Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Alana stormed into Payne, Tate and Associates, the law office she now shared with her best friend, Cadence, marched into her personal office and slammed the door behind her. Tossing her purse and laptop bag on the chair, she paced, her hands parked on her hips as she tried to control her heaving chest. She mumbled inaudibly before a light tap followed by Cadence’s cautious entrance brought her out of her personal rage fest.
Cadence quietly walked in and closed the door behind her. “What’s gotten you so uptight this morning? You blew through here like a tornado.”
“I can’t believe he did this!” Alana waved her cell phone in her hand before snatching her bags from the chair and placing them on the large cherrywood desk. She flopped into the chair.
“Who did what?” Cadence sat in one of the two chairs facing Alana’s desk.
“James!” Alana sucked her teeth. “Can you believe that jerk broke up with me by text! By text!” she yelled. Her voice cracked. “Such a freaking coward! He said he can’t do this anymore. He needs space. I smothered him too much.”
“That’s horrible.” Cadence reached for Alana’s hand.
Alana sighed. “Things have changed between us recently. I don’t know what happened.”
“Alana! You didn’t tell me that.” Cadence’s hand went to her heart.
“I know. That’s why we didn’t show up last Sunday for the dinner you and Blake had to celebrate Hunter and Chey’s engagement. He was supposed to show up at three. By six, he still hadn’t returned my calls or responded to any of my texts. I was so pissed that I wanted to throw my phone but decided he wasn’t worth the deductible I would have had to pay to get it replaced if it broke. I didn’t hear from him until ten that night. I was furious.” Alana’s hands were balled into fists.
“Ten o’clock! Are you serious?” Cadence stood. Now she paced. “That—”
“Exactly!” Alana pounded her hand against the desk and stood too. “I said to him, ‘Listen, Jackie,’ which you know is my code word for jackass, and I lit into him so bad he was quiet for, like, a full minute before he spoke again. All his idiotic behind had to say was sorry. No viable explanation. Nothing! After being together for almost a year, I deserve more than just a weak apology.”
Cadence’s mouth opened, but she said nothing. She closed it again, shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. Alana raged on about all of the follow-up arguments they’d had for the remainder of the week.
“Did you respond to the text?”
“I left him a nice-nasty message. If he can’t be man enough to end our relationship face-to-face or at least pick up the phone, then he was never man enough for me anyway. He just needs to lose my number and my address and forget my name.” Alana sat back down. She placed her elbows on her desk and rested her head in her hands. “I’m done. I don’t even want to date anymore. I think I’ll just put a band on my finger and tell any man who tries to hit on me that I’m married. I don’t even want to be bothered.”
“Oh no!” Cadence rounded Alana’s desk and sat on it. She gripped Alana by the shoulders and looked into Alana’s dejected eyes. “No matter what happened, you were always the one to remain hopeful. You always said your knight was out there waiting for you somewhere and you didn’t mind rolling with a few frogs to find them because you knew he’d be worth it.”
“I said that?” Alana chuckled.
“Yep. Always twisting up clichés to make your point, but I get it. I listened to you when you told me to keep living and practically pushed me on Blake.” Cadence snickered. “And now,
