Three

I woke to a harsh string of sunlight on my face. Streaming through a window I didn't recognize, falling across a bed that wasn't mine, and I lay there for one horrible, suspended moment with my brain struggling to catch up to my body.

What happened…?

I shut my eyes and pinched my nose bridge as I winced from the brewing headache.

How much did I drink to feel this shitty? I threw my head back in regret as I breathed through the nausea, and looked down at myself. I was still in last night's wrinkled, rumpled clothes. But I had them on. All of them, from what I could tell. I shifted carefully, rubbing my thighs together to check for pain, and felt nothing but the dull ache of too much tequila and the hollow thud of my own heartbeat.

There was no soreness, no tenderness. Nothing that suggested we'd done more than kiss like desperate teenagers in that dark hallway.

Oh Eva!!

Why did you drink so much? I berated myself. I was to be married, I have a child, what would people think of me when they see me in another man's bed? 

What’s the difference between me and Jace?

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A soft sound suddenly came from beside me, I almost shrieked, startled.

The man from the bar lay on his stomach, one arm thrown across the pillow, his face turned toward me. In sleep, he looked younger somehow, the hard edges of his jaw softened, dark lashes resting against his skin. The sheet had slipped down to his waist, and I could see the broad expanse of his back, the curve of muscle at his shoulder.

He was beautiful. Even I could admit that, shame and all.

But I needed to leave.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed as quietly as I could, my eyes scanning the floor for my shoes. There they were, kicked off near the dresser. I stood up carefully, taking one step when I felt warm fingers closed around my wrist, holding me back.

My heart almost stopped. 

I looked back and sighed so loudly in relief when I saw his eyes were still closed, his breathing still deep and even. His hands held on with a gentle yet unyielding grip.

For a long moment, I just stood there, staring at his hand around my wrist and the warm feeling it filled me with, and the contrast of his skin against mine.

I don't know why that made my throat tight. Maybe because it had been so long since anyone had held onto me like that. Maybe because even in sleep, even as a stranger, he seemed to want me to stay when the man I'd given years to had made it clear I was nothing but a prop.

I pulled my hand away gently. His fingers slackened, and he rolled onto his back, still asleep.

I found my shoes, my bag, and let myself out.

~

What was I thinking? That's the point, I wasn't thinking. I'd let Jace reduce me to someone I didn't recognize, someone who threw herself at strange men in bars because she needed to feel wanted for five minutes.

I am a mother. I have a daughter. What kind of example was I setting?

Lily. Oh God, Lily was still at Chloe's.

I dug my phone out of my bag, wincing at the battery warning flashing in the corner. Twelve missed calls, all from Chloe. The last one came in twenty minutes ago, and the text beneath it made my stomach drop:

WHERE ARE YOU THE WEDDING IS IN TWO HOURS

Wedding?

Jace was still going through with the wedding after what he did?

Today was supposed to be the day I became Jace's wife. Today was supposed to be the start of our forever, until he ruined it and he still has the gut to go through with it.

Just what the heck did he think of me?

The cab pulled up to Chloe's building, and I threw cash at the driver before I even registered the fare.

Chloe opened the door before I could knock, her eyes going wide as she took me in. My wrinkled clothes, my mascara surely raccooned down my face. The general disaster I knew I must look like.

"Oh my God," she breathed. "What happened to you? I've been calling—Jace called me looking for you at midnight, and then again at two, and I didn't know what to tell him, I said you were with me. Your mother called, his mother called, the planner even called—"

Call for what?

"I need to see Lily."

"She's fine, she's watching cartoons and eating her weight in pancakes. You look—" She stopped, her sharp eyes taking in more than my appearance. "Something happened, right? Did you meet him? What happened?"

I walked past her into the apartment, and the moment I saw Lily curled up on the couch, clutching her stuffed rabbit and giggling at the screen, I exhaled. She was fine and safe with zero idea that her world had imploded last night.

I sank onto the arm of the couch and just watched her for a moment, letting the sound of her laughter wash over me.

Chloe appeared at my elbow with a cup of coffee so strong I could smell it from here. "Here," she ordered. "You look like shit."

I grabbed the cup and made space for her to sit, taking a sip from the hot liquid. I took a breath, then another. I half whispered what has happened to her, starting from where I found jace to where I found myself.

I trusted her not to tell anyone about it, and well, myself, not to feel guilty about it.

Whatever bond that was between me and Jace broke the moment I found him at that hotel.

Chloe's face went through about seventeen different emotions, it was almost funny but I knew that was the same thing I went through last night. Before bursting into fierce rage that made her look like she was ready to commit murder.

"That son of a bitch," she said quietly. "That absolute garbage fire of a man. I never liked him, Eva. I never said it because you loved him, but I never liked him and look how he turned out."

"I know. I've learned my lesson now."

"Well, what are you going to do now? The wedding is in less than two hours and you are a mess.”

I turned to Lily, who began scooting over when she saw me. She trusted the world to be good because I'd always tried to make it that way for her, she trusted her father, she believed we'll be happy like the princes and princesses in her bed time stories. 

How fast and easily Jace broke that bubble.

"I'm going to the wedding," I said to Chloe, patting Lily's cheeks before giving her a kiss. “How's my baby doing?”

She scrunched up her nose from the smell of my alcohol breath. “Mmhmm. Mummy stinks.” I chuckled and rubbed her nose.

Chloe looked like she was about to burst into burning confetti. "You're joking."

"I'm not marrying him, Chloe. God, no. But I'm not letting him spin this. He'll have some story ready, I know him. He'll say I got cold feet, or I was crazy, or I ran off with another man, and if I'm unlucky enough, he'll find where I went to last night and get his hands on the CCTV. He'll make himself the victim." I watched as Lily climbed down the sofa and grabbed her dolls, going to play with them. "We're done. Whether he likes it or not but I'll make sure he doesn't get the best of it."

Chloe was quiet for a long moment before she spoke up. "Okay," she said. "What's the plan and how do you intend to execute it? Jace might be a fool but he knows how to wiggle out of problems."

“Dan works at Marquette right?”