CHASE - Volume Three (The CHASE Series Book 3) by M.L. Young Page A

said.
    “Then what made you come here tonight, without a warning?” I asked.
    “My assistant, well, friend, Brian told me to. Another person I trust told me to as well. They said that even if you don’t take me back, even if you hate me for all time, that I should at least say my piece, get this off of my chest, and move on with my life. I want to be with you, and I want you in my life, but I know that isn’t my decision. It’s yours, and I want to respect that. I just want you to know that I’m not a player, I’m not some guy who tells one woman one thing and then fools around with others while still keeping that first woman on the side, feeding her lies. I know that I’ve never had all of the answers to anything. I know we don’t have the answers to everything together. With that said, I know that we can find them together. I know that, if you gave me a chance, I could be the person you knew I could be, the person you know I am deep down,” he said.
    I didn’t know what to say. I felt overwhelmed, all of this information coming at me all at once, as I tried to process his entire story, down to the last minute detail. Was he telling the truth, or was this all rehearsed? I didn’t know why it would be, considering I was nothing amazing and he’d been out with tons of women way prettier, smarter, and with a lot more money than me. It wouldn’t make sense that he’d go through all of this just to get back with me if he didn’t really mean it.
    Even with all of that, though, I still had to look at the facts as I knew them. I did see that woman, Jasmine, in his house in clothes from the night before. I saw him shirtless and in pajama bottoms. Those clues were hard to ignore, and I wasn’t sure I could ever forget them. I wasn’t sure I could ever forget the pain I went through all because of this.
    Even with all of that, though, even with all of the frustration, anger, and pain, I still kind of believed him, and I didn’t know why.
    I looked into his eyes, his beautiful bloodshot eyes, and wondered, for a second, what he was thinking about. I wondered about his pain, his misery, and the way he felt over the past almost two weeks. I knew I had been in pain, and that I had a hard time with it, especially in the beginning, but what about him? If he were telling the truth about all of this, and I thought he was, how did he go on knowing that he was in the right, that he was telling the truth, and I wouldn’t even listen to him? To know that your chances were going down every single day, and to feel like you couldn’t release what was bottling up inside of you. I didn’t mean to, I thought he was in the wrong, but looking back, I thought he might have been more hurt than I was, and that was saying something.
    “So, you really think we could bounce back from something like this? You think that we could forget all of it and just move forward?” I asked.
    “No, at least not all of that. I don’t think we’ll ever just forget about all of this. I don’t think that we’ll go about our lives, never remembering this pain. Do I think we can move forward? Yes, I do, I really do. I think we can both admit things didn’t go well, talk them out, and go forward, together, holding hands, not looking back at the negative things that happened. I think that if she came back into my life, or tried to, I could get a restraining order against her, and then we’d be set. I think a lot of things, but quite frankly, I’ve said almost everything I can think to say. I’m really interested in hearing what you have to say, Alexis. I want to know what you think about all of this. Just me alone thinking we can move forward isn’t enough. I need you to think the same thing as well. So, with that said, what do you think about all of this? Where do we lie, and what can we do, if anything, to move forward again?” he asked.
    I looked at him, looked down, and twiddled my thumbs in my lap. I bit my lower lip, deep in thought, and took