Opal POV
I slip into Decker's seemingly unnoticed by most even though I've spent several nights here since Lily's Bachelorette. Scanning the tables opposite of the dance floor I see Laura chowing down on some chicken wings, Cooper on the side opposite of her with Spencer heading back towards the table from the bar.
I figure maybe Chris isn't here yet as I maneuver through the dance floor, bile rising in my throat as I catch a glimpse of CJ out of the corner of my eye moving in the opposite direction as me. Swallowing down the lump in my throat that has doubled inside I shimmy my way over to the group's table.
"Ope!" Laura yells out, jumping up to squeeze me tight. She scoots over into the chair next to her, giving me the one closest to the dance floor.
"If it isn't the woman who broke my man's heart," Cooper seethes, eyes narrowing at me over his bottle. "Gotta say, I think you're in for a real treat tonight, Opal."
Laura shifts in her seat, bringing my attention back to her. "What is he talking about?" I ask, bouncing between Laura and Spencer.
"I'm talking about the fact that you're about to regret everything you've done in the last ten months. Leading him along, knowing you'd never actually go through with marrying him."
I'm stunned by his words and how honest he's being with me. This is a very different man than the one I spoke to the night of Laura and Spencer's wedding. The man that admitted to me that he'd be lucky to find someone like me. The guy that told me I was definitely not the six he'd originally labeled me as.
Cooper looks towards the bar, causing me to follow his line of sight. My breath catches in my chest as I see Chris in a desperate lip lock with CJ. As much as I want to look away, I can't. Knowing I pushed him to this.
I watch them pull apart just long enough for him to throw some cash on the bar before he grabs her hand in his own, practically dragging her towards the door. He looks over towards our table, all of us looking back at him. Cooper gives his jackass nod of approval while I just feel lost.
That's when he notices me. He looks right into my eyes. All I see behind his is both an emptiness and a desire. But that desire is no longer for me. His attention goes back to his task at hand as he pushes through the front door of Decker's, surely headed to his apartment to continue the escapade that began just a moment ago at the bar.
"So, Opal, let me ask you a question?" Cooper's cocky voice matches the expression covering his face.
I shudder, already feeling my face wet with tears. Begrudgingly I give him my attention knowing exactly what his next words will be.
"How does it feel for everyone to always leave you?"
I wake up, panicked and unable to catch my breath. My body shaking with fever like chills and yet I feel abnormally hot at the same time. My cheeks damp along with my pillowcase, alerting me to the fact that the tears weren't only a part of my dream. By the look of it I had been crying through the whole vision.
And even now, my chest is so tight that I can't breathe more than small gasps, my heart beating so fast and hard that I swear I can feel it against my rib cage. I fumble around the bedside table for my phone, realizing only after I flip the lamp on that it's not there. I fling the covers around before finally noticing it laying on the pillow. My hand reaches out for it, trembling worse than I've ever seen.
I do my best to catch my breath as I flounder to unlock my phone, dialing the only person that I know can help me.
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Chris POV
I park the squad car in it's place, thankful for the end of another overnight shift.
"I know you've got another hour of paperwork ahead of you, but maybe you want to grab breakfast after?" Cooper asks as he shuts down the computer inside the car.
With a flick of my wrist I cut the car off just as my cell vibrates from its spot in the console. "4 AM call, that can't be good," he chimes as I reach to grab it.
"It's Opal," I exhale a sigh, suddenly filled with concern. She never responded to my message last night.
"I'll give you some space. Take your time," Cooper willingly offers, knowing we haven't spoken in several weeks.
With a deep breath I slide my thumb across the screen, answering the call. "Opal?"
I expect to hear her voice immediately, but instead I'm met with what sounds like hyperventilating, gasp after gasp. "Ope, what's going on?"
"I, I, can't-" she stutters through broken breaths.
She's in a full blown anxiety attack again. "What can I do?" I ask, trying to go through my head of what I can offer to her from so far away.
"Nee, nee-, need-"
"What do you need, sweetheart? What can I do?" my own panic raising, causing me to forget everything I've ever done to help her in these moments.
"V-, voice," she manages to get out. "T-, t-, talk, puh-, please."
She wants me to talk. She needs my voice to help calm her. "Okay, I'll talk if that'll help. Um, let's see. Cooper and Janie are still together. I know, we're all shocked. Seems that talk you gave him at the wedding made a real difference." I pause just long enough to listen to her breathing. It's still shallow and quick. "Spencer said Laura is already driving him insane with baby names. Although if I had to guess there's probably a group chat with you girls vetoing names left and right. Is that what you girls are talking about now, Ope?"
"Yeah, yeah," she stutters out.
"I think the worst girl's name he's mentioned so far might be Beberly. He said she had a huge crush on Justin Beiber and came up with that one," I laugh out, hoping that if I can keep myself light it'll bleed off over onto her.
"New one," she comments, her words broken, "today is Jerica."
"I'm sorry, what?" I exclaim. "Like a combination of Jessica and Erica? That's not gonna fly. Spencer's last girlfriend before Laura was named Erica."
"Love-, lovely."
"Give me a number, Opal. 1 being best, 10 being still awful."
The line is almost silent for a moment, just a handful of gasps before she answers. "Seven," she tells me.
"Okay, that's a little better. Let's see," I wrack my brain for a second. "Oh, I uh, heard a new pick up line during an arrest the other week."
"Tell, tell me," she says slowly.
"I was in the process of cuffing her as Cooper was reading her the Miranda Rights. She stopped him and said 'anything I say will be used against me, you say?' He finished reading them off to her and then answered her with a yes. She looked at me and said 'great, what's your name?' I just shook my head and got her in the back of the car."
I hear a faint giggle.
"I wish it stopped there though. I got in to drive and she kept going. The worst was probably 'Nice uniform, it would look great at the foot of my bed.' She just wouldn't shut up."
"Arrested for?" her words still broken but I'm hearing less gasps.
"Prostitution," I chuckle. "Number, Ope."
"Five."
"Guess this means I have to bring out the big guns, huh?" I tease. "Some cats are actually allergic to humans. So, I guess it's a good thing you and I are dog people, huh?" I hear a faint agreeance before I start again. "It takes 364 licks to get to the tootsie roll in a Tootsie Pop. Oh, and those heels you despise so much? They were first worn by men, upper class to be exact."
"So what color would your pair be, Sergeant?"
I breathe a silent breath of relief as I can hear a faint smile in her voice when she speaks. "There she is," I whisper, leaning my head back against the leather seat.
"I'm sorry for calling you, Chris." That brief bit of happiness I heard in her voice is now gone again.
"Don't ever apologize for calling me, Opal. I told you, I'm here for you." I chew on my lower lip, debating whether or not to ask what started this whole ordeal. "I wish I could see you right now. Let me hang up and Facetime you."
"No!" she cries out, completely against the idea which doesn't lessen my concern at all.
"What happened? What caused you to have that severe of an attack?"
The line is silent, so quiet that I pull my phone away to check and see if she hung up. "You can tell me, Opal. You can tell me anything."
"You-, you," I can hear her voice trembling, picturing in my mind that her lip is shaking as well. "You were moving on."
"What?" I ask in disbelief.
I hear her breath become shaky as she answers me. "I saw you with CJ, at Decker's, all over each other. You saw me but didn't speak to me. Instead you pulled her out and went to your apartment." She sniffles before starting again. "And you have every reason to move on, Chris. We aren't together, you can do whatever you want. It just felt so real."
"Opal Lillian Lucas, you are a one in a million woman. One does not walk away from you so easily. Or have I not proven that yet?"
*AN- y'all didn't really think that was the real Chris, right? I've never written him like that through this story, so there was no way I was gonna do it now. ;)