46 – Alex
What the fuck
Was there an us
I know there was Jory and I, fucking like rabbits at every chance we had. I couldn’t get enough of her, and she seemed to feel the same, for as often as I started it, so did she.
But was there us? As a couple? Could that happen?
The alarm would go off soon
It was almost eight in the morning, and Joey was curled up in my arms. Soon, we would get up, have breakfast and then we would talk about us…
The beeping to my left had Joey groan, as I rolled to the side and pressed the button, silencing the alarm. Rolling back to her, I wrapped myself around her and she snuggled into my embrace
“Ten more minutes.”
1 chuckled, kissing the top of her hair. “I wish, doll. But we have plans, remember?
Joey looked up at me, “We’re really going to do it?”
“Talk about us? Of course we are. But not before breakfast” I smiled, kissing the tip of her nose. I rolled to the side, leaving the bed and went down to the kitchen. Putting the kettle on, I started to get things out of the refrigerator Eggs, cheese, tomatoes, leftover smoked salmon. I would make us a delicious smoked salmon omelet, with sourdough toast and-
“Alex..”
What
doll?” I asked, smiling, as I turned Joey was standing at the doorway of the kitchen, phone in her hand and she was staring down at the screen, a worried look on her face. “Joey”
She looked up at me, her eyes wide and my stomach dropped to my feet. Had something happened to her dad? She was
close to him…
feggs on the counter and went to her, taking the phone and reading the message. It was from a private
I put the carton of e number.
I know you’ve been ignoring my other texts, Joey, but please don’t ignore this one.
I am sorry for what I might have done, to have you so cold toward me.
I need you
Please come back to Miami I don’t know where else to turn to.
Jake
I stared at the message for a few moments, before I looked at her and handed her back the phone.
Fuck
“So?”
“So? He’s your brother.”
“And?”
As far as I was concerned. Jake was nothing but someone my mom pushed out. I had told Joey I didn’t hate him. but I did.
“Don’t you care about him!” I didn’t answer and she blinked. “I–I have to go back to him.”
The air left my lungs, and it felt as if she had driven a knife, with Jake’s name on the blade, right through my heart. It took me a few moments to compose myself
“After what we’ve had the last two months, you’ve got no problem in running back to Jake, the moment he puts on the waterworks?” Joey lowered her gaze, her feet shuffling, and in that moment, although she looked incredibly vulnerable. I was beyond pissed. “Jolene, you could at least look at me.”
Her bottom lip trembled, but finally, Joey lifted her gaze and looked at me. “He’s my best friend. Alex.”
46 Alex
I sucked my tongue over my teeth and turned my head away, arms crossing over my chest as we stood in the kitchen doorway. I turned my attention back to Joey, who had lowered her gaze again and my heart sank to my feet.
There was no way I was going to be able to talk her out of this.
She was going.
I could see it in her stance, in the utter defeat she had in her body. Jake might have broken her heart when he’d married Phoebe… but he still seemed to hold the pieces of it captive and I suddenly realized I was delusional if I thought she would ever have had feelings for me; no matter what other people saw
They were fucking blind too.
“Fine. Go. I don’t care.”
Those five words were the biggest lie I had ever told, and I felt sick as she flinched, and her shoulders slumped. Her closed for a moment, before they opened, and she lifted her gaze to me.
reyes
“Alex..” I deadpanned her, my anger shining through my features, and she blinked, lowering her gaze again and nodded. “THI pack my things.”
She turned and walked to the stairs, taking herself up to the bedroom and I felt like the air had left the whole apartment. My first thought was to pick up the carton of eggs and hurl it against the wall, but instead, I went to the living room, where I’d left my phone the night before and called Oliver. The big man picked up the phone on the first ring. “A little early in the
mor
“How quickly can you organize a fight?” The line went silent, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Oliver.”
ווי
see what I can do. Give me half an hour.“
The line clicked and I dropped the phone back to the coffee table and turned.
Joey was standing at the doorway of the kitchen, her hand wrapped around the handle of her suitcase. There was no way everything she had here, would have fitted into that case, and that’s when I realized she’d left the things I’d bought her here as if she didn’t want the reminder of what we’d had.
I wanted to walk past her and hide in my office and not see her leave the house, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the knowledge she left, without having a chance to say goodbye–even if my heart was being broken in the process.
Joey’s gaze was on the floor, and I watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek and dropped off the side of her jaw and onto the fabric of the blouse she’d changed into. “I’m sorry.”
It took all my strength not to walk over to her and take the case and then shake some fucking sense into her. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to, because of my brother.
Of what he still had.
Pieces of her heart.
The pieces needed to make it whole again and for her to be able to move on.
“No, I am.“Joey finally lifted her head and looked at me, tears rolling down her cheeks. Tm sorry I made the last two months of your life bearable. I’m sorry I gave everything to you.”
Joey’s eyes closed, her bottom lip trembling and I had to stop myself from dropping to my knees and begging her to stay.
I wasn’t going to come out of this in one plece.
I was going to lose my mind, and she was going to rip my heart out of my chest and leave it in pieces on the floor.
Just as my brother had done to her.
“You’re going to go running back to Jake, and he’s going to break your heart all over again.” I walked over to her, stopping just shy of her and reached out, tilting her chin up. Her eyes opened and I stared down into the hazel orbs. filled with pain and sadness. “But do me a favor. Before you let him back in, ask him what happened to his nose, when you were twelve.”
Joey opened her mouth to reply but I shook my head and pressed my finger against her lips.
“Please, just do that for me. Okay?” She nodded and I smiled, leaning forward and pressing a kiss against her forehead and it took all of my strength to pull away from her. “Goodbye, Jolene.”
I stepped past her and went up the stairs to the bedroom and closed the door behind me. Leaning against it. I slid down the wood, until I was on the floor and brought my knees up to my chest. Wrapping my arms around my legs, I buried my head.
against my knees and as I heard the door close to the house which had started to feel like a home… I sat on my ass and cried until I couldn’t cry anymore.
