Alex
Without exaggeration, Alex could say this was the worst week of his life. It didn’t appear to be getting any better any time soon either. The construction on the restaurant had just gotten started, and already they were having issues, issues his dad had given him the go-ahead to make decisions on. Big expensive decisions. Most of the designs for the new floor had yet to be discussed. His dad hadn’t picked out flooring, tiles, colors, or window dressings.
Nothing.
It was all in Alex’s hands, and he and Joe, the guy managing the huge job, were now on each other’s speed dials.
Alex had been on the phone with Joe longer than all the calls and texts he’d made to Valerie put together. On top of that, Alex was now on crutches again. He had torn a ligament in his ankle. The doctor had warned him he needed to stay off his foot, but staying off it meant staying in bed, and with his schedule being what it was, that was impossible. So the pain had only gotten worse all week instead of getting any better.
Between his doctor’s appointments, the restaurant, and school, the week had just flown by. But he was determined to make time to talk to Valerie. He figured, as upset as she’d been, it’d be better if he gave her time to cool off anyway. It hadn’t stopped him from thinking of her. Every time he did, he would send her another text or try calling her. Of course, each time had been to no avail.
His mind was made up though. He wasn’t giving up on Valerie this easily. He’d already warned her that if she didn’t answer his calls or respond to his texts he’d be headed to her place. If he had to, he’d camp out on her front porch until she gave him a chance to explain. He’d fucked up, but his heart wouldn’t accept that it was over. It couldn’t be.
It was a struggle, but he managed to wobble his way out of the restaurant back office and out the back door again. It’d be so much easier if he just called Valerie in the comfort of the office. But he didn’t want to risk the miniscule chance he had of Valerie answering his call. He had some serious begging to do, and he wasn’t about to do it in front of any of his employees or even Sofie or Angel. And he especially didn’t want Sarah hearing. She’d already given him the cold shoulder all week. He knew what she was thinking. While he might be willing to explain to Valerie about his sneaking around with the tutor, he didn’t need the whole world in on his business.
Because of Angel, he already knew Sarah knew about the tutor being at his place. He also knew that, like Valerie, Sarah thought he was full of shit. They all did. Angel had even laughed at his cockamamie excuse. “You couldn’t think of anything better, dude?”
Alex hadn’t bothered explaining, so he knew Sarah was thinking the worst. As sweet as his brother’s little girlfriend could be, she had one mean stink eye. He’d seen it more than once that week.
Finally comfortable leaning against his truck, he tried Valerie again and waited to hear that sweet voice on her voice mail. Her answering was such a surprise he nearly fell over when he tried to straighten up abruptly. He cursed inwardly when one of his crutches fell and his foot hit the ground for an instant, sending the shocking pain up his ankle. He managed to hold himself up with the other crutch.
“Valerie, babe—”
“The only reason I’m even answering your call, Alex, is because I don’t want you coming over to my place. I don’t want to see you ever—”
“Valerie, please,” he said, gripping the phone. “Please, let me explain, baby. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I’ve moved on, Alex. You should too.”
That stunned him silent for a moment. She had to be kidding. It’d only been a week—okay a week and four days since they’d last been together—but she couldn’t be serious.
“Moved on? What do you mean? It’s only been—”
“It’s why I’m answering, Alex. I have a new career now. It’s a different world. I’m meeting new people every day now. Men.” The emphasized word punched him violently in the gut. “Grown-up men who aren’t into games like—”
“Wait, wait,” he said, his insides already warming but fully aware that she thought he’d had a girl at his house just a week ago. He knew she thought he’d been spending all those days he’d been away from her with Gwyneth, and while that was partially true, it wasn’t how she and everyone else were thinking. Damn it. She was just mad and trying to sock it to him. He shook away the image of the smug asshole at the sushi bar who looked at Valerie in a way that normally would’ve had Alex in his face. Instead, he took a deep breath. “I know you’re not saying that you—”
“I am,” she said with a conviction he’d only ever heard from her when she was absolutely serious.
The fear that had been mounting all week spiked. The fear that maybe he really fucked things up so badly this time and she was really walking away, suffocated him. Then she continued to pummel away at his heart.
“I shouldn’t have to explain anything to you.” She stopped to clear her throat then took a moment before she spoke again. “But I know you, so I’m just warning you. I don’t wanna have to call the cops if you think you can just storm back into my life the way you always have.”
“You know I will,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut but not nearly with as much conviction as she’d made her statements.
“No, you won’t,” she said, and for an instant, he thought he heard a weakness in her voice, but she cleared her throat and went on. “I’m telling you now so that there’s no doubt. I’ve moved on. If you show up here, there’s a very good chance that I’ll be entertaining someone else. So save yourself the trip because you’ll be the only one asked to leave. I’ll call the cops if I have to, Alex. It’s over. Accept it. I have.”
Accept it?
Accept it?
Was she being serious? He’d been so staggered it took him a second to catch his breath, but before he could respond, the line clicked and she was gone. He immediately dialed her back, but it went straight to voice mail. He tried again and he got the same thing.
Figuring she must’ve turned her phone off, he knew she wouldn’t see a text from him either, but he had to respond to that last comment even if she didn’t see it until later. So he typed his text out furiously.
You can’t be serious, Z. You have to let me explain.
He would’ve said more, but Joe stuck his head out the back door. “There you are,” he said, looking incredibly relieved. “We have a problem.”
Alex frowned and hit send. “Grab that crutch for me, will you?”
Joe did and began telling him about their latest construction headache. Joe had already warned him. He would do his best to keep things running as smoothly as possible without having to bother Alex, but with a job this big, he could expect for things to go wrong left and right.
He’d gotten so caught up with the issue that Joe had played way down when he first explained it that it was days before he could put some real thought into his Valerie disaster. His heart hadn’t stopped hurting since the day he’d last spoken to her, and he’d barely gotten any sleep.
There’s a good chance I’ll be entertaining someone. It’s over. Accept it. I have.
The brutal words played out over and over in his head, especially when he was lying in bed at night. He’d been close to just driving to her place more than once and to hell with her warnings. He’d beat the shit out of anyone she might be entertaining then drop to his knees and beg her to hear him out. But it was too risky. He knew her too well. She would’ve never answered his call if she wasn’t serious about her threat of calling the cops on him. The last thing he needed right now was to be thrown in jail. And if he was, he wouldn’t be getting out soon because if, in fact, she did have a guy—that smug asshole Eli—at her place when he showed up, Alex was going away for a long time. If he felt what he had when he thought Isabel’s brother was someone she was entertaining, there’d be no holding him back. Not even Valerie jumping into his arms as she’d done then would stop him because this time she’d made it clear that any guy at her place now would not be just a friend.
If his damn ankle didn’t get any better soon, he could be looking at losing his scholarship. All the sneaking around he’d done and risked losing Valerie for, would be all for nothing if he couldn’t play anymore. Overseeing everything at the restaurants so his parents wouldn’t have to worry would be the only thing he’d have left to make up for all his other failures.
Alex dropped his face into his hands, leaning both elbows on his desk for a moment and took a deep breath. There was so much floating around in his head. He could barely keep it all straight, and he was actually tempted for a moment to drop his biggest anguish of all. Forget about Valerie. He didn’t deserve her anyway. He’d let his fucking pride come before her feelings. If anyone else hurt her the way he had, Alex would be ready to kill him. He should just respect her wishes and let her be. His life would continue to be this storm of one thing after another for a while anyway. He’d likely fuck things up again. Hurt her again. He should just walk away.
But he couldn’t.
The phone rang, yanking him out of his tortured thoughts for the moment. As if he didn’t have enough to deal with, the name on the caller ID made him wince. Dr. Gupta was another one he had on a speed dial and spoke to more often than he’d like to lately.
Yesterday he’d gone in for another MRI since the pain in his ankle was only getting worse. She’d given him a tongue lashing for not staying off it as she’d told him to, but he explained he just couldn’t.
“Mr. Moreno,” she said when he answered. “How is your ankle feeling today?”
“Not so good,” he said, still leaning his forehead against his free fist.
“I’m not surprised,” she said. “I don’t suppose you finally took my advice and stayed off it?”
“Sort of,” he said, wanting to avoid any more lectures.
“Sort of?” She tsk-tsked then began speaking as quickly as she normally did. “Well, normally I’d wait to get you back in here to discuss your results, but I know how busy you said you are, so I thought I’d save you the extra trip and just call you. You’re going to need surgery again. And soon. The tendon is now torn, and it looks as if you’ve pulled another. I can’t risk your stubborn behind continuing to walk on it. I want to schedule your surgery ASAP.”
Alex placed the phone on speaker and put it down on the desk, dropping his face back into the palms of his hands. Dr. Gupta continued with all the details of what exactly was wrong and how long it was going to take to recover enough, if ever, to play football again. She’d never been one to sugarcoat things, and Alex could hear it in her voice now. She didn’t anticipate his playing days to go on much longer. He was so screwed.
Angel and Sarah walked in just at the tail end of Dr. Gupta’s spiel. Angel stared at him wide-eyed. “You’re gonna need surgery again?”
Alex nodded with a frown, but seeing Sarah brought back thoughts of Valerie again. He’d debated about asking Sarah for help in trying to get Valerie to listen to him, but she’d hardly made herself approachable since the whole thing had gone down. Sarah had been noticeably miffed at him in the past because of his and Valerie’s ongoing antics, but this was by far the coldest she’d been with him. All the more reason to think maybe this was really it for him and Val. No telling what Valerie had been saying to her, a thought that rendered him almost breathless again like when Valerie had dropped those cruel words on him.
Angel asked a few more questions about his surgery, once again offering to drop this semester’s classes if Alex needed him to. Alex assured his little brother he had this. He might be gone for a couple of days—a weekend tops. But he’d be back sooner than they’d notice him gone.
Both Angel and Sarah were about to walk out into the dining room together when Alex finally bit the bullet. “Sarah, can I, uh, see you for a minute about next week’s schedule?” He pointed at the monitor on his screen. “I had to move some things around, and I wanna check to make sure you’re good with what I did.”
“You need me too?” Angel asked.
“Nah, you’re good,” Alex said, spinning his chair around to face the monitor.
The moment Angel left, Alex turned to Sarah. “Can you close that door, please?”
She looked at him a bit strangely but did as he asked. When the door was closed, he spun around and dropped his head back. “This has nothing to do with the schedule. I just wanted to talk to you privately.”
Her brows pinched, reminding him a little of Valerie, and he almost groaned because everything reminded him of Valerie now. Inhaling deeply, he began. “Valerie won’t talk to me.”
“Can you blame her?” Sarah crossed her arms in front of her, shifting her weight to one side.
“Look. I know what happened looks bad, and I’ll be the first to admit it was stupid of me. I shouldn’t have kept it from her, but if I just had a chance to explain myself . . . Maybe you can talk to her—”
“Alex, I don’t want to get in the middle of this.” Sarah shook her head adamantly. “But I have to agree with Valerie. This stormy thing between the two of you has gone on long enough. I’ve seen her cry over you more times than I care to remember.”
“That’s the thing, Sarah.” He sat up. “It’s not like that anymore. I promised her things would be different.”
Her mouth dropped open. “But then you—”
“All right,” he said quickly before she could remind him what an idiot he was. “I know I fucked up.” Her eyes went dark and hard, so he continued quickly. “But I can explain it to her. She hasn’t given me a chance.”
“My God, Alex.” Sarah shook her head. “She’s given you years.”
“But things were different a few years ago. They really have changed now!”
Her hardened demeanor went soft suddenly like the Sarah he was used to. “Honey, how many times have you said that in the past? She was really, really hurt this time, Alex. So hurt she said she needs you out of her life.”
“I know but—”
“If it was meant to be, you’ll hear from her again,” Sarah said, touching his shoulder. “She’s my cousin. You’re bound to run into her again at some point. I’d let her be for now. She really did sound like she needed time away from you. And personally, I agree. I think a little time apart would be good for the both of you. Maybe, in time, you guys can start over.”
Yeah, if she didn’t move on like she said she was. Everything Valerie had said to him in that infuriating phone call about the real men she’d be meeting now in her new career assaulted him once again. He sat back in his chair and let his head fall back, bringing both hands to his head. The last two weeks felt like a dream, a mind-numbing exasperating nightmare he couldn’t wake from. His phone beeped, and he straightened out quickly with the feeble hope that it might be Valerie.
“Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about, Alex?”
Alex looked up at Sarah as he grabbed his phone. “No,” he said, shaking his head and forcing a smile, “but thanks.”
He glanced down at the text. It was from Joe.
“Is that her?” Strangely, even after all she’d just said, Sarah sounded hopeful.
He looked up again this time, not even attempting to smile. “Nope.”
“She needs time to heal.” Sarah headed for the door and opened it then stopped and turned back to him. “Remember if it was meant to be . . .” She shrugged with a sympathetic little smile then walked out.
Alex clicked on Joe’s text, feeling the massive ache in his heart weighing heavier by the second. No surprise Joe needed to talk to him ASAP. There were more decisions to be made.
Valerie’s crying pleas from that awful night came to him. She’d begged him to stay out of her life, and now Sarah was saying she agreed that time apart from each other might be a good thing.
As much as he hated to concede that, it seemed he had no choice. Even if he did manage to convince her to give him another chance, he wouldn’t be able to give her the time and attention she deserved right now. But he wasn’t giving up, not by a long shot. He’d just give her time to heal. Time to calm down. In the meantime, he’d get his shit together.
He sat there quietly, staring at the crutch so tightly gripped in his hand it shook. With deep slow breaths, he tried desperately to convince his aching heart this was for the best. Giving her what she was asking for was the honorable and mature thing to do. He owed her at least that much. But it wasn’t working. “Fuck!” he growled loudly.
In the next instance, the crutch flew across the room, shattering a picture frame and knocking down a few plaques on the wall with a thunderous crash.