Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,108
keep it nice and simple."
"If I wanted things nice and simple," he said, "I wouldn't be here."
"Oh, get real," I shot back. "You're just mad that I dumped you first. Well, I'm ever so sorry if I deprived you of another month of positive publicity."
He looked insulted at the mere suggestion. "That's what you think?"
"Yeah, because I'm not stupid. Do you remember when you asked me to be your girlfriend? It was the night you learned that Angelique was going to be covering the campaign."
He was staring now. "What?"
"Yeah," I said. "It was after that scene in the restaurant, when I stuck up for you."
His jaw clenched. "Which, if you remember, I tried to stop you from doing."
Yeah, but so what? Stubbornly, I said, "I heard what I heard."
"Oh yeah?" he said. "And rather than ask me about it, you dump me and hitch a ride with your ex?"
"Not just him. His wife, too."
"What?"
"Yeah. We picked her up along the way. But it doesn't matter. He was a perfect gentleman."
"Sure, except for the time he fucked your friend."
"Oh, that's nice," I said. "Not that it's any of your business, but he actually apologized for that."
"Oh, yeah? When?"
"In Buckville," I said. "He came up to me and told me that it's been bothering him for years. He said that he didn't know what had gotten into him, except that he was too young and stupid to know better."
Chase sneered, "Oh, he knew."
"Yeah, but at least he was sorry. And he had the guts to say so."
Chase scoffed, "Big deal."
"Yeah, it was a big deal," I said. "Tell me, have you ever apologized?"
"Sure."
"Oh, yeah? When?"
"You mean to you?"
"To anyone," I said. "In your whole life, have you ever said you're sorry?'
"Maybe. I dunno. It's not like I keep track."
I rolled my eyes. "Of course you don't."
Sounding angrier than ever, he said, "Maybe you don't know me as well you think."
"Yeah, and I maybe never will. And you're just mad that I ruined your plans."
"My plans to what?" he scoffed. "Dump you out of spite?"
"No. To dump me when I wasn't useful anymore."
He shifted in his seat and gave the sunroof another irritated look. "Seriously, what the fuck is that noise?"
I smiled. "I don’t hear anything out of the ordinary." Technically, this was true. After all, the sunroof always made that noise above a certain speed.
Welcome to my world, Chase Blastoviak.
He was still looking upward. "Then you're either deaf or crazy."
He had no idea.
I asked, "You wanna hear something really crazy?"
"I don't know. Do I?"
Whether he did or not, he was still going to hear it. "A couple of days ago, guess who I ran into."
"Who?"
"My old boss, you know at the coffee shop."
"And?"
"And she tells me why she flipped out when she heard that I was trying to lure you in for coffee."
Chase shifted in his seat, but said nothing. From the look on his face, he knew exactly what I was going to say. But if he thought I was going to let him off the hook, he was nuts.
So, right there in my car, I laid it out there. "She told me that she caught a former barista blowing you in the backroom."
Under his breath, Chase murmured, "Yeah, well, it wasn't my idea."
Talk about arrogant.
I wasn't even sure what bothered me more – the fact that he'd done such a thing, or that I'd been fired because of it. Stupidly, I said, "Do you know how unsanitary that is?"
"Look," he said, "Yeah, I've done some things I'm not proud of. But that was before you."
"Before me, huh?" I made a sound of annoyance. "That's rich."
"How so?"
"Do you remember one of the first things you ever said to me?"
"No, what?"
"You said, and I quote, 'I don't want to fuck you.'" I gave him a long sideways glance. "And here's a question. Did you ever apologize for that?"
"For what?"
"For making such a rude assumption. And for being so crude about it." When Chase declined to answer, I replied on his behalf. "No. You didn't. But like a total idiot, I let it go."
"Yeah. You did," he said. "So maybe it's your fault as much as mine."
"For what?" I said. "Not demanding an apology?"
He shrugged, but said nothing in reply.
Obviously, he was missing the point. He could still apologize. I mean, better later than never, right?
And yet, he remained silent.
By now, I felt like screaming. "Don't you have anything to say?"