Page 88 of Committed to You

“Everything okay?”

He puts a smile on his face. “Yep.”

His phone rings again, and his smile is replaced with a frown. He sends this call to voice mail as well.

“You can take that,” I tell him.

“It’s Meredith.”

A chill runs through me. “Why is she calling?”

“I don’t know. I was clear with her that we are done. She—” His phone rings again. He stops walking and picks up. “Meredith, why are you calling me?” He listens a moment. “No, we can’t meet up. I told you it’s over. You need to forget about me and move on,” he says sternly. “There is no us, Meredith. I’m going to hang up now. Don’t call me again.” He puts his phone in his pocket and sighs.

“Are you sure she’s stable?” I ask him.

“She’s always been needy. It’s why I had to put boundaries on her.”

“I’m starting to understand why, but she seems a bit more than just needy.”

He pulls me in his arms. “I’m sorry—” His phone beeps. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he furrows his brows.

I put my arm on his. “Chase?”

He looks up. “She’s lost it.”

“She’s texting you now?”

“Yeah.” His face is a mix of anger and confusion. “I didn’t want to hurt her, but this is too much.”

“Chase, she’s not stable. Something is off if she’s acting like this.”

His phone continues to beep with more messages. “I’m blocking her now. This is ridiculous.” His fingers swipe over his phone, and it goes quiet. He runs his hands through his hair in frustration.

We stand on the sidewalk, looking at each other.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I knew she liked me, but I didn’t realize it was this bad. I’m sorry this had to interrupt our day. The last thing I wanted was to rub my past in your face.”

I put my arms around his waist. “It’s okay. You aren’t. You blocked her. She’ll have no choice but to leave you alone now.”

He takes a deep breath. “Right.”

“You made it all right now, just like you promised. We can move on now.” I pull his head down and kiss him, but uneasiness fills me, and I’m not sure why.

20

Chase

Vivianand I visit the remaining properties, but I can’t get Meredith out of my head. I didn’t want to hurt her. After not seeing her for several months, I thought she would have lost some of her feelings for me.

Before I blocked her, she fired off fifteen text messages. I didn’t read them all, but the few I did read were enough to make me feel ill.

“I love you. I know we have something special.”

“We can make this work.”

“What hotel are you at?”