Life in Hiding

36 ~ Chocolate

I'll meet you at the hotel.

Staring at my phone, I gnaw on my lip. That would've been nice to know an hour ago. Everyone else in my family headed to the city and I opted to stay behind for Chloe.

Pulling into Uncle John's hotel thirty minutes later, where Manny and Drew decided to host their wedding weekend activities, I toss the valet my keys. It's not hard to find where I'm supposed to go; I just follow the shouts.

"Look what the cat drug in!" Gentry Rawlings greets me, a wine glass in hand.

"Miss me, ladies?" I ask, dramatically throwing my arms around him and Aspen Jones.

"Not in the slightest." Aspen offers dryly and I pinch his cheek.

"Don't lie, darling." I tease. "I thought single Aspen would be perkier."

Gentry lets out a snort. Downing the rest of his wine before walking to the table. Aspen offers a stiff wave before following a few feet behind him. Weird.

"There you are." Scarlett waves me over, looking around. "Where's Chloe?"

"I don't know." I admit. "She's coming later."

"Oh." She frowns. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." I wish my significant other would communicate better.

"Howdy, Handsome." Ashton hobbles over on his crutches. "Promise me, you'll save me a dance tomorrow."

"It'll be a slow one." I wink and Scarlett rolls her eyes.

"I can leave if you two want alone time."

"You aren't going anywhere in that dress unless I'm with you." Ashton argues and I briefly glance at my sister's... revealing ensemble. It's showy but it gives her confidence I haven't seen in a while.

And it might kill Ashton.

"I'm famished." I bump my sister out of the way, leading Ashton to the table.

My girl might've ditched me but that doesn't mean I'm dateless. I have the hottest backup date at the rehearsal dinner and he literally can't leave me if I steal his crutches.

*****

We're hours into our celebration of Drew's last night of freedom and I honestly can't remember the last time I've had this much fun.

Almost all of my friends are drunk off their ass and my blackmail collection is growing by the second. Nothing beats a girl grinding on RJ and him drunkenly explaining he has a girlfriend in Italian.

Poor girl got so confused, she ran away.

Grabbing a drink of water at our last stop of the night, I watch Drew and Manny dance to an old country song. The obvious scowl Manny sends at the group of girls noticing Drew has me thinking about Chloe.

Digging my phone out of my pocket, I dial her number. Her voicemail greats my ears almost immediately. Checking my unanswered texts, I send another.

Hey, please text me. I'm worried about you, Beautiful

"Care to dance?" Aspen claps my shoulder.

"Nope." I drink my water.

"Good, because I wanted to talk about baseball." He says and I roll my eyes.

"And I wanted to talk about why you and Gentry aren't currently speaking." I counter.

"We're speaking." He mutters.