Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (25 page)

I was finally getting my cast
off and Remy was taking me to my appointment. Gino had already put me on the
schedule as soon as I told him the good news and I would be going back to work
the next day.

“So you ready to get that thing
off,” Remy asks as she pulls into the parking lot of my
doctors
office. “Absolutely,” I reply opening my door and swinging my leg and crutches
out as Remy scurried over to help me out.

“I love Chase and all but I am
so ready to do things on my own. I’m ready to burn these too.” I gesture down
to the crutches as I hobble towards the front entrance.

“Chase is such a
sweetheart,
he really would do anything for you. Mark
complains that he’s always showing up late for practices or performances
because he’s helping you out.”

“Oh trust me I know. Sometimes I
have to literally push him out of the door to leave sometimes.”

 
Remy laughed as she pulls the doors open for
me. One hour later I was walking on my own out the front doors. It was
definitely going to take some getting used to without the cast and that leg was
a little
paler
in comparison to my other one but I
wasn’t complaining. Hopefully after a night of waitressing tomorrow I would be
used to putting weight on my leg again.

“Thanks for taking me
Rem
, I’ll see you tomorrow night,” I say as she drops me
off at the apartment. “Can’t wait I’ve missed working with you,” she calls out
the open window.

I slowly make my way up the
stairs and turn my key in the lock before the door swings back and Chase greets
me.

“Hey what are you doing here so
early? I didn’t see your truck parked out
front,
I
thought you were going to pick up Caleb.”

 
He picks me up from the hallway and I wrap my
legs around his waist. God I can’t believe how much I missed being able to do
that. I cling around Chase’s body as he walks us back to the bedroom. He
finally answers my question after setting me down on his bed.

 
“Teddy dropped me off. I figured I’d use your
car and pick up Caleb at the usual time so I got home a little early hoping I
could catch some alone time with you. I left my truck over at his place because
we went over to this tattoo shop together. He’s going to pick me up in the
morning so we can practice for most of the day before our gig tomorrow night.”

“Tattoo shop?” I raise a brow at
him and realize that he’s just standing in front of me in nothing but a low
slung pair of black pajama pants. How that delicious treat could have gotten
past my sight is unknown as I lick my lips to wet them. I notice a wide white
bandage taped over his ribs that I seemed to miss too. “So what did you get?
Please tell me you did not get my name tattooed on your body.”

“No Leah,” he laughs out, “but
that’s a good idea.
Maybe next time.
Let’s just say
you inspired this one though,” he slowly peels off the bandage as he comes
closer to the bed. There’s an elegant cursive quote written across his ribs.
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life; that word is love.”

I lightly run my fingertips over
the dried ink. “Wow that’s beautiful Chase, is it something you wrote?”

“Ha no I wish.
Sophocles, a Greek poet.
I’ve studied him for awhile, this
quote earned a lot more meaning to me when I met you,” he says as he reapplies
the bandage and drops down onto the bed next to me. I roll over and straddle
his body with my legs. “I really like it, it’s beautiful. You’ll have to take
me with you someday to get one.”

“I definitely will go with you.
No one needs to be that intimate with this body expect for me.” He runs his
hand up and down my uncovered leg. “I’m sure it’s nice having that cast off.
Does this mean you’re going to move out now?”

“I don’t know,” I raise an
eyebrow at him. The thought truthfully hasn’t even crossed my mind. Even though
I felt guilty at first about invading Chase’s space it seemed like he liked
having us here. “Are you in a hurry for me to leave? I wouldn’t be able to have
my way with you anytime I wanted,” I say as I lean in to place light kisses
across his chest and up to his neck slowly licking and sucking my way up until
I reach his full lips that I can feel have broken into a smile against my lips.

“Not at all.
Anytime you want your way with me Leah, I’ll be willing to play along.”

“Oh yeah,” I say as I wiggle my
hips around bending my head down to meet his lips again. “Let’s see if you
still agree at the end of the night. You might not be able to handle me.” I
reach my hand down between our bodies and push down his pants. “We really need
to catch up now that we don’t have my leg to work around.”

                                                                                                                                                               
               
****************************

The next day I had two classes
to get to and was again thankful that the cast was
gone,
it was so much easier to get around campus without it and not have to depend on
anyone. I think Caleb was happy it was gone
too,
we
could finally play and chase each other around without anything in the way. I
was looking forward to working tonight so I could slowly start to add to my
savings account again. I could hear the familiar ringtone that meant Chase was
calling as I headed to my next class.

“Hey handsome,” I answer.
“Leah!” I hear him yell through the phone and just from that one word I could
hear the excitement in his voice. “I got it baby, I got it.”

“Um what’s that,” I say
scrunching my nose trying to think of what could be causing him so much
excitement.

“The teaching
job!
I can’t believe it, I haven’t even graduated yet and I have a job
all lined up for next school year.”

“That’s awesome Chase. Congratulations
you totally earned it.”

The school that he had been
doing his student teaching at and had hoped to get a job with didn’t have any
openings but the principal really liked Chase and had recommended him to
another school that had some positions open. He had went in for an interview
last week and had been waiting to hear something back ever since.

“It’s about a two hour commute
roundtrip everyday from here but I figure that won’t be too bad since you only
have about a semester worth of credits left.”

I felt my heart drop a little
bit as his words sank in. We barely had much time together as it was with
school and work and now Chase would spend most of our free time driving. We
hadn’t talked about our future much together, we just knew we loved each other
and I really couldn’t see myself being without him.

I try to push any kind of
sadness out of my voice swallowing over the lump that had bubbled up in my
throat. “We’ll worry about that when the time comes babe,” I say happily. “Are
you excited for your performance tonight?”

“Yeah Teddy says it’s our
biggest one yet. You know how he is, always trying to get us a bigger venue.
You sure you up for work tonight?”

I roll my eyes at him even
though I know he can’t see me through the phone. He’s always worried about me
pushing myself. “Definitely I’m good. I’ll let Gino know if I need a break but
I think it’ll do my leg some good.
Calebs
gonna
hang out with Ally for the night.”

“That’s good I know he’s missed
his alone time with her. Well I’ll see
ya
tonight
it’ll probably be pretty late by the time I get home.
Gotta
go get back to practice, the guys are bitching about this five minute phone
call. I love you.”

“I love you too, good luck
tonight.” I hang up the phone and toss it back into my purse before heading to
my last class with a smile pasted on my face after talking to Chase.

                               
                                                                               
               
******************************************************

“Leah! I’m so excited to have
you back and you even beat me here!” A winded Remy says as she walks through
the entrance of
Ginos
.

“Well yeah my class ended early
and
Allys
grabbing Caleb for me so I figured I would
just
hop
the bus and get started since I’ll probably
be lagging behind a little bit tonight.” I scoop up the salt and pepper shakers
that I was filling and begin to set them out at the mostly empty tables.

“Mine was the opposite; I got
out late and rushed over here. Do you need help with anything?” Remy asks as
she ties on apron on and ties her red hair up into a high ponytail.

“Nope I think I’m good right
now, should be pretty busy in here tonight with the start of the weekend.”

She nods her head in agreement
with me as she follows me around the dining area, “I know I wish you could have
started back on a slower night. Just let me know if you need any help with
carrying things or whatever, doesn’t matter I’ll be there.”

“Thanks Rem.”

The night picked up pretty
quickly and my leg got a good work out. I managed to dodge the wandering hands
that often came on my late nights after a few pitchers of beer are finished up
at the tables of the many college guys that came in to normally start the
drinking nights off with some pizza.

“Hey kid, how
ya
doing?” Gino comes up behind me while I’m putting in an
order and places a meaty hand on my shoulder. “I’m doing good Gino, definitely
busy but I’m easing my way back into things.”

“Good, good,” he says as his
eyes scan the jam packed restaurant. “Let me know if
ya
need anything kiddo, I’m
gonna
jump on to the pizza
line.”

“’Kay thanks Gino,” I yell over
my shoulder as I grab a pizza from the window and head out to the table it
belongs to.

“Phew that was probably our busiest
night since I’ve worked here.” I collapse in the booth across from Remy. “I
know right? We were so swamped. My pockets are extra full tonight from the tips
though so I don’t mind that one bit.” I pull out the wad I have stuffed in my
pockets and begin to count it out. “Looks like I did pretty well too. Do you
mind giving me a ride home?”

Remy nods her head at me as she
continues to count out her change. She slides it all back into a change purse
when she’s finished. “I planned on it girly. I know Mark and Chase are busy
tonight, did you want to head over there with me?”

I look down at my watch and rub
by eyes. It’s already well past midnight and I can feel the wear of the long
day. I’m sure Ally has other plans for the night besides sitting with a sleeping
Caleb. “No if you don’t mind can you just drop me off? They shouldn’t be too
much longer and I know Chase will understand. I’ll make the next one.”

“Not a problem L. Let me just
grab my coat and we’ll hit the road.”

Remy and I lock up the doors
behind us being the last to leave and we head towards the almost completely
empty parking lot. After a short drive and a wave from Remy, I manage to drag
myself up the stairs and kick Ally out of the apartment who insists she just
wants to have some girl time. Not tonight I’m
freakin
’
beat. She leaves to meet up with some friends and after checking on a sleeping
Caleb, I pull on a shirt of Chases and collapse into bed.

I’m startled awake when I hear
the front door slam shut and something crash to the floor. My heart instantly
begins to race and I nudge my elbow into Chase to check out the intruder when I
realize his spot is empty. I flick my eyes over to the clock on the nightstand
and see that it’s a little past four in the morning.

“Hey b-
abby
,”
I hear from the darkened hallway and recognize Chases familiar husky voice even
though its coming out a little slurred. He stumbles over to the bed and crawls
up towards me and I’m instantly assaulted from the alcohol seeping out of his
pours

My nose instantly scrunches up
at the smell. Chase isn’t much of a drinker and if he does he normally has a
limit of five before stopping. “Chase I swear to god if you wake up Caleb I
will beat the shit out of you,” I hiss at him.

“
Shhhh
.
I
miffffed
you so much my Leah
beah
.
Come ‘ere sexy,” he
slurs out as he stumbles up my body and plants a wet sloppy kiss on my mouth
and gropes his hand up under the hem of my shirt onto my bare stomach. “
Eww
Chase.” I slightly push back on his chest and he rolls
over into his empty spot. Now I know he must be SUPER drunk if I can shove him over
with one push of my small hands. “You know I hate that smell, how much did you
have to drink?”

“
MMMarrrhh
,”
he muffles into the pillow and I soon hear the light sound of his snoring. I
roll my eyes and turn over onto my side away from him so I don’t smell the
stench of alcohol coming from him before going back to sleep.

I wake up later in the morning
around 7:30 when I hear a constant chirping coming from the floor next to
Chases
side of the bed. I shove at Chase trying to wake him
up but he doesn’t even budge an inch as I crawl over him to get out of bed.

I step on something as soon as
my feet hit the floor. He must have stripped his coat off at least last night
and I pick it up off the floor to hang it up for him. Just as I scoop it up
something falls out of the pocket and hits the floor. I bend down to see what
it was and loop my finger through some see through material of a red lacey
thong. Now I know THOSE don’t belong to me.

The chirping sound goes off again
and I discover its coming from Chase’s phone that was tucked in the same
pocket. I unlock the screen and see that he has about four missed calls and ten
text messages from someone named Missy. My radar of course instantly perked up
when I found a slutty pair of panties in his pocket that clearly weren’t mine
and now it’s in full force as I see the name Missy pop up on the screen. Isn’t
that like a guaranteed stripper name?