This time he couldn’t fight his smile. “I can see that.”
“And you wanna know something else about me?” she said, standing from the stool with her bag. She teetered but grabbed the edge of the bar to steady herself before she turned to him. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
She pushed past him as he said, “I can see that, too.”
Chase watched her attempt to storm out of the bar, stopping every few seconds to grip the back of a bar stool before she continued. He reached in his back pocket and grabbed his wallet, throwing some money on the bar and saluting Bailey before he followed her out the door.
After a few steps Andie stopped abruptly as she whipped around to face him, and he halted.
“And here’s something else you don’t know about me,” she said, only this time her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “I am not a terrible person.”
Chase exhaled, his expression turning serious. “I know that.”
“No, you don’t, and you suck because you don’t!” she said, taking a quick step toward him and poking him in the chest hard enough to send him back a step. “You said we were a match because we’re both terrible, and I’m not terrible!”
Andie took a step backward before she continued, her voice trembling. “Because if I was, it wouldn’t be breaking my heart that he’s sad right now. If I was, it wouldn’t have been such a battle to let myself have you in the first place.”
Chase’s chest instantly tightened at her words.
“You’re right,” he said softly, taking a tiny step toward her. She immediately took a step back, stumbling slightly as the back of her foot slipped out of her high heel.
“And I shouldn’t have to explain that to you,” she said dismissively, the words running together in places as she tried to get her foot back in her shoe. “I shouldn’t have to convince you that I’m good.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, taking another small step toward her.
“You should just know!” she yelled, whipping her head up as she lost her grip on the shoe, her foot still half out of the heel as came down on the pavement. She swiped the hair out of her eyes before she shook her head. “I don’t even know who you were back there. I hate who you were back there.”
Chase nodded, taking a tiny step toward her. “Me too.”
“Because you’re not terrible either,” she said, trying to get her balance before she pointed at him. “I wouldn’t feel this way about you if you were.”
“Andie,” Chase said, and she shook her head.
“Why do you act like an asshole if you’re not an asshole? Why do you act like that?”
He closed the rest of the distance between them, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his chest.
“I don’t want you to act like an asshole,” she said firmly before she pushed him away. He took a step back as she added, “And I don’t want to be happy that you’re here right now.”
Andie reached down to her shoe, her other arm flapping at her side as she tried to get her foot back in, and Chase stepped forward once more, steadying her before attempting to take her in his arms. She pushed him away again, but this time with less force.
“And I don’t want to love the way you smell,” she mumbled before she reached back down. With a frustrated huff she ripped her shoe off and dropped it to the sidewalk, standing unevenly as she crossed her arms and lifted her chin, looking up at him. She was trying so hard to be defiant, but her eyes were all vulnerability.
Chase stepped forward and bent down, scooping up her discarded shoe. On his way back up, he brought his arm behind her knees, knocking her weight out as he stood with her, cradling her against his chest.
She gripped the front of his shirt. “And I don’t want to feel this way when you hold me,” she said, all the fight gone from her voice.
Chase rested his chin on the top of her head as he walked toward his car with her in his arms.
“And I don’t want to be with you anymore,” she mumbled against his shirt.
He tilted his head down, pressing his lips to the crown of her head.
“Did you hear me? I said I don’t want to be with you anymore,” she whispered, tightening