Chapter 119

Emma's POV 

I was really done with Chase. 

I tried to help with the hot pan that was ruining his decor, and what I got as payback was him going out to wait on some delivery guy. 

 "That's it." I said to myself as I got up. 

There was no point in staying there, with the empty chair opposite for company. 

I sat for ten straight minutes, staring at nothingness. 

I wished Lily was there to see it. Cause a while back, it looked like I was making stuff up. 

He literally left me there, my hands were burning. Not even the decency of getting me ice. 

I shed a tear or two as I stood up and went into his room, to do what I was supposed to anyway. 

 "I should not be doing this." I said, as I punched Kevin's number into my phone, with my hurting fingers. 

I was mad at Chase, and I wanted payback. 

 "Hey." Kevin's voice rasped over the phone. I immediately knew that was a sign. He was breathing hard. I recoiled at the thought of interrupting something. 

 "I'm sorry, I should not have called." I mumbled, at the same time fumbling with my phone. 

 "Don't be a stranger." Kevin replied. 

Why did that sound like the exact thing I heard from movies before the guy fucked someone else's girlfriend out if her brains?

At that point, it was a huge fucking red light, and I should've logged out immediately I saw it, but I like dangerous, and I tended to tether more to that edge. 

 "I am." I shot at him. "I never really knew you." 

 "That's sad, isn't it?" He asked. I heard his butt crash on something. And my imagination was starting to picture things Chase wouldn't like. 

 "I don't know." I said, truthfully. "I've got someone." I shoved it in his face. 

 "He can't be as good as me." He declared, rather proudly. 

 "You don't know that." I felt insulted that he could ever compare himself to Chase, no matter how mad I was at the latter. "He's a good guy." I added. 

 "Why are you calling me then?" He asked. "Why are you calling me when y'all are supposed to be cuddling or taking a bath together." He repeated. 

His fucking stupid question brought back thoughts of the bathroom I'd peeked when I entered the room, 

Chase had set it up so beautifully, we would've had hot sex in that tub, with hot candle wax smelting our bodies and their aroma permeating everywhere. 

 "I guess I don't have an answer to that." My conscience was beginning to sting, but I overlooked it. 

 "I'm working out right now." He said. 

I could hear his tone rising. 

And one part wanted to be mad at him. Who the hell was he? Just a few hours ago he was begging for my audience. 

 "Later then." I said. "Bye, I mean." I quickly corrected. 

 "Wait!" He objected. 

I smiled a bit. At least I still had that effect. 

 "I'm sorry." He added. "I just got, uhm, I got…"

 "Jealous?" I offered. 

I heard his breath out before admitting. "Yeah. I got jealous." 

 "You didn't think I owned that card I had earlier, did you?" I asked him. 

 "What does that even mean?" He asked. I wondered what he meant by that. "Aren't you disrespecting yourself?" 

I felt pissed, but not at him. At myself. 

 "How did I?" I swallowed hard before asking. 

 "Maybe because girls make money too?" He asked sarcastically. 

 "I never meant otherwise." I stammered. 

 "You're better than whatever you're going through, Em." He said. 

 "It's Emma." I corrected, angry at myself that someone who I couldn't even comfortably classify as my ex, was diagnosing my problems over the phone. 

 "We don't have to do that." I could literally imagine him flashing a smile after he said that. 

My heart and my head were in conflict. 

One of them, I really didn't know which, wanted me to continue the conversation with him, another was stinging, hurting for Chase. 

We had minor back and forth, after which I cut the call off. He even asked about Lily, for whatever reason, and I made a mental note to make it a gossip topic on the plane. 

The thought of being in foreign skies, above foreign waters in less than eight hours was making me wanna boogie. 

I started arranging my stuff, putting them in order, cause I really didn't know how the night was gonna end. 

 "You don't have control over that!" I replied to him. 

I'd packed my shit, right after the whole Kevin issue, I was so fucking ready to go. 

I mentally weighed lodging in some guest house, or going back home, and the former seemed really sensible. I wasn't ready to face my mom just yet. 

 "It's midnight, Emma." He said. 

 "I don't fucking care, Chase." I screamed at him. 

 "Well, I do." He said. 

 "You don't get to." I replied to him. 

 "Emma, I'm your boyfriend." He screamed in my face. 

 "Chase, you're my Stepbrother." I saw him recoil. My words hit their mark. 

 "No I'm not." He said, "They aren't legally married, no one recognises them as a married couple, except you of course." He said. 

 "What do you mean?"I asked him. I got angrier by the second, with every single thing he said. 

 "Well, my moms death was unreportable, if that's the word." His eyes looked puffy, cause I interrupted his sleep, but he wasn't ever too drowsy to put me in my place. "Mark Norman's wife isn't dead by the books, so he can't be legally married to any other woman." He smiled. 

 "Doesn't mean a fucking thing to me." I said. "I wanna go out." 

 "Emma. Please. When did it get this bad? We were literally having the time of our lives a moment ago. You had arrangements to be in some other country, whole different continent, Emma, and I get noticed on our fucking dinner date." He started. "You go off and talk to some dude who spread your nudes on the fucking internet, twice!" 

 "It was once." I found myself shamefully saying against my will. 

 "I can't believe you." Chase looked at me strangely like I'd grown horns suddenly. "Emma, you're talking to someone who put us through so much, in my fucking house?!" He got so mad he hit the wall, and I swear I felt some sort of vibration. 

 "Throw me out then." I replied. "Lily's waiting." 

 "No, she isn't." He replied, and looked quite sure of himself. 

At that point, knowing what Chase could do, I picked up my phone and called Lily. It went straight to voicemail, but I noticed some messages from her, so I checked them. 

 "Hey babe. Gray stayed back. Says he couldn't leave without me. I'm sorry, Em. We could see Europe some other time." She ended it with teary emojis that mirrored exactly how I felt, and love emojis that must've been how Chase felt. 

 "I guess it's just us then." He said, smiling. 

 "What did you do?" I asked with tears in my eyes.