Breaking Point

Chapter 12 // Jesse

[BEFORE – 8 Months Ago]

"You're dead-set on renewing your contract?" Chantelle asked me.

After all her designated driver duties, I'd offered to pick her up from her apartment and refuted any responses she had until she relented, which surprisingly didn't take too much effort. The entire team had to renew their contracts with Lewis, and even though we had all explicitly stated we wanted to continue, though there was no definite timeframe anymore with a new contract, we had to perform the formalities, which meant that my parents were still waiting inside the studio to look through the contract with me. Something they had done for the initial contract.

"Of course," I replied to her, parking my Range Rover in the studio parking lot. "Singing has always been something I wanted to do, but I just accepted I would never get anywhere with it, which is why I started engineering and worked for my dad's garage. You're sticking around, right?"

She placed her hand on my thigh and smiled. "Of course I am. You're not getting rid of me that easily. I want to hear more embarrassing childhood stories of you, and I'm sure Ed has plenty to share about you in high school."

"Ah, but the bro code now officially applies with him." I placed my hand on hers and tenderly grazed her knuckles.

She scoffed. "You and I both know Ed will tell me more."

I sighed. "I know."

Since the dinner two weeks ago Chantelle and I had been almost inseparable except at night. After a week when the rumours started to crop up online and our photos were covering the front pages of tabloids, I decided to confirm it through my social media accounts, posting a photo of Chantelle and I which Lewis had shot and we hadn't realised until we'd turned around, startled, at the shutter sound of his phone as it wasn't silenced. We'd been standing next to the window in the studio and it was dark out, the lights from the harbour illuminating the view as we gazed at one another, our lips upturned into smiles. I'd like to say I told a joke (it would boost my ego), but I honestly couldn't remember why we were smiling.

True to our words, we were taking it slow. We weren't staying the night at either of our places and we hadn't had sex. We'd come close once, but it didn't feel right at that moment. And when it came to our dates, I felt nervous about ordering a beer or something, despite Chantelle insisting she had no qualms with me drinking around her if I wasn't driving. Nonetheless, sometimes I would order one and immediately go with Diet Coke afterwards. The first time this happened, I caught her smiling to herself, bashful as she bowed her head.

"We should get inside," I told her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "They're probably waiting for us."

As we made a beeline across the parking lot, I held Chantelle's hand in mine, glancing down to view her Disney socks she was donning under her black loafers. When I picked her up and saw that, she grinned and simply said her feet were cold. But I also knew for a fact that underneath her hoodie she was wearing a short-sleeve Disney tee-shirt which featured Jasmine from Aladdin, because I recognised the baby blue hemline when she reached up to sort her hair out before we left her apartment. She wasn't so sly. She wore that shirt frequently, deeming it "comfy".