Page 123 of The Fast Lane

“What job? Chicago?” I asked, my voice rising with each word.

“Chicago is pretty far away from Two Harts,” Alec pointed out. “You couldn’t even bring yourself to move five hours away.”

“Do you have a job interview in Chicago?” I asked Theo.

Theo’s eyes slid shut. He took a deep breath and opened them. “Yes.”

“In Chicago. But…you said…and we’re…” I growled in frustration. Why couldn’t I get a coherent sentence out? And why did it feel like my chest was squeezing the breath out of my body?

“I need you to hear me out before you jump to the wrong conclusion. Please?”

I stood so quickly, my chair almost tipped. How had it gotten so hot in here? I needed air. And space. I needed to process all this.

“Oh, whoops.” Alec’s smirk morphed into a vicious grin. “Was I not supposed to tell anyone?”

“Shut up,” Theo ground out. “Ali, listen to me. It’s not what you think.”

“Everything okay?” Cal appeared at my side. “You have an audience.”

“This is so sad, really.” Alec stretched out his legs. The Alec I knew was much too concerned with appearances to let himself drink so much in public. A part of me knew he’d regret this. “But gotta tell you, she’s not worth all this drama.”

“Okay, now,” Cal said at the same time Theo turned toward Alec, his hands curling into fists.

“No! There’s not going to be any fighting.”

That would have been it. I would have picked up my sunglasses and purse and gone to my room right that second, but I made the mistake of giving Alec one final look. That smirk was back, and I wanted so badly to make it disappear. To make him disappear. To make all this stop.

“Melanie,” I called out.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry. I tried so hard to be an adult.” I snatched a plate with a piece of cheesecake covered in strawberry preserves and a drizzle of chocolate syrup. I’d been looking forward to eating it.

Sigh.

“In my defense, he started it. But I am going to finish it.” In the next blink, I leaned forward and smashed the dessert on the top of his head. The gratification of watching him fling his arms out as the syrupy trails of strawberry and graham cracker crust slid down his face more than made up for not getting to eat it.

I grabbed my sunglasses and purse. “I’m leaving. And no one is following me.” I looked right at Theo. “No one.”

I took the elevator up to my room, changed my clothes, turned my phone off, and crawled into bed.

The scene replayed in my head. Not the part about Alec. What he had said mattered little. I didn’t even hate him; instead, the best I could feel was apathetic toward him. I’d had my say, and spending any more time dissecting his words wasn’t worth it.

But the parts with Theo? Oh, that, I couldn’t forget. I don’t know what hurt worse. That he was considering a job so far away or that he hadn’t told me about it. Maybe he wasn’t so serious about this thing between us. What if I were the only one who felt that way? I couldn’t watch him walk away and I couldn’t see myself moving.

I thought of the almost panicked look in his eyes when he asked me not to jump to the wrong conclusion and drew in a long breath. I trusted Theo and that meant I had to trust what he said. He asked me to listen to him, and I hadn’t.

Hugging a pillow to my chest, I curled on my side. That’s what I would do. I would listen to him.

I must have dozed off because I was jerked awake by heavy pounding on my door.

“Go away.”

“Ali-Cat, we need you,” Mack said and the urgency in his voice was the only reason I forced myself out of bed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked after I’d opened the door.

Karen growled at me from her place at Mack’s feet. But I ignored her because the expression on Mack’s face made the little hairs on the back of my neck prickle.