Page 110 of The Meeting
He looked so good in his khaki shorts and button-up shirt. She wanted to invite him over for pizza, but knew it would give mixed signals. She still needed to make sure she wasn’t making a poor decision and deciding only the next day that she was ready to get back into a relationship made her seem too wishy-washy.
Chase looked up and made eye contact… and then hurried into his apartment without so much as a smile.
Her face crumbled, and she backed away into her apartment, closing the door before she could openly cry outside.
27
Chase lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, turning the small box over in his hand. He opened it and stared at the Helenite necklace he had bought for Kailynn in Montana. He planned to give it to her the night she broke up with him. Instead, it weighed heavily in his pocket on the short walk back to his place.
He needed to get to work, but was tempted to call Eileen to tell her he was sick. He knew better than anyone that lying around his apartment would only make things worse, especially if he heard or saw Kailynn.
That was motivation enough to get him out of bed. He opened his nightstand drawer and dropped the box inside before slamming it closed and getting into the shower. He quickly got ready and got into his car before he could talk himself out of it. It was going to be a long day.
Seeing her briefly the other night when she was grabbing dinner from the delivery guy was hard enough. He couldn’t bear to see her for more than a few seconds, so he hurried off before he could beg her to come back. But she didn’t need that. She needed the time to think without him tossing his feelings into the ring.
He couldn’t blame Kailynn for feeling the way she did. The same questions had crossed his mind. His marriage was over long before the divorce went through, but the divorce itself was still painful regardless. Allison had been his best friend before they got married, so when the marriage failed, so did their friendship. He lost her in the end. It was too painful for both of them to keep in contact after the years had dragged on in their marriage, so they parted ways and hadn’t spoken to each other since. It was a silent agreement.
But even after all of that, it didn’t change the fact that he knew he loved Kailynn. She was unlike anyone he had ever met. The only thing he could do at that point was wait to see if she still wanted him once she sorted out her feelings.
The pain that crept into his chest at that thought was crippling. She might not want him. She might not come back.
He made it over to his office; although he didn’t know how. The drive was a blur, but now he was in the parking lot. He walked through the front door, a half hour late, and Eileen looked up at him, startled.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he walked back to his office. The night had been rough, and he wouldn’t have put it past himself to cry in front of Eileen. That certainly wouldn’t be a good thing for her to see.
He sat at his desk and his mind flashed to when he and Kailynn fucked on top of it.
“Christ,” he muttered. That was the last thing he needed to remember right now.
He flicked on his computer and opened up his emails. The mundane task of sorting them was sure to keep him distracted for a few hours, but it was just his luck that he only had two.—The least amount of emails in the history of emails.
He pulled over a case file sitting on the top of the stack on the corner of his desk. He had a full day ahead of him, so he shifted his mindset into work.
When Chasefinally broke away from work, he sat back at his desk. It was late. Eileen had left a few hours earlier, but he wanted to continue to go through his files. The last thing he wanted to do was sit at his apartment or in a restaurant and eat alone. Checking his phone was pointless as there were no waiting messages from him. The random texts he would receive from Kailynn throughout the day always made him smile—it was one more thing he already missed.
Throughout the night, he had wanted to go to Kailynn’s to see if they could discuss the breakup more, but the last thing he wanted to do was pressure her to be with him. She needed to make that decision on her own, and she didn’t need him in her ear. He had paced around his living room in the dark for several hours, sometimes walking over to his front door intending to go to her place, but stopped himself.
If she had wanted to talk to him, she would have.
And now he would go home to his empty apartment. He hoped to catch a glimpse of Kailynn, but at the same time, he knew it would only make things worse. No. He needed to keep to himself. It was hard enough avoiding her the other night.
Chase grabbed fast food on his way home and got into his apartment quickly. He didn’t see Kailynn, but suspected she was keeping her distance as well. He sat down on his couch and turned on a random television show while he ate his burger and fries.
His phone ringing had him springing for it where it sat on the coffee table. He expected to see Kailynn’s name come up, but it was his mom.
He sighed. “Hi Mama.”
“Hey honey. What’s wrong?” His voice wasn’t its normal happy self, so it was obvious when he wasn’t doing well. He knew she would know instantly. It was always hard for him to hide his feelings from her, so he never bothered to try anymore.
He rubbed his eyes and leaned forward on the couch to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Kailynn and I broke up.”
“No! What? What happened?”
