AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Beth, you can’t be serious?” I asked, my heart sinking as I looked into her eyes full of emotion. “If this is about the cake testing, reschedule for next week. I’ll clear my calendar and make sure I can be there.”
She walked towards me, gently placing her hand on my arm.
“I hope that one day you’ll see how what happened, couldn’t have been prevented. And I hope that one day you stop trying to change your dad’s mind about your decision to enlist. Maybe then, you will be ready to open your heart to love again." She placed a gentle kiss on my cheek and left.
Chapter 10: Ethan
Six months earlier...
The lights flickered in the office party, as I drowned myself in bourbon and bad decisions.
The night started with high hopes, but it had quickly spiraled into chaos. I danced on the edge of too much, and soon enough, I was the star of a drunken spectacle, confessing my sins on an impromptu stage at my company's annual office party.
Slurring my words, I stood on the stage, addressing the gathering, “Ladies and gentlemen, gather ’round! I’ve got a story for you all. So, there was this one time...”
My boss intervened with stern authority, “Ethan, that’s enough! Get down from there!”
Defiantly, I insisted, “Wait, wait, you need to hear this! It involves love, loss, and a drunken fool.” I stumbled to the side, almost falling off the makeshift stage, the glass bottle I was holding slipped from my grasp and shattered all over the hardwood floor.
“Oops.”
My boss’s face turned red, and he kicked me out before my angry CEO could reach me from across the room.
I stumbled into an Uber, city lights blurring as I directed the driver toward my childhood home. When I got there, I banged on the door in the middle of the night, waking up my sleeping parents.
My dad answered the door, looking as worn out as I felt.
“What do you want, Ethan?” he asked, exasperation evident on his face.
“You’re the reason Beth left me!” I yelled, slurring my words. “She ended our engagement because of you and how much you’ve always wanted to control my life!”
“Go home son, sleep it off and come back when you’re human again and we can talk.” My dad responded.
“I was never good enough for you, was I”, I asked, my feet stumbling a little causing me to reach out to steady myself. “Jack was always the golden boy. You and mom’s favorite. You couldn’t even show up when I got deployed. Hell, you couldn’t even show up for my best friends funeral.”
My dad looked away, a pained look on his expression.
I slammed the glass bottle I’d swiped before getting kicked out of the holiday party into the ground, shattering it into a thousand pieces all over my parents’ walkway.
“Beth didn’t deserve this.” I snapped, pointing my finger at him. “She deserves better and so did I.”
“Go. Home. Ethan. Now.” My dad commanded; his eyes stern.
But I was too stubborn, too deep into self-loathing and pity to walk away just yet. I needed him to say it. Shove the metaphorical knife in further so that he could finish what had been started.
“Bet you wished you’d had another, Jack,” I spat out.
He turned to me, his eyes ablaze. “You’re right, Ethan. I do.”
Chapter 11: Ethan
Present Day
Birds chirped outside my window as the quiet hum of Dublin traffic serenaded my snoring dreams. Waking up in the bed where Sasha and I had spent the night, I immediately noticed her absence.
Checking the clock on the table, the reality of it being 10 in the morning hit me. I’d had trouble sleeping the past few years, often having to opt for medication to finally get some rest and shut off my brain and when I did, I never slept in but last night had been an exception to my rules on many fronts.
“Shit,” I mumbled, standing up to stretch my legs.
