AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His glass remained untouched, still resting on the bar in front of us. Mine held my attention while I drew in a deep breath. The condensation ran down the outside of the glass, pooling around the bottom before soaking into the bar mat.
“No, kid, you really are. If you really wanted answers, you know who to ask for them. And to get them, you also know where to find her, especially if you happened to ask the right person for her address.”
I watched as he tipped his glass back, a smile lighting his eyes as the foam formed a mustache on his top lip.
He was right. I was pathetic. I had been sitting around wasting time when a golden carrot had been dangling in front of me every day since she’d left. I could have found her weeks ago if I hadn’t been so busy basking in my own melancholy.
Snatching up the keys to Charlie’s car, I pivoted, threw some cash down on the bar, and headed for the door while Charlie scurried after me. He only just made it into the passenger’s side before I threw his car into gear and sped off toward their house.
“I fucking hate you, you know that, right? You could’ve said something weeks ago. I could’ve been with her now.”
He shrugged again, enjoying the entertainment he’d created himself. He was the puppet master of this situation and deserved the props for it.
“You could’ve just asked. We all thought you were smarter than this.”
I side-eyed him. Maybe he wasn’t the mastermind behind this whole charade after all. Simone clearly deserved more of the credit than I had bestowed upon Charlie just now.
“What if she doesn’t want to see me?” All the gusto of confidence I’d had was quickly dispelling the closer I got to getting Alina’s address.
Charlie hung onto the safety bar above his head as I took another corner. I could have laughed, but my concerns were monopolizing my mind at that moment.
“You’ve given her up once already—”
“Twice,” I corrected him. There was no time for sugarcoating. I needed the God’s honest truth to prepare myself for what might lie ahead.
“Right, twice, and each time she left, you knew you should’ve fought for her, so this is your chance to do that.”
He let out a little squeal as I took another corner at speed.
“What have you got to lose?”
ChapterForty-Two
Callum
What did I have to lose?
Like an orange flashing light that continued to whirl around in my head, the word morphed into something else—lose, loss, lost.
I had nothing to lose, not when Alina had already taken so much of me with her. Losing her again, forever, would mean a pitiful existence for me because I knew I wouldn’t be the same, not now, not after knowing her as a woman. I would be lost without her.
During the four-hour drive, I’d rehearsed what I was going to say to her when I saw her. I planned the words so carefully and tried to hold back my expectations. But when I got to her door, the words escaped me, and I wanted more than anything to make things right between us.
Alina was my first and only ever great love, and that was worth fighting for. I wasn’t about to let her go again so easily.
I first heard her voice through the broken transmission of the intercom. My nerves were on high alert, and I was petrified she’d hear it was me and not answer.
Instead, the door buzzed in release, and I made my way slowly up the stairs to her floor. As I raised my hand to knock, my heart was beating out of my chest, and a wave of nausea filled my gut.
No expectations, I repeated as a mantra as I brought my fist down to meet the lime green painted wood-paneled door.
Even without expectations, I hadn’t thought in this lifetime another man would open her door, greeting me from the other side.
“You the Chinese?”
“Do I look Chinese?” I barked back, caught off guard.
“No.” He rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue. “Are you the Chinesefooddelivery man?”
