meet strangers and just start talking to them. I’d only given the girls a polite nod when they said hi to me, and I focused on my martini.
I really needed to start opening up to people a bit more. After my conversation with Chris earlier, it made me realise that I’d been shutting myself off for a very long time I should start socialising more, and expand my circle. Rachel was the only person I was genuinely close to, and that didn’t make any sense because I was putting too much pressure on her to be my emotional support.
I was just thinking about that when my phone suddenly buzzed, and I pulled it out to find that it was an unknown number. Caller ID showed that it was Chris Humphrey, and don’t know why I straightened up as soon as I saw that. I first turned around to make sure that he wasn’t anywhere close by, then I crouched and pressed the phone to my ear, having to turn the volume all the way up so I could hear him.
“Hello?” I practically yelled at him.
“Hi, Olivia,” he said. “Is this a bad time?”
+25 BONUS
Chapter Twenty Fear
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m at the club, so I can’t really hear you properly.”
No, don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s my fault. I should have waited until tomorrow morning before calling you. But I just couldn’t help myself. I’ve been sitting here for thirty minutes now, trying to convince myself not to call you. But I couldn’t do it. I just needed to hear your voice”
“Chris, that’s so sweet,” I replied. “I don’t even know what to say ”
+
“I know this is crazy,” he said, “but I’m just thinking about how I met you just after I decided to give it another shot. Maybe this is me overanalysing things, but I just feelke there’s something between us. And I know it might seem small and insignificant now, but I really want to…”
The rest of his sentence is swallowed up as I feel someone tap my shoulder. I turn around expecting to find Emily, but I’m shocked when I realise it’s actually Chris. I’m so stoned by the sight of him that I don’t know what to say, and I stupidly keep the phone pressed against my car while he smiles at me.
“Why so quiet?” he asked over the phone.
“1–I think I just saw someone I know,” I replied, a smile creeping across my lips. “I’ll have to call you back.”
I hung up and smile at him, offering him the seat beside me. He immediately sat down, then turned to face me with a goofy smirk.
Before you say anything, I’m not stalking you,” he said.
“Oh, there’s nothing you can say right now that will make me believe that,” I said. “That’s twice I’ve run into you today. You’ve definitely got a tracker on me or something.”
“It’s not a tracker,” he said. “I just paid someone to follow you all the time and report your every movement back
to me.”
I raised my eyebrow at him, and he shrugged nonchalantly as he ordered more drinks for us.
Are you going to tell me what you’re doing here?” I asked
“I swear it was just a coincidence,” he said. “When you said you were going out earlier, I also thought I should go out for a drink or two. I guess great minds think alike, because we somehow ended up going to the same club.”
“In my defence, I didn’t come here of my own volition,” I said. “Rachel dragged me here. She’s the one in the red. dress dancing with those girls.”
Chris glanced over my shoulder, and he smiled as his gaze shifted back to me. “So why aren’t you dancing?”
“I don’t dance,” I replied. “Not unless you want someone to get seriously injured out there.”
He laughed, and the sound was so warm and soothing that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. Chris was such an easygoing man, and he didn’t take himself too seriously. He was the perfect amount of charming and playful, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was something I could see going far. It was still so fresh, but maybe I could give it a chance.
“Surely you can’t be that bad,” he said.
“I actually am,” I replied. “On prom night, I stepped on my date’s feet so many times that he had to go to the nurse’s office. Twice.”
“Well, I’m wearing boots today,” he said, offering me his hand. “I’m sure you won’t be as bad as you were back then.”
Maybe it was something in the way he said it. Or maybe it was the alcohol getting to my head. But I found myself
+25 BONUS
Chapter Twenty Frut
putting my hand in his, and allowing him to lead me to the dance floor.
But we were only halfway there when I stopped dead in my tracks.
Time seemed to slow down as I stood rooted to the spot, and I could have sworn that the music faded away for just that moment, I wasn’t looking at Chris, or Rachel or anything else around me. Instead, my gaze was fixed on the man dancing slowly with a beautiful woman in the middle of the dance flour. She was pressed up against him, her black dress pulled so far up that her thighs were exposed.
But I didn’t care about her.
I was staring instead at the man, who never took his eyes off her. There was a sadness to his eyes that I’d never seen before, and he looked like he wasn’t enjoying this at all. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, except for the fact that it was my ex–husband.
I couldn’t breathe, and the terror that gripped me in that moment was unlike anything I’d ever felt. I was absolutely terrified of what I was looking at, and I couldn’t believe that he was here, only a few feet away from me and dancing like he didn’t have a care in the world. His hair was blonde, for some reason, and he seemed a little bit taller. But it was still the same face that had haunted my dreams for three years now, the same man who had traumatised me so much that I could never be the same again. I felt like a cornered animal, my heart beating so wildly that it was about to burst out of my chest. My blood turned cold, and I felt like I was going to pass
out.
“Are you okay?” Chris asked beside me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
It wasn’t a ghost. It was the devil himself, and he didn’t look like he knew I was there. Could it be that he just happened to be in London today? But what were the chances of us ending up in the same club? The probability of that happening must be astronomical.
And then he turned and looked up at me, and I almost collapsed on the spot. His dark eyes seemed to bore right through me, and his lips were slightly parted as he shifted so he was facing me properly. I should have turned around and fled from the club. I should have grabbed a bottle and slammed it across his face. But I remained rooted to the spot, frozen by the memories of all the years I’d spent being afraid of him, and all the horrible things he’d done to me.
But something was off.
Marcus stared at me like I was a total stranger. It was as if he didn’t even recognise me, and the way he narrowed his eyes at me was out of confusion than recognition. He must have been pretending, or maybe it was just him trying to get into my head.
I should do something. Walk away from him, or go up to him and slap him across the face. But I couldn’t move, and when he started to walk towards me, I knew I was going to do something stupid.
He stopped in front of me, and for a moment, it was just the two of us in the club. Everyone else disappeared, and I was painfully aware of the way I was trembling all over. Up close, there were a few differences to the man I remembered, but it was still the same face. He smelled different, but I wasn’t going to be fooled by that.
And then he leaned forward and said, “Can I help you?”
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe how cruel he was, pretending not to recognise me. It was like a slap to the face, and I couldn’t believe that he would do this to me,
“Miss, you’re staring at me,” he said smoothly. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
The nerve of this asshole. The bastard was pretending I was just a stranger. It made me feel se small and insignificant. I knew he was evil, but this was a new low, even for him.
He straightened up, and a bored expression swept over his face as he said, “Since you’re not going to say
Chapter Twenty Four
anything, please stop staring at me. You’re creeping me out”
My ears were ringing from his words, and I didn’t know what to even say to hitn.
So I did the only thing I could think of.
I poured my drink in his face and walked away.
