Before You (Before You #1)(36)

“Sure,” Bre said, following the man to the front of the gallery. Locking the door, she grabbed a bottle of champagne from the break room in the basement. Opening it, she took a long drink from the bottle and placed it next to her on the floor of her gallery as she stared out the skylights.

When it was empty, she released the bottle from her fingers and let it roll across the uneven hardwood floors. She turned her head sideways, and speculated whether her head was spinning or if the bottle really was rolling away from her. She reached out to grab the bottle. When she realized it was out of her grasp, she decided she hadn’t drunk near enough because the bottle was moving, not her head. Besides, she spilled about a quarter of the bottle when she opened it.

As she pushed to her feet, she heard her cell phone ringing. She ignored it. There wasn’t one person she wanted to talk to right now. She needed to determine how she felt about her break up before other people started telling her how she should feel.

Making her way back to the storage room, she heard her cell phone ring again. “Leave me alone,” she hollered as she walked downstairs to get another bottle of champagne. It looked as though she needed to call a cab to take her back to her grandmother’s house. That wasn’t going to be cheap, but the damage was already done. Driving intoxicated on a snowy road was beyond stupid.

Stumbling upstairs again, she heard her phone ringing again and walked into her office to answer it. Maybe if they heard her voice they would leave her alone.

“What do you want?” Bre yelled into the phone.





Chapter Seventeen



“Hi, to you, too,” Jax said, setting his drink down on the bar.

“Jax?” Bre asked.

“Yes. Where are you?” Jax turned his body away from the couple sitting next to him.

“At the gallery.”

“Perfect. I’m across the street in the lobby bar of my hotel. Come meet me.” Jax hoped that he could talk to her before Cam called to let her know he wasn’t coming. When Cam told him he never booked a ticket and he didn’t plan to go, Jax was furious. Cam gave the same lame excuse about that Mia chick, but Jax knew that wasn’t the only reason. Lately, he had been seeing Anna. He claimed they weren’t serious, but Jax could tell he had feelings for Anna even if they weren’t permanent. Anna convinced Cam to go on a weekend trip to San Diego. Knowing what little he did about Anna, he thought Anna somehow found out about Bre’s opening and she was making a power play for Cam. Even if Bre didn’t realize she lost a battle in the war for Cam’s attention, Anna did, and that’s all that mattered to her.

Jax shivered. He didn’t understand Cam’s fascination with her. Anna couldn’t compare to Bre. Where Bre was natural and beautiful, Anna was fake and whiny. In truth, Jax thought Cam only kept her around because of her family connections, and Jax knew from experience that connections didn’t make a relationship. No matter how good a person looked on paper, if they sucked, nothing else mattered.

“What? You’re really here?” Bre said.

“The gallery was my idea. I couldn’t miss the opening.”

Bre laughed. “Give me five minutes to lock up and I’ll be there. Order me a vodka martini.”

“I’m on it.”

Just as the bartender placed a martini on a napkin next to him, Jax felt arms encircle his waist, and he turned his head to see Bre smiling down at him.

“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Bre said, looking at him fondly.

He grabbed her hand, pulling her into the seat next to him. Instead of releasing her hand, he held on, rubbing his thumb against her wrist. “So, is everything ready to go?”

Bre twisted the stem of her martini glass with her free hand. “For the most part. Michael has a surprise artist that he won’t share with me. Other than that, we’re ready.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yep,” Bre said, pulling her hand out of his and biting her lower lip.

“Then, why don’t you look happy?” Jax tilted her chin up so he could see her face.

“Cam and I broke up.”

Jax didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t lie to himself, he didn’t want her to be with Cam, but he didn’t want her to be unhappy, either. “I guess that means you talked to Cam.”

Bre took a sip of her martini, shivering from the contrast in taste from the sweet champagne she drank earlier. “I guess I don’t need to tell you he flaked again.”

Jax ran his hand through his hair. “No. I knew he wasn’t coming.”

Bre shrugged. “At least he told me himself rather than letting you do it again, even if he did it by text message.”

Cam could be such an *. He couldn’t understand why Cam insisted he was going to marry Bre at some point, when he could dismiss her feelings so easily. “How are you holding up?”

“Honestly? I’m more shocked than anything. In the back of my mind, I knew our relationship wasn’t working, but I didn’t want to lose him after losing my grandmother, so I ignored our problems. Cam and his family are the only constants in my life, and I held onto Cam because I’m scared to feel alone. Does that make me weak?”

“No. It makes you human.”

“Maybe.” Bre exhaled loudly. “I wish I’d had the strength to end our relationship earlier instead of holding onto something that wasn’t right. He can’t be the person I need, and in truth, I don’t want to be the person he needs, either.”