Chase's POV
I'd been an insomniac for most of my life, but that night is one I'd remember so well.
Cause it wasn't the regular fear of nightmares that kept me awake, and jutted me back to reality when I dozed off, it was the memory of how my perfect date had gone down.
I was gonna give the clothes to charity, cause there was no way I could ever put them on again.
Emma had totally embarrassed me, worse still, I got no apology.
I took my time changing out of my clothes, even taking a shower to wash the scents of all the colognes and deodorants, in false hopes of being able to sleep better, but it wasn't working.
"Fucking get off my wrist!" I screamed in frustration as I tore the Cuban off my hand.
Her bags of clothes and shoes and many other things peeking out of them were still very much littering the room.
I got out of the bathroom, to see that she'd started organizing stuff and arranging.
I had to go past her if I wanted to get to the bed, but my mind wasn't in that space yet. I might say something or do something I didn't mean to, so I sat it out and waited while she ordered her stuff.
I sat on a chair opposite my dressing table, staring at myself so hard in the mirror, wondering where I'd got it all wrong.
"Here's your card." She said weakly. It sounded like her voice was breaking, and I was dying to offer her a hot tea, but I was still too mad at her.
Then I remembered. "You never asked for the pin." I said, looking down.
"Someone else paid it off." She said, retreating to what she was doing.
I had so may fucking questions. It better not be him! Gray gave me the impression he wasn't rich, so I crossed it off my mind.
"Someone else is paying your bills?" I observed, chuckling dryly.
"It's really not that deep." She returned.
"Who was it?" I cut to the Chase.
"A guy at the store." She replied, stubbornly.
"Wasn't expecting it to be a girl." I retorted. "Who was it, Emma?" I asked again.
"A guy at the store, Chase." She shot back at me, with her hand on her waist.
"You must at least have a name." I smiled, knowingly.
"I don't go around asking people their names." She replied. I really didn't see this side of Emma coming.
"I want to know who fucking did it, Emma." I yelled, banging the table and sending a couple of products flying to the ground.
"It's none of your business, Chase!" She said, matching my tone.
"You are my business, Emma. I own you." I stood up to face her. "And you own me." I added it as an afterthought.
"You don't own me, Chase." She said, "You fucking don't!"
"Who bought you these things, Emma?" I asked again. "A strange raggedy ass nigga be buying you stuff and you hurl them into my house?!" I yelled out of sheer irritation at her lack of decency.
"You see that?" She asked, pointing at me. I was confused, and I'm sure it showed on my face, "That, what you just said," She clarified, "That's the exact reason you can't own me, Chase. You're selfish. And I know it's your fuckin house, I'd be gone before you realise it." She said, angrily shoving things into place.
I didn't like how she twisted the narrative.
"That's not what I'm saying." I swallowed a bit of my pride, "I'm only asking you who got you these things?" Then I thought to reframe my question. "Did he pay Lily's bills too?"
"Yes." She answered immediately.
Maybe it wasn't him then…
But I still hadn't gotten an answer.
"So who was it?" I asked again, calmer this time around.
"A stranger." She said, smiling.
I was done with all that bull crap.
I picked up her phone from where it was on the floor. She was lost at first and didn't see that it was what I grabbed. If I had thought smarter, maybe I'd have gone through her phone, but I wanted to hold it so she didn't reach Lily before I did.
"Hey Lily." I said, trying to infuse some calm into my tone.
Emma's head shot up immediately, and she started looking for her phone.
I tucked it into the drawer, hoping it wouldn't ring to reveal itself. She was getting frantic in searching for it, and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before she detected foul play.
"He really be buying y'all stuff, huh?" I asked, calmly.
"It was free money, couldn't pass it up, sorry." She screeched.
She sounded so innocent.
"Please tell Em to bring all the serves along. I somehow lost mines." She said, I could tell she was busy from how much stuff was ruffling in the background. "Chase, imma call you back. I've gotta pack tonight. Can't be wasting my time over no Starry dude." She said,
Emma's eyes flew wider.
"I wanna search him up. Have you got any other names?" I asked her.
"Besides Kevin, nope." She replied. "Bye for now." And the line went dead.
Emma knew her game was up.
Sadly, I didn't feel the justification I wanted to feel after it.
I felt like shit.
I never wanted a relationship where we'd be involving third parties, but she was making it so.
She looked so hurt and even gave up searching for her phone.
Guiltily, I drew it out and handed it over to her.
She took it and placed it somewhere else.
I tried to look at her face, even dared to hold her hand while she took it from me, but she was damn too evasive.
'Two wrongs don't make a right' could have no true-er meaning than in that case.
I felt shitty, I felt guilty, I felt hurt.
"I'll be downstairs." I said. I quickly changed out of my towel and wore some night suit, took a pillow, and dragged myself down to see what was left of my drastic dinner date.
I took the food off the table. It was my automatic cheat day. I was gonna eat till I could feel the pain tugging at my chest no more.
"You might want to lock your door." Emma said, putting emphasis on 'your'. I might have fallen asleep from overeating, but that didn't stop me from getting all the sarcasm and daggers in her words, and seeing that it was almost midnight.
"You're going nowhere." I locked the door and threw the keys away.