Page 3 of Spar
“Celebrating?”
She uncrossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, studying him for a moment before speaking. “Don’t play dumb with me. I was at Benny’s. I saw you.”
Chris stared hard at her face, seeking any sign that she was lying. Dammit. He’d known it was risky fighting so close to home, but none of the Sweetbriar crowd frequented those types of events. Which meant he had Luke to thank. What the fuck was Luke doing taking Tori to a place like that? The thought of the cocky prick put a bad taste in his mouth.
“Well, as you can see, I am celebrating.” He held his half-finished beer up in the air in a salute to her and then chugged the rest, placing the empty glass down on the bar with more force than necessary.
Chris nodded at the bartender and then turned his attention back to Tori. “Can I get you something to drink, or did you just follow me here to give me a lecture?”
“I didn’t follow you. I was trying to get a cab, and I came in here to warm up while I called for a ride.” She thrust her chin out and regarded him with a defiant glare as though daring him to contradict her.
“Where’sLuke?” He bit off the name through gritted teeth.
The smug look on her face fell for a second, but she recovered quickly, standing taller. “He didn’t feel like calling it a night yet,” she said as if a guy going out with his girlfriend and then staying out later because he wasn’t ready to call it a night was a totally normal thing.
Fuck, he’d kill Luke for letting her navigate downtown Carroll by herself with nothing more than a scrap of material to keep her warm.
He fought back the urge to get up from the bar, give her his sweatshirt to warm her up, and then take her home himself. That wasn’t an option with as much history as they had. So, he went to his default mode of being an asshole.
“What about you, darling? You want another drink?” he asked the blond woman still sitting next to him.
Her eyes moved from Tori to him in obvious fascination. “Aren’t you sweet?” She laid a hand on his thigh.
He glanced at Tori and found her rolling her eyes as she scrolled through her phone. “Does anyone else know you’re here?”
Chris shrugged. “I don’t send out a nightly agenda.”
“Whatever. Have fun celebrating,” Tori said with sarcasm. She turned toward the door, paused abruptly, and spun back around on her heel. She stalked across the distance between them, not stopping until she was so close that he could feel the cold radiating off her. Then she leaned in even closer, taking him by surprise. “Thirteen seconds. Not bad, hotshot,” she whispered.
He sat stunned as she smiled, flipped her long hair over her shoulder, and walked back out of the bar.
A wide smile pulled at his lips as he watched the door close behind her. It was as close to a compliment as she’d given him in longer than he remembered.
“Friend of yours?” the woman next to him purred.
She was no Tori. Then again, no one was. He’d been living with substitutes for years. Pretending for another night would be easy.
“Nah.” He pushed back from the bar, leaving his full beer. Beer wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
“You wanna get out of here?” He reached a hand out to the blonde. He hadn’t asked her name, and she hadn’t offered it.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
“This isn’t working.” Tori threw her stuff into her overnight bag. With everything packed, she gave Luke a sad smile and sat next to him.
“Why don’t you just move back to Carroll?” he whined, throwing a hand up over his forehead. He reached out for her with the other, a waft of liquor and smoke oozing out of him. “Then we could hang more. Go out together and have fun like we used to.”
“We’ve been over this. Sweetbriar is my home. I love my job and working with my brother. You and I are just at two different places in our life right now.”
Luke nodded in defeat, or maybe it was all he could manage with a hangover. She’d expected him to put up a bigger fight for her, but she sighed in relief, signaling to herself that she’d made the right call. She was bored. She’d been bored. No longer interested in long nights spent at the bar and weekends that typically started with the pop of a beer around noon, they’d run out of common interests outside of the bedroom.
Car loaded and ready to go, Tori turned the music up and drove the familiar route back to Sweetbriar. Soaking up the early afternoon sun, she entered the city limits of the small community with a smile. That smile faltered only slightly as she pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex, getting a fresh look at the place’s disrepair. Having taken over the lease from Ryan when he’d moved into his new home over the lake, Tori had been excited about being close to Fit Club and finally living all on her own. The peeling paint on the exterior, the creaky stairs leading up to her entrance, and the flimsy door that she was pretty sure would buckle with one small kick were quirks she could live with. Flipping the switch in her tiny apartment, Tori sighed as the lights flickered before buzzing to life. Add electrical to the list of issues she was learning to look past. It wasn’t exactly her dream place, but it was hers. All hers.
She tossed her bag on the bed then pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and dialed Claire. Guilt nagged at her for the way she’d neglected her best friend over the last year while she ran back and forth to Carroll visiting Luke.
“Guess who’s single,” Tori said as Claire answered the video call.
“No way. You and Luke broke up?” her friend asked, gasping between breaths.
