Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Damn, what was wrong with me? I shouldn’t be thinking about this guy like that. I’d just had my hopes and dreams crushed by my husband and my sister. I didn’t need to be looking at this man. It was a bad decision but it was nice to have someone like him look at me. 

He finished off his drink before pouring another and I picked up the tumbler that sat in front of me. “No, this is fine. But I can’t stay for long. My, uh, my friend is waiting for me.” I took a sip, looking away from the intense gaze that he had pinned me with. 

I almost felt guilty lying to him, but for all I knew he was some sort of serial killer and wanted me to be his next victim. Which, in all honesty, would have been the icing on the cake of the shitty day I’d been having. 

He didn’t say anything, but I had the feeling from the way he looked at me. With his lips ghosting into a smile that I would have missed if I weren’t paying attention, he knew that I was lying. I didn’t know how he knew, but I had a gut feeling that I couldn’t lie to this man.

“I’m Spencer.” He said, picking up the tumbler and leaning back in his seat as he watched me. 

“Andreena.” I answered him, taking another long pull from my drink. It burned but it helped me loosen up. 

“Andreena, it’s been a long day. Why don’t you tell me your problems and I’ll tell you mine? We can keep each other company for the evening, I hate to drink alone.” His gaze flicked down to my lips and I sucked in a breath at the look in his eyes. It was like he actually cared what I was going to say. 

It had been so long since anyone had cared to hear what I had to say that I felt something rise in my chest. A feeling that I hadn’t felt in so long. I felt wanted and seen.

I knew at that moment I was going to stay here and talk to him. It didn’t matter for how long, maybe we would finish off the bottle but I knew we both needed someone to hear us. 

“I don’t like to drink alone either, but it’s nothing more than that.” I said, lifting the tumble to my lips and taking a sip. I reached over to grab the bottle and he pushed my hand away. Sparks moved over my skin at his touch and I frowned. Pulling my hand away from his as if his touch had burned me. 

Looking down at my fingers, I stretched them. Was the alcohol having a weird effect on me? I’d never had that reaction before when drinking, but maybe the liquor was stronger than I was used to. It wasn’t cheap, sweet wine that my sister and I liked to drink when she would come over to hang out. 

“It doesn’t have to be more than that. Just a few drinks.” Spencer said, pouring more of the whiskey into my glass. He was careful, not looking at me as he watched the tumbler. He filled it up more than I was used to before sitting the bottle down and sliding the glass towards me. 

“I walked in on my husband and my sister fucking. They, they are, she’s pregnant.” I looked down, not saying anything. I was afraid that if I did, I would start to cry again. 

“That’s fucked up.” He said, finally looking up at me. “My father wants me to settle down and get married.” 

“Don’t do it, it’s a trap. It’ll just leave you feeling broken after you have given it everything you had to try to make it work. I’m just glad I was never able to, that we didn’t have any children-“ I bit my lower lip, feeling my eyes burn. The words hanging in my throat making me feel like I was a failure. Maybe if we hadn’t been struggling to conceive Nolan wouldn’t have slept with my sister?

Maybe I wouldn’t be here feeling like I was the problem when I wasn’t the one who cheated.

Damn it, I didn’t want to cry right now. I had just met Spencer. He didn’t need me to get all weepy around him. It was stupid that I felt so hurt and that the only person who seemed to care was this handsome stranger sitting across from me. 

“Is that what happened to you?” Spencer asked, taking another sip of his drink before he sat it down onto the table. “Did catching them together break you?”

“Yeah.” I reached out, picking up my drink and taking a sip. The alcohol was starting to get to me and I knew that this was going to have to be the last one for me. If it wasn’t, I might end up doing something stupid, like calling Nolan or texting my sister. “I think what hurts worse is that they were in my home. Our bed, it just all sucks and I can’t stop feeling like it’s my fault.”

“They don’t deserve you. No one should do that to the one they love.” There was something in the way that he said those words. A fierceness that pulled me out of my pity party and made me look up at him. His pale eyes seemed to grow brighter and if I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn that I had seen sharp, fang-like teeth in his smile. 

“They shouldn’t, but sometimes it happens. I’m sorry for spilling all of my problems onto you.” I looked at his hand that he had wrapped around his glass. His nails were well manicured and short, but they looked shiny in the lights of the bar almost like he had spent time buffing them out so they gleamed. It reminded me of the hands of the men that came into the shop. Not like Leonardo’s hands, he had hands that were scarred from flames and countless hours working with heated poles in his studio. 

No, these were the hands of a man that was in control. Of a man that took what he wanted without a thought or care to what anyone else thought about it.