Your Exception (12 page)

Holly pulls up a stray chair by Cassidy, putting her directly across from me. Yay me
.
I avoid all eye contact and conversation, including her repulsive bantering towards poor Zach, until she brings him up. “Yeah, sorry you two didn’t work out, Wren.” I glare at her. “Have you heard from him lately?” Holly asks me.

“No,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Oh nevermind, there he is. He was supposed to meet me here, like, a half hour ago. Men!” she exclaims and takes off. I’m frozen in place. I don’t look behind me. I look past Zach to Cassidy. My heart is pounding. Panic and fear showing in my eyes. Both look back at me with sympathy.

“I’m so sorry. Jack said they had a show!” Cassidy quickly explains.

What should I do? Run?

Too late. Holly comes back around to our table, pulling Logan behind her, holding onto his hand. I cringe at the sight. And after one long month, we are face to face once again. He tears his blue eyes away from mine and shakes Zach’s hand, then gives Cassidy a little wave. He nods towards me, softness touching his face. “Wren.”

“Logan,” I say, giving him a small smile. Everything we have been through is fresh in my memory, shooting a searing pain through my chest. Add that on top of seeing him here with none other than Holly, and it’s practically unbearable.

Holly scoots closer to him as he puts his arm around the chair she’s sitting in. Are they together? I cannot believe that my wonderful night out has been turned upside down. I was doing so well! Kind of. I was starting to.

“I want to dance,” Holly says to Logan, leading him away from us. He follows, never saying a word.

Instantly
, Zach leans over to me. “Let’s go.”

Cassidy looks sad for me while Zach looks anywhere between as angry as I feel to as sad as Cassidy looks.

“I don’t think I can. Not right now. They’ll know I ran,” I comment.

“Who cares what they think!” Zach is definitely pissed now.

“I just don’t want them to win. Besides, he’s single. He can do what he wants,” I say, matter-of-factly.

“Fine. You just let me know when, and we’re outta here.”

“Deal.” I try to get my emotions in check. Tears are constantly threatening to break out as I imagine what they’re doing on the dance floor. I want to throw up. I excuse myself to go to the restroom. As Cassidy stands up to come with me, I hold up my finger. “No. Just give me a minute. Please.”

I take my time before coming back out, hoping everything from the last ten minutes never happened.

No luck. There they are. Standing there at my table again. Logan looks at me as Holly gives me a wry smile. “Oh I love this song!” Holly exclaims as she starts dancing. I’m writhing in discomfort when she moves in towards Logan as he stands there and watches her dance for him. He’s not smiling, he’s not doing much of anything, just watching her. She is literally using him for a pole as she starts grinding on him. In slow motion, I watch her rub her nasty vagina all up and down his leg. Bile and vomit instantly make their way to my throat. How in the fuck did I end up sitting across a table from Logan practically getting a lap dance from the one person I loathe? And how cruel can he be to come to MY fucking table and do this right in front of me?

I feel
as if I’m trapped—dying in this very moment. If I thought my heart was broken before, he just completely shattered it to pieces.

I look away. I can’t look at them. Not at Aaron, or Zach, or Cassidy. I look towards the wall. At nothing.

After the song is over, she drags him back out on the dance floor.

I look to Zach as tears well in my eyes. “Can we go now? Please?”

“About damn time,” he says and grabs my purse for me as we rise.

“I can’t believe you sat through that. You are an oak, my friend,” Cassidy says to me as we exit my hell.

I drop Zach off at his house and continue holding it in until we get home and I’m alone in my room. Then I let it all out. I cry tears that I didn’t know I still had. My stomach is in knots replaying the scenes in my head.

What a heartless bastard. Why would anyone do that in front of someone they just broke up with? Or in public, no less. I don’t get it.

*****

I feel movement next to me on my bed. I partially open one eye to see Cassidy lying next to me. “What time is it?” I ask.

“12:30. In the afternoon.”

“I think my eyes are glued shut,” I say as I wipe away crusted remnants from crying.

“They’re just swollen. Want me to get you a warm washcloth?”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll be fine.”

“The answer is obvious, but, I thought you were over him?”

“I was never over him. I was just trying to deal with it. I was trying to move on. My thoughts just always keep going back to him.”

“I want to rip his throat out, but not until I rip hers out.”

“Yeah, I know,” I say solemnly as a single tear slips through my barely parted eye. “But like I said, he can do what he wants. I’m not his anymore,” I say, wiping it away.

“Zach was so pissed. I thought he was going to jump across the table and kill him right there. Maybe if I had bought him just one more shot…”

“I didn’t notice. He’s a good friend to me. You both are.”

“I think Zach’s more than a friend, Wren.”

“More like a protective big brother?”

“A sexy big brother…”

I nod in agreement. “Zach is sexy. Did you know I saw him without his shirt on once?”

“You lucky bitch!” Cassidy screams as she throws a pillow at me.

“It was very…nice,” I say, smiling for the first time in twelve hours.

“I want details. Every last detail you can remember.” It was like it was yesterday as I go into full detail of finding him half naked in the moonlight.

“I’m so jealous. What I would give to see that man naked in my bed. Ahh! I’ll be imagining that later. So what should we do today?”

“Let me get showered, and maybe we can have a low-key reading day? I need a new book. Something different and funny. Any suggestions?”

“Yes, I have se
veral new ones you can look through.”

*****

After several chapters, we take a break to make lunch.

“So
, how are you? I realize I’ve been living in my own little world and haven’t asked how you’ve been doing lately.”

“Oh, you know. Same shit different day,”
Cassidy says smiling.

“How about Eric? Or Jack? Have you been seeing them? Or someone new?”

“Sweetie, there is
alway
s
someone new. I haven’t heard from Eric. Jack and I talk occasionally, but I’ve been keeping him at a distance.”

“Why would you keep him at a distance? I thought maybe you really liked him?”

“I do, actually. I just thought, maybe it might be hard for you to see him.”

“To see Jack? Why would I care? Besides the fact I think he’s a bit of a douchebag,” I say jokingly.

“Because he might make you think of Logan,” she says seriously.

“No, he doesn’t make me think of Logan, and I’m fine if you want to bring him around. Don’t keep him away on my account.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive, but thank you for putting my feelings before your sexual needs. I know that’s a big deal for you,” I tease.

“You’re funny!” she bellows with a mouthful of food. “But I don’t need to see him all the time. I’m sure he has somebody else he’s been seeing too.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“It’s what we agreed on. Open relationship. No strings. It’s what I wanted.”

“Is that what you still want?”

“I like him more than I thought I would. He’s grown on me. I’d like to have more, but I don’t want to ruin what we do have going though. I get what I need from him.” She shrugs.

I consider the two of them actually being in a relationship together. That just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. But I also want her happiness. I think she has more feelings for Jack than she’s leading on.

*****

Since
Cassidy is spending Wednesday with her sister, I decide to go to The Edge for a bit when I get off of work. I’m starving, and I didn’t get a chance to eat lunch with Zach today, and I’m a little lonely in the house all alone every night, so this gives me the opportunity to see Jen and Connor and have more than my lunch hour to spend with them.

I order my food and talk with Jen up at the bar while I wait.

“Well, well, well. What have we got here?” I don’t turn around since I don’t recognize the voice and assume someone is referring to Jen. Everyone knows her. The stool next to me is pulled out, as a Captain Coke is ordered. The look on Jen’s face tells me she doesn’t know who he is. I look over and see Aaron.

“What are you doing here?” I’m shocked to see him sitting next to me. I can’t imagine what he’d be doing here so early on a Wednesday evening.

“I’m playing tonight.”

“You are?”

“I just said I was.”

“Sorry. I’m just so surprised to see you.”

“Well, I would have let you know, had you ever called me.”

I lower my eyes. “Sorry. I’ve had some issues.”

“All women do, no offense. But we’re here now. I saw that they were looking to set up some acoustic shows and remembered you worked here, or used to, so I thought I’d book a few shows and hoped to run into you eventually.”

I blush and take a sip of my water. I look towards the kitchen, willing my food to arrive to distract me from what he just said.

“I’m meeting my brother here,” he continues. “He lives in town, so he said he’d come out and watch me play.”

“That’s nice of him.” Not knowing what else to say. I still can’t believe he’s sitting here next to me.

“I was hoping to get to talk to you last time I saw you at Echo, but you disappeared on me. I still haven’t gotten your number.”

“I suppose I could give you my number.” There’s no time like the present to move on.

My food arrives, and I dig in. He smiles as he watches me eat, sipping on his drink. We talk for a bit longer and when I’m about finished with my meal, he stands up and greets his brother, Dan. I know him from the bar, and I’m pretty sure he has dated Jen before. Something tells me it was just a fling, but the way they are talking to each other at the moment, it’s looking as if they might go for round two.

Aaron and Dan go over
to set up for the show, an
d
I can’t help but smile inside when his eyes wander back over to me.

“Quit eye-fucking him,” Jen says, noticing the exchange.

“Shh! He’s right over there, and I am so not doing anything of the sort!” I whisper harshly. “Besides, I could say the same thing to you. Don’t you have something to clean?”

“Brat.” She gives me a smirk and walks down to the other end of the bar. I go say hi to Connor, then make my way back to my stool.

Dan goes and sits at the other side of the bar where Jen is while Aaron heads over to the jukebox for a long while before coming back over to me. We talk some more until he smiles and stands up, holding his hand out to me just like he did the night of the after party. I take it, and he leads me to the jukebox.

“This is my favorite song,” he says as he spins me around and starts dancing slowly with me. He picks up the pace, randomly spinning me and bringing me down into a dip. I’m embarrassed at first, but I’m having fun by the end of the song.

We continue talking, and I find out how funny Aaron is. He comes across as uptight and all business, but he’s fun when he lets loose. That’s probably how Cassidy feels about me.

I decide to stay and watch him sing. It makes me wonder if every musician is able to play every instrument and sing on top of it. Damn. I love knowing all these talented people!

At the end of the night, Aaron and I exchange numbers.

He calls me as soon as he gets home, which is about an hour after I get home, and we spend several more hours talking.

We talk on the phone the next few nights, and he invites me over to his house to hang out. I don’t think I‘m quite ready for that step yet, but I go anyway, wondering if something will spark. I have a great time with him, and he doesn’t try anything on me, yet again.

On the way home, I start thinking that maybe he’s the sort of guy you want to marry. It appears we’re both at that same point now. The ‘done with dating I’m looking to get married’ stage. There are only two problems.
Maybe three.

First,
his band just signed a contract, so he’ll be leaving to record and go on tour. I don’t know if that’s something I can deal with, or if I’d even want to.

Second, I wish my heart was free to give to him, but I have to get over a few things first before I can fully give myself to someone. Otherwise, it won’t be fair. A part of me wishes I had met him first. Before Logan.

And that’s what the third thing is. That feeling. That knowing feeling that he’s the one, but it’s just not there. Not the way it should be.