Emancipating Andie

  He returned to the bathroom with the pail and her shirt, dropping it into the tub next to his own before he began to clean them both.

  After rinsing everything down and laying the shirts over the curtain rod to dry, he went rooting through his medicine chest for some aspirin. She was somewhat coherent after getting sick the second time, and Chase was able to coax her into swallowing the two pills with a few sips of orange Gatorade.

  And then she went completely limp on his couch in her bra and jeans, snoring slightly.

  Chase stood over her for a minute, shaking his head with a tiny laugh.

  “I think I served my penance tonight. What do you think?”

  She snored in response.

  He laughed again as he removed her jeans and tossed them over a nearby chair. Then he grabbed his soccer shirt from the coffee table and gently pulled it over her head before putting her arms through the sleeves.

  Chase lifted her from the couch and moved her to the recliner so he could pull the bed out. Once he had set out the blanket and pillows, he picked her back up and laid her on the mattress before he climbed on, lying on his side to face her.

  And he stayed that way, with his head resting on his arm, watching her until the sky outside turned pink with the rising sun.

  Chase opened his eyes, blinking against the brightness before he turned his head to the side. She was sitting up, her legs pulled into her chest and her chin resting on her knees as she looked down at him.

  “Hi,” she said softly.

  Chase slowly rolled on to his side, looking up at her. “Hi,” he said, his voice rough with sleep.

  It was quiet for a moment before she said, “Your eye looks terrible.”

  He nodded. “It feels terrible.”

  A silence fell over them again, and Chase propped his head up on his hand, looking her over. Her face was slightly pale and she had a little smudge of makeup under each eye, but other than that, she looked as beautiful as ever.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Not as bad as I should be.”

  “Yeah, well, you puked most of it up, so that always helps.”

  Andie cringed as the tiniest bit of color bloomed on her cheeks. “Sorry,” she whispered.

  Chase smiled. “Plus I gave you some Gatorade and aspirin before you officially went down for the count. Regurgitate, rehydrate, medicate. The drunk man’s trifecta.”

  The corner of her mouth lifted in a halfhearted smile before the room fell silent again.

  Chase sat up, and her eyes followed him. “Where did you go last night?” he finally said. “Did you walk all the way to Ripley’s?”

  Andie looked down, playing with the edge of his comforter. “I couldn’t find my keys. I figured I left them up here, but I didn’t want to come back up and see you.” She glanced up at him before she looked away sheepishly. “I got a cab.”

  “They were outside on the sidewalk.”

  She nodded softly. “I dropped my purse when I was coming down the steps. I didn’t see them fall out.”

  “Well you scared the shit out of me.”

  Andie looked at him before she lifted one shoulder in a shrug, and Chase sighed.

  “I guess I deserve that,” he murmured. He reached up and ran his hand through his rumpled hair before he asked, “What do you remember from last night?”

  Andie lifted her chin off her knees, moving to sit cross-legged. “I remember drinking my body weight in Lemon Drops. I remember standing outside of Ripley’s with you.”

  “That’s it?”

  She looked down at her hands. “Everything else is a little fuzzy.”

  Chase watched her intently as he said, “You told me you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”

  Andie’s eyes flitted to his before she looked back down at her hands again.

  Chase swallowed, suddenly terrified to ask his next question. “Is that true?”

  She licked her lips nervously, keeping her eyes trained on her fingers as she spoke. “You made me feel like this was wrong. And as much as I didn’t want to hurt Colin, I never felt like being with you was wrong.” She took a small breath, finally looking up at him. “So if you really believe that…then no, I don’t want to be with you.”

  “Andie,” he said, placing his hands on the bed and leaning toward her. “Do you have any idea what you did to me last night when I thought something happened to you?”

  She pulled her brow together and opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her. “No, let me say this. When I thought you were hurt, I swear to God, I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t breathe. It was like my body wouldn’t work. I couldn’t think at all, and I just kept moving in these pointless circles…” he trailed off shaking his head. “I have never felt so out of control in my life.”

  Chase exhaled heavily, running his hand down his face before he said, “And outside Ripley’s, when you told me you didn’t want me anymore, I couldn’t even feel the pain of that because I was just so goddamn happy you were safe.”

  Her expression softened before she dropped her eyes to the bed.

  “And I couldn’t even sleep last night because I just kept thinking that if this were really the last night you were going to be in my bed, I didn’t want to miss one second of it.”

  Andie lifted her eyes to his, and this time they were welled with tears. He moved toward her on the bed, taking her face in his hands.

  “I messed up last night. I wasn’t thinking, and I messed up,” he said, swiping his thumbs under her eyes as the first tears fell. “I can’t promise you that I’ll never be an asshole again. But I can promise you that I don’t mean it. And I can’t promise you that I won’t ever make mistakes, but I can promise you that I’ll learn from them and do whatever it takes to make it right with you again.”

  Andie closed her eyes, sending two more tears down her cheeks, and Chase brushed them away with his thumbs again. He waited until she opened her eyes before he said, “And I can promise you with my entire being that I don’t think you’re a terrible person. I think you’re the most incredible, selfless, intelligent, brave, beautiful, funny, talented, adorable person I’ve ever met in my life. And I can absolutely promise you that I don’t think this,” he gestured between them, “is wrong. You may very well be the only thing I’ve ever done right.”

  Her eyes fell closed as a tiny sob fell from her lips, and when she opened them, she was smiling.

  “Did you google ‘best groveling speeches’ while I was passed out?”

  Chase smiled slowly, brushing his fingers over her cheek. “Can I kiss you now?” he whispered.

  She pulled back slightly. “I have puke breath.”

  “I love you,” he said, and her eyes flew to his face, her startled reaction making him smile. “I do. I love you. So I’ll take your kisses any way I can get them, pukey or otherwise.”

  Andie inhaled deeply, and when she exhaled, her eyes were shining with tears again. “I love you, too,” she whispered.

  Chase smiled, leaning into her. “Then there’s no way this could be wrong,” he whispered against her lips.

  She closed the tiny distance between them, bringing her mouth to his, and when his arms came around her, pulling her against his body at last, he knew he would never let her go again.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Andie sat in a long line of cars, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. She should have known better than to think this would be a quick trip. She had learned, through many years of trial and error, that the best time to go to her bank was first thing in the morning, but that hadn’t been a possibility today.

  Today she was lucky if she had time to breathe.

  It was a good kind of busy, though. Earlier that morning, she had gone to the restaurant to finalize a few things with Dana, the assistant manager who would be taking over as manager for the next three weeks in Andie’s absence. After that she had gone to Chase’s apartment in the brief window of time that she knew he would be
out meeting with a client so she could pack the rest of his things. She still couldn’t believe she hadn’t gotten caught yet; she’d been packing him little by little over the course of the past few days, taking only those things she was sure he wouldn’t be looking for, things he wouldn’t need on a daily basis, so he wouldn’t figure out what she was doing. But today, she had packed the rest of the things he’d need—his toiletries, his shoes, his favorite jeans—and taken his bag back with her. Because tonight she’d come clean.

  Tonight, she’d tell him about the surprise.

  But first she needed to go to the bank so she could make a deposit into the restaurant’s account, as well as a withdrawal from her personal one in preparation for the trip.

  She could see what the holdup was. A few cars ahead, a woman was obviously making several transactions at the drive-up window and had not taken the time—or consideration for that matter—to fill out the slips ahead of time. Andie could see her leaning on the dashboard as she filled out each slip, slowly and methodically.

  And while the cars in front of her tooted their horns and inched impatiently forward, Andie couldn’t find it in herself to be annoyed.

  She had become one of those people.

  Unshakably happy, perpetually content.

  Completely in love.

  She exhaled softly as she rested her head back on the seat, waiting for the line of cars to move forward. She imagined his face when she told him what she’d been planning, and she couldn’t help the smile that curved her lips.

  A few minutes later, the woman with the infinite transactions finally finished her business, and as Andie moved forward in line, the new position of her car gave her a clear view of the café across the street that had just opened.

  She had never been there, although she had noticed it several times. It looked quaint and interesting, and today it was warm enough to open the outdoor patio; the tables outside were filled to capacity.

  We should go there one day, she thought to herself, glancing down at the clock on the dashboard to check her time. And then she froze, her mind registering what she had just seen. Andie lifted her eyes slowly back to the passenger window, but she didn’t need to look again. She already knew.

  The mannerisms. The hair color. The deep blue button-down she had loved because it brought out his eyes. The tie she had gotten him for Christmas.

  Colin.

  She hadn’t realized she’d stopped breathing until she heard the quick intake of breath and recognized it as her own.

  The last time she had seen him was over three months ago, the night she declined his proposal. They had only spoken twice after that night, and both were short phone conversations.

  Both before he knew about her and Chase.

  He had been cold, and formal, and she had understood. They made arrangements to return each other’s things, and Colin wanted to do it in a way that would not involve them seeing each other. It was then Andie realized that as much as she wished she could talk to him, as much as she wanted to explain things to him, he was not ready to hear it. And for the first time, she understood that he might never be.

  It hurt her to think that. To think that someone she truly cared about, someone who had been important to her, would never be in her life again. But when she thought of the alternative, thought of what her life would have been like if she had never turned him down, she knew it was worth it. Everything she had done, every tough decision she had made, had brought her to Chase. He was beyond worth it.

  Yet as she stared out the passenger window at him, she couldn’t help the twinge she felt in her chest.

  “It’s okay to miss him,” Chase had said to her one night when she had been particularly quiet, seemingly lost in her thoughts. “I miss him too.”

  Her last memories of Colin were so awful: the look on his face the last time she saw him, the aloof way he had spoken to her on the phone.

  What he had done to Chase.

  Neither one of them had had any contact with Colin after the night he’d hit Chase. Andie still felt responsible for what happened that day, despite the amount of times Chase assured her he had brought it on himself.

  Chase was right about one thing, though. It was okay to miss him. She could finally admit that to herself as she looked out the window at him, sitting at the table. She didn’t miss him romantically, or even sexually; nothing in her wanted to be with him again. She just wanted to be able to talk to him, to see him smile, to hear him laugh again. To erase those unpleasant memories of her last encounters with him.

  To know that he was going to be okay.

  Andie sat up a little straighter in her seat, bringing her eyes forward, but seconds later they were on the café again. She recognized the guy next to him immediately; Sean, one of his good friends from the office, leaning over and pointing at something she couldn’t see. Colin nodded, saying something in response, and Sean laughed.

  The car in front of her moved, and Andie reluctantly pulled her eyes from the café, moving up a spot before she turned her attention back to the passenger window.

  There were also two women at the table. She knew one of them was from his office; she couldn’t remember her name, but she had been introduced to her at an office party once. She was pregnant at the time, newly married. Her husband was a teacher, Andie remembered. Her child was probably several months old by now.

  The second woman was someone Andie did not immediately recognize. She could only see her profile, but suddenly her attention was pulled back to the other side of the table, where Colin had his head thrown back in laughter.

  Andie’s breath left her in a soft rush as she smiled, her eyes stinging with the threat of tears.

  He was laughing.

  She didn’t realize how badly she needed to see him happy until that moment. It actually felt as though a weight was leaving her chest. Her smile grew more prominent as Colin said something and laughed again, the table joining in with him this time.

  A loud horn blast caused her to jump, and she brought her eyes forward, realizing the car ahead of her was gone.

  She blinked quickly, shifting in her seat and inching the car forward as she rolled down her window. She handed the slips to the teller, answering her questions about the transactions, and as the woman turned to enter information into her computer, Andie looked back out the passenger window. They were standing now, all four of them, the woman Andie recognized putting her purse on her shoulder. She watched as Colin walked around the table and helped the woman she didn’t know into her jacket. She said something to him, touching his arm, and he smiled.

  “Thank you, have a good day,” she heard the teller say through the speaker, and she whipped her head back around to find her deposit slip and the money she’d withdrawn waiting in the drawer.

  “Thanks,” Andie said, taking her things, and by the time she had put everything in her purse and looked up, she could only see their backs as the four of them turned the corner and down the opposite street.

  She inhaled slowly, a smile lighting her lips.

  She didn’t know who that woman was. She had no idea if it was a friend from the office, or a casual acquaintance, or a love interest. But it didn’t matter.

  He had been the Colin she remembered. He looked great. He looked healthy.

  He was laughing.

  She smiled again as she blinked back the moisture in her eyes before it fell, pulling out of the bank’s parking lot and onto the road that would bring her home.

  A little while later, she pulled into her parking space, her stomach fluttering as she saw Chase’s car next to hers. He was early.

  She jogged up the stairs quickly and swung the door open; he was lying on her couch reading a book, and when he heard her come in, he brought it down just enough to reveal his eyes over the top of it.

  She could tell by the shape of them that he was smiling.

  In a second she was across the room, and he tossed the book to the floor just as she leapt onto the couch, wrapp
ing her arms around him and immediately putting her mouth on his.

  He laughed against her lips and pulled back slightly. “Well, hello there.”

  “Hi,” she whispered, kissing him again, softer this time, and he responded in kind.

  “You started without me?” she asked.

  “Not by much,” he said as Andie sat up, and he reached down to grab the book he had dropped. The Guide to Literary Agents.

  Chase had been amazing throughout the entire process. When Andie finally decided she was ready to take the plunge and start attempting to market her book, he spent two hours at the bookstore with her that first day, finding and buying every piece of literature that existed for aspiring authors. And then he spent the next couple of days helping her sort through all of the information.

  He had come up with the plan of finding and querying two agents a week; his thought was that only doing two at a time made the process seem less overwhelming, plus that way she could take the time to research the people and find those who would be the best match for her.

  Every night since then, he’d helped her with her homework, as he playfully called it. He would look through the book of agents, reading up on various ones, giving her the names and stats of those who sounded like they’d be interested in what Andie had to offer, and then she’d pull up the agency’s site on the computer, researching them further and discussing them with him.

  His encouragement was vital, his help invaluable, his unfailing support like air to her.

  “Got anyone for me yet?”

  “Actually, yeah,” he said, taking the book from her and flipping back a couple of pages. “This one. Leslie Melden. She’s with the Feller Literary Group. It says here she’s looking for new authors in contemporary fiction. She’s got an impressive clientele list. And apparently this agency houses Lara Heady.”