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“Next week,” I promised.
But I was no longer a part of his universe. He jogged to the door of our reserved room and disappeared right before I realized he’d completely left his bag, water bottle, clipboard, and everything behind.
“Oh!” Scooping it up in a rush, I shoved everything into the unzipped portion of his duffle and surged to my feet to chase him down.
Catching him at the entrance of the gym, I called, “Parker! Your stuff.”
He glanced back and paused. “Shit.” Returning to me, he rolled his eyes with a small smile of thanks and said, “I’d probably forget my head right now if it weren’t for you.”
“Nah, you’d manage just fine,” I said with a warm, affectionate smile as he took his things. “Good luck.”
He took in my expression, then stepped closer and hugged me. “Thank you, El.”
We had never hugged before. If he’d been in the right frame of mind, he probably wouldn't have even tried. A year ago, hugging probably would’ve sent me into a panic attack.
But now, I embraced it fully. Because I knew I could trust him, and also because Gracen Lowe had taught me that I could still hug after all.
Even after a night of boozing, then probably skipping a shower this morning before running and a brief one-on-one game of basketball with me, Parker still didn’t stink. His deodorant was holding strong, and he smelled pretty nice actually. Otherwise, I might’ve suggested he get cleaned up a little before heading over to see Bea.
But I think he was good to go, so I patted his arm and pulled away. “Now get out of here already and get that girl.”
Chapter Sixteen
Bella
MEANWHILE
It took Fox less than ten minutes to reach my house from the moment we hung up with each other until he pulled to the curb, but I paced the entire time regardless.
I was just so nervous.
When I’d first been awoken last night to my phone ringing, I’d gone back to sleep with a groan, refusing to get up and answer it. But then someone had left a message, and I started to wonder and worry that something might be wrong.
Heart beginning to race when I saw that it was from Fox, I feared what he might say after a full week of radio silence. And I nearly had a meltdown when I’d pressed the receiver to my ear and heard the words, should we do the healthy thing and just stop.
Because, seriously, what did that mean? To me, it sounded a hell of a lot like he wanted to break things off? But I had absolutely refused to believe that. I’d been so confused. And scared.
I had replayed the message to hopefully gain some perspective, only to hear how slurred his words were.
Son of a bitch! He was drunk. Again.
That’s when the fear had turned to anger. I called
him back, and from that point on, everything just snowballed into a shitstorm.
I’d always known he was okay with having an out-in-the-open relationship with me. But I also thought he’d been okay with keeping it under wraps for a while, too. He’d never pushed, anyway. Until recently.
But last night…
Last night, he hadn’t held back what he really thought. And when he’d hung up on me after blurting out that whole falling in love bit, I felt like I’d been knocked out flat by a nine iron.
I’d called back.
Of course, I had called back. I couldn’t just let it end with that. I even texted, demanding that he answer his phone. But I’m kind of glad he hadn’t because I wasn’t all too sure what I would’ve said back to him last night if he had.
I grew worried after that. What if he’d fallen down and actually hurt himself? It was obvious he wasn’t sober at all. Which was a concerning fact all by itself. The birthday drinking, okay, I could understand. But overindulging two weekends in a row?
That wasn’t like him at all.
