Chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

It probably wasn’t wise to be walking around with a check out in the open. Knowing my luck, it would fall out my hand and land in a puddle. I turned to look down the street at Emma’s Coffee shop and contemplated sending her to go do my dirty work, but let’s be honest, I wanted to come. I needed to look Max in the face, even though it hurt.

“Hey, Sandy,” I said to the lady I had met earlier that day.

“Mr. Dunnett is taking a call. I’ll let him know you’re here.” She gave me a small smile and motioned me to take a seat, but I went straight to Max’s office.

Max was in deep conversation. He didn’t notice me come in. I took a moment to stare at his profile. Taking in the way his lips moved and the sharp edges of his jawline. He wore a suit like a Playboy model wore lingerie, and the way he kept playing with the silver pen in his hand did funny thingsto me. I knew things ended a long time ago, but it hadn’t hit home how over we were. I looked down at the check in my hands, and I couldn’t help but think handing it over seemed so final.

There was nothing of my old Max anymore. There was nothing of our past love. I didn’t expect it to hurt, but it did. No one wanted to be forgotten. Even when things were over, people wanted to be remembered. The pen in his finger froze when he noticed me putting the check on his desk.

“Let me call you right back. Something came up,” he said to whoever was on the other end of the line. “Freya, wait.”

My traitorous body stopped at his command, but I refused to turn around. “What for? There’s your money. We won’t miss a payment anymore.”

I had barely gotten the door open when I felt him at my back. Every hair on my neck rose at attention. I jumped when he slammed the door shut. My hand was still gripping the doorknob while both his hands were on the door, efficiently caging me in.

Every cell in my body wanted me to lean back and feel his heat, to lean and smell his expensive cologne, and run my hand over his face to get reacquainted with all the lines and creases, especially now thathe had facial hair.

What was it about good facial hair that got a woman’s panties dripping?

Goddammit, Freya, get your raging vagina in check!

“Don’t be stubborn, Freya. Take the check back.” He dangled the check in front of my face, throwing my hard- earned money back at me. One Dunnett had already made me feel like trash. I would not let another do the same.

Was I the only one being affected by our proximity?

My mouth opened, but I couldn’t speak, scared my voice would betray what I was feeling. Max was the epitome of calm and collected. He told me I was just a childhood memory, didn’t he? Nothing could have prepared me for Max’s touch. My knees almost gave out from the contact. His hand glided down my shoulder to my arm where I was holding the doorknob like my life depended on it.

As if having him close and touching me wasn’t bad enough, feeling his nose on the back of my neck and his warm breath fanning my nape was even worse.

“You still smell like apples,” he murmured.

I couldn’t move, scared that if I did, he’d back away. I felt a featherlight kiss on my shoulder, making my body shiver with uncontrollable want. My imagination was good, but not that good. Max had just kissed me for the first time in seven years—I was starved for more. He chuckled darkly, and for the life of me, I wondered why I didn’t move.

The tip of his nose grazed my ear before he whispered, “Tell me, Freya, if I was to put my hand inside your dress and my fingers inside your pussy, would you be wet for me?”

Those words coming from his mouth were erotic, and if I wasn’t already wet, I sure as hell was now. However, those words were also dirty and wrong coming from his lips. My Max wasn’t a dirty talker; my Max wasn’t anything like this. My hesitation in answer was answer enough for Max .

“Take the check, Freya. From what I remember, you weren’t that good. I don’t want to take away your livelihood.”

That finally gave me the incentive to move, taking away the fog he had temporarily put me in. I turned around and slapped him. Hard. How dare he say thatto me! He was my first love, my first everything that was real. I gave him all of me after prom. All these years, I carried that memory with me because it was beautiful, it was pure, and I never regretted it. Not until now.

“What happened to you, Max? I don’t even recognize you anymore.” I meant it as a rhetorical question. I didn’t want an answer from him. when he took a step closer to me I had to take a step back, my body flush with the door. His eyes had gone liquid dark, and I could see an inferno ready to unleash.

He gave a bitter laugh, his lips flat in a smirk. “You want to know what happenedto me? Darling, you don’t get that privilege. Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of?”

Those words were like a whip, his sharp tongue lashing at me. I wanted him to hate me, didn’t I? I justnever expected him to be cruel and arrogant. God, why did I keep doing this to myself? Why did I do things that would hurt me? What point did I need to prove? Max hated me, congratu- fucking- lations. When you loved someone for the first time, you gave them a piece of you, and sometimes that piece never made it back. I walked out, leaving the money behind. There was no way in hell I would keep it.

“Help! Someone, please help us!” Emma yelled again, and I didn’t mean to laugh, but I found it funny.

“We’re going to die, Freya! Die out here! What will happen to my shop, huh? My parents don’t care about it. They won’t want to take on the burden. Quincy and Jess need the money. I need the money, but hey, since I’ll be dead it won’t matter.”

“Emma, we are not going to die, unless we fall in the pond, then maybe—but it’s okay, we know CPR. We can perform it on each other.” I put my hand on Emma’s shoulder to soothe her.

Emma was overreacting. We would not die. We were just lost. Coming up to the jogging trail had been my bright idea. After my meeting with Max, I was feeling too raw and exposed. Emma only wanted to cheer me up. It wasn’t hard to convince Emma to come on a walk with me, except I didn’t tell her the walk would include a bottle of Patrón. No chaser.

Just your typical walk in the woods, a little crying, feeling sorry for myself, and chugging hard liquor. I told Emma, if she loved me, she would drink with me. No, I didn’t feel guilty for guilting her into drinking. The girl needed to loosen up.

“You want another drink?” I was slurring my words, but I had never felt better. Maybe I could live out here in the woods, nothing but darkness surrounding me. There’d be no Max. There’d be no Abigail. No, Max and Abigail .

Emma wasn’t as happy as I was. “No, I don’t want another drink! Freya, what if we never make it out? What if a bear eats us?”

“There are bears here? I didn’t know this.”

“Yeah, haven’t you seen movies? Bears live in the forest!” she informed me.

“But isn’t this a park?” My head was hurting. Either we were walking in circles, or everything was spinning.

“Emma, let’s go back to the pond. I think the way out is that way.” I fell for the fifth time. Why would I wear heels to a park? I should have changed, but I was still wearing my clothes from the morning. Emma still had on her cute, black skater dress and her apron. Lucky for her, she was wearing yellow chucks.

I laughed when I noticed my scraped knees. Emma came and plopped next to me, reaching for the bottle. “Okay, I’ll have a sip. I think I’m dehydrating from all the yelling.”

I nodded because her voice was getting hoarse.

“You know what’s funny, but also not funny at all?” I said.

“The fact that we are lost?”

“We’re misguided, not lost. What’s funny is that today I wanted Max to fuck me.” I took the bottle of tequila back and took a big gulp, wondering what we would do once the bottle was empty.

“I can’t see.” Emma did the cutest little whine.

“That’s because it’s dark and the trees block out the moonlight. If we find the pond, we can get home.” I never noticed how in the dark everything was creepier. Also, louder. I could hear the night critters. “Remind me never to wear heels again.” I moaned when I almost broke the heel of my Gucci pumps.

“Freya, w-what’s that.”

I looked over to where Emma was pointing.

I almost fainted when I saw what she pointed at. “ Oh shit! Emma, it’s a wolf.”

“I have phagophobia. Do you know what that means, Freya? It means I’m terrified of being eaten alive.” Emma clung to me,both of us hugging each other to feel somewhat safer. “Most Girls” by Hailee Steinfeld played on Emma’s phone. That was her ringtone. That’s when the wolf ran. Emma got up first and helped me off the ground. We took off running in the opposite direction.

Seriously, the pond was right there, ahead of us.

“Fuck my life! Run into the water. I don’t think it will go in there!” I said, taking off my shoes and dragging Emma with me . I’m sorry, Gucci heels, but you aren’t worth my life. The water was past our knees when Emma pulled out her cell phone from where she had tucked it in her bra.

“Oh… I have my phone. I can call the police. They can save us!”

I was about to freeze my ass off. The water was cold. Good thing it only went up to our thighs.

“Yes, this is Emma, Emma Miller. Freya and Iarelost. We don’t know how to get home.” Emma’s voice wobbled on the last part. I stopped listening to Emma’s conversation and instead tried to find the wolfy. I thought the water splashing must have scared him off .

What if it was spying on us waiting to eat us?

“No, but we’re stuck. please, it’s not a prank. There’s a werewolf spying on us.”

Aha, I knew the wolf was spying. That’s when I heard a loud ribbit , causing me to jump and lose my footing and startling Emma, who in return dropped her phone in the water. I was all wet, might as well try to find her phone.

“Emma, what are you doing?” I asked once she sank into the water.

“It sounded like a good idea to submerge myself. It sounded warmer in my head.”

That’s how the cops found us, Emma and I in the water, splashing around trying to stay warm before the wolf ate us.

“Dammit, why-y-y did he have to c-c-come?” Emma cursed when Dex came in to view holding a flashlight.

“But he’s cute to look at.”

“T-that’s the p-problem,” she whispered. I could have sworn there was a hint of regret in her tone, but I wasn’t one to make reasonable assumptions in my inebriated state.

“Aw shit,” I uttered when I saw the man next to Dex. He was much older than I remembered, but I guess being captain did that to you. If there was one person who shouldn’t see me like this, it was Chief Timmy. I wanted to prove I had changed, matured, but look at me. I was drunk at a park.

Shit, parks closed at sundown. That meant I could get taken in.

“Next time, pick something safe for us to do,” Emma whispered as the men got closer to us .

“This was the safe option,” I responded, looking from Dex to Timmy.

“What was the other option?”

“Going all Carrie Underwood on Abigail’s car, maybe Max’s. I wasn’t sure we could pull both off without getting caught.”

“From now on, I’ll pick what we do.”

That was probably a great idea.