
The room seemed to tilt on its side, and she knew it wasn’t from the wine. As the duo made their way to the exit, Emma tried to put the pieces into place. But even if she were stone-cold sober she still wouldn’t have been able to make sense of what had just happened. Her ex-fiancé was getting married in Chance Rapids. Her new boyfriend was going to the wedding.
Oh my god.
Emma felt like she was going to throw up. She had almost been a guest at her ex’s wedding.
The flowers, the setting, there was a reason that wedding felt so perfect like she knew it, it was everything that she had planned. Alison had stolen her fiancé and her wedding.
“I need to get out of here.” All of a sudden Jenni’s urgency made a lot more sense.
As they reached the exit Emma did a glance looking for Charlie, but her heart sank in disappointment when she couldn’t spot his dark hair or beard anywhere in the crowd.
