A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 92: Ace of Hearts

It was strange how normal everything felt. Walking the lobby to the elevator, the familiar sound of the mechanical gears as it took me upstairs. The old faded carpet of the hallway. Coming home after such a revelation alone, Blade going to his own house, me to mine with Katie, and doing nothing. Just continuing on with my night like nothing had happened. Slipping into some alternate universe where magic and vampires and all those things didn't exist, into a different version of me, my other life. 

Katie, Jill, and Noah were waiting for me when I got upstairs after Blade dropped me off.

"Hey, you're finally home," Katie said as she came over to hug me the second I walked through the door. "I was worried."

She started to let go, but I held on and she hugged me tighter instead, like she could tell I needed it. I think I needed to curl up in bed and just be held for the next three days and have someone watch over me just so I could sleep peacefully. Today had been a lot, these last few hours especially, and I was still emotional about saying goodbye to Blade and how I'd left things with Ace.

"Sorry, I was hanging out with Ace and forgot to text," I said, letting go now before anyone got too worried about me. I did not have the mental capacity to come up with a story to explain how I was feeling or how I spent my evening.

I dumped my bag and nodded to Jill and Noah who were sitting at the table, chips and cookies and soft drinks spread in front of them. They had probably had a normal evening of hanging out, chatting and eating. Meanwhile I felt like I had had about three months worth of days crammed into the last 24 hours and about 90% of it was an absolute shit show.

"I know, you never came home from work or answered my texts so I messaged him and asked if he knew where you were," Katie replied, guiding me towards the table.

"You did?"

"Yeah he answered a little while ago and said you were with him but heading home soon."

Even in the midst of that whole crisis and him trying to avoid me he still answered Katie's message to let her know I was okay? My heart grew warm and ached at the same time. It wasn't fair. I hoped he was okay.

Her face contorted right back worry as she stared down at me. "Is that blood?"

I followed her gaze to where I had wiped Bryce's blood off on my shorts. "Um. Yeah. Nose bleed. Made a mess."

It hadn't been my nose that had been bleeding, but nobody needed to know that. The reminder was good though, as I went to wash my hands. I needed a shower, but that would have to wait a minute.

"So how was your date?" Jill asked. The room went intensely, uncomfortably, quiet.

"What date?" I asked, still washing my hands in the sink, back to them.

"You and Ace. Coming home late. Not messaging. It was a date, wasn't it?" She asked, sounding so satisfied with herself, like she had figured out some grand mystery and was enjoying me being on the spot.

Ah, yes. What a romantic evening it was.

Me, Ace, my ex-boyfriend and his best friend, his bodyguard, his assistant, her psychotic boyfriend, and a witch all in a room together for the worst possible reason. Blade and I calling it quits again. Ace avoiding me entirely. That's a dream date night right there.

"No. We were hanging out with some of his co-workers and I lost track of time." That wasn't really a lie, was it? "And we're just friends." Though by the way things were going, maybe not even that anymore.

"Oh please."

"Jill," Katie tutted.

"Isn't that like super hetero normative of you to assume that just because Ace is a guy and I'm a girl and we're hanging out that we're dating?" I asked, pivoting the conversation somewhere less depressing as I turned around to dry my hands.