His brows crease and he watches me for a prolonged moment, trying to work out if I’m crazy or just a little unsure how this works. “I’m sorry, Sir?”
“The bottle.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t do that.”
“Yeah, you can,” I tell him. “Look, I’m not trying to be a pain, but I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t need it.”
“Need it?”
I let out a frustrated sigh and turn to look through the big glass windows covering the back of the room. “See that girl way out there? The maid of honor,” I say, pointing Tully out in the dark of the night. The bartender nods and I continue. “Her boyfriend is a real asshole.”
“Boyfriend?” he asks with a sigh. “Shit. She’s spent most of her night right here at my bar. I assumed she was just into me.”
“Nope. Bottle.”
His eyes flash back to her before coming to me. “Fine. But if anyone asks, you didn’t get it from me.” He goes about grabbing the bottle and discreetly passes it across the bar while looking out for his superiors. I roll my eyes. I’m not in the mood for this childish bullshit. I just want to get out there and make sure she’s ok.
I grab the bottle around the neck and stalk out the door, ignoring the people calling my name, all wondering where I’ve been for the past half an hour.
I push my way out the door and this time, I don’t dare hesitate. I beeline straight for her, removing my jacket as I go.
She’s too caught up in her emotions to notice me approaching which for the first time, I don’t want to scold her about as it gives me a chance to get close without her telling me to fuck off in the process.
As I step up behind her, I can’t help but breathe her in. She’s so fucking beautiful and that smell is the most potent drug to me. So enticing, intoxicating, freeing. It’s the smell of everything good and pure in my life and I don’t know how I possibly went four years without it.
I drape my jacket over her shoulders and her back stiffens. She doesn’t need to turn around to know that it’s me. She senses it just as I would had it been her behind me.
A soft sigh slips through her lips as I silently drop down on the bench beside her. I hand her the bottle of Vodka and she doesn’t hesitate for a second taking it from me. The idea of her drinking the night away makes me feel sick but there’s nothing anyone can say that’s going to change her mind about this, so if that’s what she needs to do, then I’ll be sitting right by her side the whole time, making sure she doesn’t do something reckless.
She lets out a broken sigh and I find myself looking across at her. Mascara is smudged under her eyes as tears continue rolling down her face. It kills me. I hate seeing her like this and I hate it more that I’m the reason those tears are there.
I look away knowing that she wouldn’t want me watching her like this. She has far too much pride.
Tully breaks the seal on the bottle and within seconds of handing it to her, she’s tipping the bottle up and letting it slide down her throat. She cringes and grunts as it burns on the way down, but it doesn’t stop her from tipping it up a second time.
She brings the bottle back down and traces her finger over the label. “You heard all of that, didn’t you?”
I wince. I don’t exactly want to admit that I stood there and listened to their argument, but on the other hand, she knows me well enough to know that I wouldn’t have been able to resist. “He’s a dick, Tullz. What are you doing with him?”
Tully scoffs as she looks out towards the garden while attempting to dry her eyes on the back of her arm. “You sound jealous.”
“I am.”
Her brows pull down as she turns to look at me with a desperation in her eyes that has me needing to reach out and pull her into my arms, but I can’t. That’s the last thing she wants right now. Those green eyes that I’ve been missing so damn much search mine. looking for some sort of clarification. Her voice is low and broken. “You still…?”
My heart shatters realizing that this question has tortured her just as it has for me. Constantly wondering if I still feel the same and not knowing if I’ve moved on. Those questions have plagued my mind and coming home to see her in the arms of another man was enough to kill me, but she should know it was her who got me through it all. There were nights I thought I’d never see morning, but knowing she was out there somewhere kept me going. She always kept me going.