Chapter One
Harper
By the time I had calmed myself down enough to walk back out to the front of the bar, Mason had gone. Searching for him amid the Lucky’s customers only made the lump in my throat grow bigger, threatening to drive me to tears.
“You okay?” Miles asked. He mixed a drink for a waiting customer with expert hands as he looked at me. Miles always offered up good advice when asked, but I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone at the moment.
I gripped the side of the bar as I steadied myself, unable to respond just yet.
“Harper? Are you okay?” Miles stared at me now, seeming prepared to jump to action if something was really wrong.
Something is really wrong, I thought. But nothing anyone can fix.
“I’ll be fine, I just need a minute.” I turned and silently shuffled to the walk-in cooler in the kitchen, a place where I could find some space to be alone. Swinging open the door, the cold air instantly hit my overheated face, seeping through my shirt. It was strangely comforting, despite the circumstances.
“He shouldn’t have come here.” I talked to myself as I squatted behind the stack of beer boxes and kegs in the corner, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. All he did was lie to me, this whole time.”
Hot tears leaked from my eyes. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe, as if all the wind had been knocked out of me by his unexpected visit.
Why had he come here? Had he honestly thought that saying a half-hearted apology would make everything better, after he had lied so much to me? “I don’t need him, I don’t.”
You do.
I shook myself out of my thoughts. I didn’t need Mason any more than I needed Jake or any other liar I had ever dated. It was all nonsense; they had all pretended it was a game, some sort of test for me. But Mason had hurt me the most. It had cut the deepest because for once in my life, I thought someone actually cared enough to be honest with me. His entire demeanor had seemed so honest and so good that I hadn’t doubted one word he said, even as my logic had told me otherwise. Not to mention Avery, who had been skeptical from the start.
Maybe I really am just terrible at finding good men.
“Harper, what the hell?” One of the older waitresses, Cindy, came in. I wiped the tears off my cheeks, sniffling a little. “We need you out front. There’s a huge crowd out there now.”
“Sorry, I’ll be there in a second.”
I caught a glimpse of myself in the polished stainless steel door and I realized I looked almost nearly as bad as Mason had. My hair hung in a limp ponytail and my eyes had dark circles beneath them, in part because of tiredness, but also because my makeup had smeared a little from the tears. The thing that disturbed me the most was the emptiness—my face looked vacant, void of all emotion. I blinked away tears at that thought and walked into the stuffy bar.
Miles gave me a smile as I leaned against the bar and stared at the floor, catching a glimpse of the white envelope protruding from my apron. I opened it and stared at the wad of money, my payment for a job that I hadn’t even completed. I tugged the crisp bills out of the envelope, turning so people wouldn’t see what I had. I counted them out, my mind too frazzled to even begin to realize how much there was as hundred after hundred appeared.
A folded white slip of paper fell to the ground. I shoved the cash in my front pocket, kneeling down to grab the paper.
I’m sorry. I love you. –M
I could feel a few tears escape from my eyes. I wiped them away instantly, straightening and crumbling the paper in my fingers, stuffing it into my pocket with the money.
Inside the bar had grown chaotic, as people began to gravitate toward the big windows at the front of the building. Flashes of blue and red worked their way into the room like weird disco lights. Sirens followed, loud even from inside the bar.
“What’s going on out there?” Miles hollered to the crowd gathered near the large window.
“The world’s going to shit, that’s what.” A patron, a regular, sat down at the bar, shrugging out of his coat. “Get me a Bud, Miles, would you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, standing on my tiptoes and trying to see over the heads of the curious customers.
“Can’t even walk down the street these days without somebody going for your goddam throat. Fuck that.”
Miles handed the man a beer, his calm voice breaking in. “Now, Joe, what the heck are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. When I walked in, some guy was lying on the ground next to some fancy car.”
“A guy?” My voice sounded hollow in my ears as I stopped trying to look out the window, staring at the patron in what I knew must have seemed like desperation. “Oh my God... What did he look like?”
“Bloody.” Joe laughed half-heartedly, taking a hearty swig of his beer. “Probably some hoodlum wanted that fancy car or something. Damn kids. I don’t feel safe walking in my own city, anymore. Back in the day...”
Joe’s words faded from my attention. A fancy car? Surely there were plenty of those around in the city. But right outside the bar? My heart sank into my stomach. I reached into my pocket and rubbed the paper Mason had given me just minutes before; the paper that held the words I had wanted to hear from someone for so long.
Mason, where the hell are you now? I wondered. I hadn’t seen where he had come in, or where he had left from.
Reaching into my back pocket and pulling out my phone, I stared at the screen. Nothing from Mason. My heart sank further into my stomach. I did have one missed text from a number I didn’t recognize.
Jake is mine, not yours. Tell him to get his fucking ass back home.
What the…? Jake wasn’t with me. Why would whoever this was think he was with me?
I tapped on my phone, contemplating whether to call Mason, and then decided against it. He could take care of himself. I was sure he was fine.