Chapter 64-1

64. Eat the Middle First A long exasperated breath cascaded from Chase’s lips, and then he grabbed a steady hold of LaCienega’s arm and pulled her up from her bar stool. “Come on,” he grumbled. “Home you go.” She tore her arm apart from him in a moment’s notice and earned herself another sigh. He would have held on harder if not for the fact the girl’s arm was thin, and he didn’t want to do her more damage than the ones she was already carrying in her heart. His generosity went unnoticed. LaCienega's only response seemed to be her determination to wave down the bartender as she sat back down on her stool. “Can I get another please?” She pointed down at her empty glass before changing the direction of her finger to point at Chase. “And one for my friend.” The bartender gave Chase a look just to confirm, but Chase shook his head. “Nothing for me.”  Then he had second thoughts and cleared his throat to get the bartender’s attention again. “Actually, can I get a glass of water? Make that three of them.” Why not? It was three in the morning, and Krislynn was probably fast asleep at home by now. He didn’t really have a place he needed to hurry to be. “How did you even get here anyways?” He sat down on the stool beside hers. As far as Jace told him, LaCienega didn’t leave the house with anything but her phone and God knows she hadn’t been answering that all day. “Don’t tell me you actually walked all the way here.” She laughed. “I gave the taxi driver my phone. Told him I’d pay him tomorrow.” Well that was reckless, he thought, but it wasn’t as bad as his previous imaginations were so he let it slide as the bartender came over and placed their drinks in front of them. “And how did you pay for your drinks?” He asked, glancing up at the bulky bartender with a raised eyebrow. “With this,” the bartender grumbled. He reached inside the pocket of his pants and in a moment made a loud clack sound when he banged the object against the wooden counter. Chase’s face grew dark the second his eyes caught the quiet glint of the object in the dim lighting. “You gave him your engagement ring? Wow.” She shrugged and Chase wanted to whack his own head against the counter. “But Jace gave that to you! Doesn’t that mean anything?” “Not now it doesn’t!” She screamed. “Lookee here, I don’t pry into my customers’ business,” the bartender stated indifferently. “Ring’s nice and all, but I’d rather the dough. Too much burden.” Sighing, Chase reached for his wallet. “How much does she owe you?” He muttered. “We’ll take the ring back.” “I don’t want it.” LaCienega’s whimpers were uncontrollable as Chase made the quick exchange with the bartender, but he didn’t care. If she wanted to get rid of the ring, that was reasonable, but she should give it back to Jace and maybe get a bit of her dignity back rather than trade it for cheap liquor at a cheap pub. She threw back the liquor when he refused to listen, but before she could drown herself in further self-denial, he took the tumbler from her hands and gave her a glass of water. “Sit all you like,” he muttered. “I don’t think it’s my fault, but I guess I had a play in all of this. If you want to stay, we’ll stay. If you want to talk, we’ll talk. If you want to drink, you can drink that.” He nodded at the water. “And if you want to cry, be my guest. And when you’ve gotten all of that out of your system, I’ll take you home.” Chase waited for her response, but when she started openly sobbing for what he thought was no apparent reason, he decided her response must have been an agreeable one. For five minutes, she just cried her heart out like she was the only one in the room, and then she abruptly stopped and threw the glass of water he gave her at him. The ice water splashed across his face and he winched partially from the liquid that dripped down the collar of his shirt, and partially from the sudden impact that blinded his eyes. After a quick sweep of his palm diagonally down his face like a windshield wiper, he blinked his eyes until he regained better vision and nodded unenthusiastically at her. “Alright, fine. I guess I deserve that much. I did tell him we slept together and I did tell him he needed to reconsider his future with you. Here, feel free to throw another one at me. I already got you the water.” He slid another glass down the short distance of the bar to her and she gripped the glass in her palms before the content sailed out in a tidal wave. “You should have just stayed out of our business!” This time, since he was prepared for it, the impact didn’t bother him as much. “What makes you think you’re entitled to have your two cents about it! Everything was fine before you showed up and started influencing him!” “Influencing him? LaCienega! If you honestly want to talk shit about entitlement right now, what makes you think you’re entitled to him? Literally, his parents are going into separation because of your engagement! Because Jace’s own mother thinks her son won’t be happy with you, and I can’t, as his childhood friend, give my opinion about it?! Fuck that! Things were bad long before I entered the picture.” The front of Chase’s hair was drenched, and he had to push it back to keep the water from dripping down his face after he wiped it. The bartender threw him a couple of napkins, but didn’t care enough to say anything or show any particular emotion on his face before walking away. He's probably seen crazier things that have happened. “It’s– It’s not like that. You’re wrong.” “I’m not wrong. You know I’m right.” “It’s because you told him that we slept together that’s making him have second thoughts! You don’t know how much I love him!” Chase wanted to rummaged through his brain and tear all the pieces out so he didn’t have to think anymore. He didn’t even want to drink, but all of this was making a shot of tequila sound really good right about now. “Shit LaCienega, stop being so pathetic. Why do you even bother trying to hold onto someone who doesn’t want to stay? What’s the point of that?!” “Because I love him!”