Fractured (3 page)

Drinking got rid of it, so she was glad for the respite, no matter how fleeting.

Now, though, she had to pay the price for it.

The bed she was laying on moved under the weight of someone shifting their weight. She inwardly groaned.

Oh no...

She peeked around and saw her companion for the night. He was asleep and snoring loudly. Memories of lust and sex came back to her. Her one night stand looked far less appealing now than he had at the bar. If anything, he was downright gnarly and a lot older than the men she usually went after. This was a new low point for her.

She vaguely remembered his corny pick up line:
Are you from Mars? ‘Cuz your ass is out of this world!
It seemed charming and funny at the time, and she flirted with him in response.

Okay,
she told herself through the haze that was her hangover,
am I at his place or mine?
She hoped it was his—she’d be able to sneak out far easier if it was. Otherwise, there was going to be a very awkward conversation where she’d have to kick him out.

She took stock and realized that it was indeed his place. She could escape.

A flutter of relief spread throughout her belly, giving her the energy to get out of the bed and stumble to pick up her clothes. They were scattered all over his dirty room. She fought the urge to vomit at the filth and had to force herself not to screech at a cockroach that wound its way around her feet. That spurred her to put on her clothes faster, although she had to inch her way into her skinny jeans.

Picked a real winner there, Lily.
She mentally kicked herself—she couldn’t even remember if they used protection. Not that it had mattered before; her one night stands tended to be unsafe, and while she hadn’t contracted any bad diseases yet, she also hadn’t gotten pregnant, possibly because of her endometriosis. On one hand, it gave her an unsettled feeling of the possibility that children weren’t in her future. On the other, she was relieved she hadn’t gotten knocked up by a stranger yet. She’d worry about fertility issues when she got her life in a good enough spot to have children. If it
ever
got there.

She stumbled to the door, cast one glance back at her latest mistake and snuck out of the bedroom. She cursed herself, searching around the filthy apartment for her purse. Underneath pizza boxes, Chinese takeout boxes, dirty clothes (
how long have those been here?!)
, and grime, was even more filth. She really started regretting all of those tequila shots she’d had. In any other instance, the apartment would have been comical with how much shit was all over the place. As it was, she was disgusted to think that
this
was okay with her last night.

She couldn’t even remember what she did.

Lily...Liiii-iillyy...

The eerie voice whispered like dry leaves inside her mind. She shook her head, trying to shake it free. She wasn’t going to pay attention to it.

A stack of dirty dishes rattled in the corner of the kitchen as if an earthquake rumbled beneath them. Just as she found her purse, which had been tossed aside on the couch, the plates slipped off the counter and crashed to the floor loudly, as if an unseen hand had knocked them off. She whipped her head up at the sound and her eyes widened.

“Fuck,” she whispered, knowing that crash would have been loud enough to wake the dead. A thin line of blood ran down her nose and she reflexively wiped it away with the back of her hand.

A masculine, gruff groan from the bedroom announced that the crash had woken up her paramour. With nothing else keeping her there, she rushed out of the apartment and down the stairs, out into the chilly, early morning air.

“Damn,” she whispered, shivering. “I’m in Oak Cliff.”

Not the place that she wanted to wake up in. And certainly not the place she wanted to be alone on the streets. What kind of guy
did
she sleep with last night? She cursed her stupidity, trying to ignore a flickering light post as she walked by. Why wasn’t this street better lit?

The thin stream of blood running down her nose thickened. The light post started flickering even more.

Liii-iiiillllyyyy...

She hurried down the road and wrapped her thin coat around her, ignoring the voice.

November in Dallas was absolutely miserable. Generally, it was windy, wet, and gray. It got cold, but not cold enough to really bundle up. Except in the mornings, when nighttime had sucked all of the warmth out of the atmosphere. She felt utterly frozen, although she suspected it wasn’t just the temperature outside.

Why did she do stuff like that? She completely let loose whenever she had the slightest chance. She felt like a failure in life most of the time. Her father had never really loved her. Her mother had ignored her, which was worse even now. And her sister had always been...well, perfect. So what did she do? She masked it with whatever she could to escape reality. It was the only way she could get rid of her sense of failure.

She couldn’t explain why she wanted to drink. Yet she could explain her current bouts of sexual promiscuity, even though she didn’t want to admit it. While she hadn’t been a saint before, she was particularly bad now.

She just wanted to get rid of the memory of
him
.

It was a day six months ago, sometime in May, when she met him. She was working another dead-end job at a café, serving up horrible coffees and sandwiches. She hated working there, as it had only been another stop in her career-less future, waiting on an endless array of diners. She never really paid attention to any of them.

Except for him.

Later, she wouldn’t be able to say what it was about him that made her pay attention. It was just that a gorgeous stranger came into the café and walked up to the counter.

She was entranced.

He was an absolute Adonis, with his blue eyes, blonde hair, tanned skin, and muscular build. He showed up with his military posture and his hair clipped to Army regulation. He seemed too uncomfortable, too uptight to ever really relax.

Something about him seemed damaged, and that drew her to him. Their two damaged souls spoke to one another on a level she could sense right away.

“I’ll have a BLT,” he told her, looking up at the menu behind her.

She watched him, not really hearing what he said. All she knew was that it felt like one of
those
moments, when the Fates aligned and forever altered the course of your life, like a car wreck or winning the lottery.

She won the lottery by meeting this man. Her soul mate.

“Miss?”

She blinked and looked at him again.

He gave her a small, self-conscious smile as he pointed to the menu. “The BLT?”

“Oh,” she answered. She blinked again and shook her head. “Yes. The BLT.”

In a daze, she retrieved the sandwich, put it on a plate, and brought it back to the counter. She punched the price into the cash register.
Wait,
she told herself. She looked down at the plate, unsure if she was missing something.

“Would you...uh, like something to drink?” she managed.

He chuckled lightly. “Nah, I’m good.” He paid, picked up the sandwich and walked away.

He was leaving. She couldn’t let him do that. Her life was forever altered, and she wouldn’t be the same from this point on.

Lily
, the voice in her head encouraged her.
Do it. It’s meant to be.

For once, she listened.

“Wait,” she found herself saying. He glanced back at her and raised his eyebrows. “You forgot your change,” she told him. She held out the coins to him.

He chuckled again and reached out for it. She dropped them in his hands and their fingertips brushed ever so slightly, sparking electricity between them. He didn’t seem to notice, but it bolstered her courage enough to say the next thing.

“I’m going to a party tonight,” she blurted out. “With some friends. It’s a birthday party. Would you like to come?”

His blue eyes searched her face for a moment.

“I mean, I know it’s weird...” She trailed off, feeling her hopes die a quick, painful death.

“Sure,” he answered. “Sure I’ll come. Where is it?”

Her heart leapt into her throat.
He said yes!

“It’s at Fat Freddy’s,” she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth in a torrent. She paused, trying not to look so ecstatic at his ‘yes’. Even though he said he was going, the odds of him actually showing up were slim. Still...

“It’s a bar in Addison,” she explained more slowly, praying that this was actually happening. “It starts at nine.”

“Sure. See you then...?”

“Lily,” she said. “Lily Martin.”

The ghost of a smile touched his lips. “I’m Seth.” Another young man just outside the café called his name. He turned and waved at his friend. “I’ll see you there, Lily.”

She floated through the next four hours of her shift. She didn’t care what happened, who griped at her, what her boss said—Seth said that he was coming to meet her at the bar. She couldn’t get through her shift fast enough.

She raced out of the café , went to her shabby apartment in Richardson, ignored her roommate’s questions, and got ready to see her soul mate. She spent a little longer on her hair, made sure that her make-up was perfect, and fit her curvy torso into a slinky little number she hadn’t had the courage to wear yet. Lots of cleavage. She hoped he’d notice.

She waited at Fat Freddy’s, barely acknowledging her friends as they showed up. She wanted to be at the door, in case he came into the bar and missed her. She didn’t want to miss him. She
refused to.

“From what I can tell,” a familiar voice beside her announced, “you’re waiting for someone.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, though she couldn’t hold back the grimace. Why was
she
here? Lily didn’t want to remind herself that she had invited Bash a few days earlier, and her twin took every chance she had to watch over her. The night would have been perfect without her mother-hen of a sister there.

“I’m waiting for someone who’s not you, Bash,” she snarled.

She turned to see her twin grinning at her playfully, and she wished that she could wipe that eerie, blank smile off her face. She wanted to be left alone. She wanted to be ready for Seth.

Bash didn’t seem to pick up her hostility. Instead, her head was slightly cocked, as if she was trying to hear what she should have been seeing. “Who’re you waiting for?”

She really was nosy, wasn’t she?

Bash wasn’t dressed like the rest of the party, probably because she was there as a babysitter, not to get wasted like 95% of the bar. She wore a simple pair of jeans and a black tank top, claiming that she didn’t care what she looked like. Of course, dressed down, her sister had this effortless cool factor to everything she did. People seemed to respect her for it.

It made Lily not want to have anything to do with her. She loved her sister, even if she didn’t show it, but she hated feeling constantly sidelined. Like she felt now.

“A friend,” Lily told her. “I’m waiting for a friend I made today.”

“Of the male persuasion? I hope he’s not one of your usual...friends...” Bash’s milky white eyes stared off into some blank distance no one except her saw.

“He’s not,” Lily told her shortly.

Bash crossed her arms. “Tell me about him.”

“I...” Lily trailed off as she realized that she knew nothing about Seth. Her cheeks were burning as she shook the doubt from her brain. “Just go. Before I miss him.”

“Why’re you in a bad mood, Lily?” Bash said, frowning.

“Don’t try to shrink me, Bash,” she told her.
Not when Seth might show up at any moment.
“Can you just go? Go...” Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of a reason to lose her goody-goody sister. “Go get me a drink or something.”

Bash watched her for a few moments before nodding. “Okay. Only one though, promise me.”

“Whatever,” Lily answered with a wave.

Bash disappeared into the crowd towards the general direction of the bar.

Lily felt a twinge of guilt at making her blind sister navigate alone in a place like this. She knew that it was going to be a challenge for her twin to find her way back to that spot—crowds were always a bit difficult for Bash. Yet, at the same time, she would get in the way of Lily and Seth.

Lily moved to another spot to get away from the attentiveness of her sister. She wanted Seth all to herself.

“Hey.”

She almost leaped out of her skin at that voice and turned to see her stranger from the cafe standing right beside her, looking as handsome as ever. Even though he looked ill at ease, he still was gorgeous. Lily swallowed back some bile, praying that this wasn’t too good to be true.

“Hey!”

“It was Lily, right?” he asked uncertainly. He looked around appreciatively. “Some party.”

“Yes,” she hastily agreed. “I’m so glad you could make it.”