out of the woods x hotchniss

nineteen

hello helloooo everyone. oh my goddess we're nearing the end of this book. it's been a wild ride. i appreciate each of you for sticking around, especially you martina🫶

happy readings and stay safe besties! -salem🤍

TW: smut, 18+, oral sex, cursing, fighting, mentions of cheating, mentions of drinking
word count: 3666

•

JJ: "Do one thing every day that scares you." Eleanor Roosevelt.

Aaron didn't know how, but he found himself at the very familiar local bar. He had been going there every day for the past week. He sat at the bar and only ordered one whiskey on the rocks each time. He'd sit there for hours just carefully sipping on the drink, never saying more than a few words to anyone around him.

"Okay, dude, this is starting to get depressing," the bar tender said as he walked up to Aaron. He dried the shot glass in his hands with a neon green rag. "You either have to tell me what's on your mind or get the hell out and go to therapy."

Aaron scoffed as he shook his head. The raven-haired man swirled the whiskey around in his glass before taking another sip. He carefully set down the glass onto the counter before looking up at the bar tender. "This bar ruined my life."

"Is that so?" the bar tender asked and leaned over the counter. "Why?"

"Back eighteen years ago, I ran into an ex of mine here after getting into a fight with my girlfriend at the time. If I never came here, I would have never ran into my ex, and my life wouldn't be in complete disarray," Aaron said as he looked down at the glass. "I'm engaged to the first ex-girlfriend but I'm still in love with the second."

"Yeah, that is rough," the bar tender said and sighed softly. "What brought you back here now? If this bar ruined your life, you would have been here a long time ago."

"The ex-girlfriend I'm still in love with is dating my brother. She won't leave him, even when she admitted she still loves me," Aaron said and chuckled sincerely. The bar tender's eyebrows raised as he looked at Aaron. "I guess I'm just waiting for a miracle. If this bar threw one ex-girlfriend back into my life, why can't it do it again?"

"Because that is thinking like an idiot," the bar tender said and pointed at Aaron. "You love ex-girlfriend number two, so tell her. Life is way too short for you not to go after the thing you want the most and love whoever the hell your heart wants. If you really did love your fiancé, you wouldn't be sitting here praying for a miracle."

"I can't leave her," Aaron said and sighed softly. "I can't do it."

"You can't? Or you won't?" the bar tender asked and tilted his head to the side. "The biggest lesson you'll learn in life is to not confuse the two. Being alone because you were brave is a whole lot better than being alone because you were a coward. Stop praying for a miracle and go make it happen."

"And what if she doesn't say the same? I've tried to get into her head and wake her up. She's still in love with me, she just doesn't want to be with me in case I hurt her or she hurts me," Aaron said and sighed softly. The bar tender smiled forcefully at Aaron.

"That's called living in caution, my friend. That's no way to live," the bar tender said and shrugged his shoulders. "You tell her you love her, if she doesn't respond the way you'd like, there's no point in fighting for something that's not there."

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"And that, my friend, is called 'God having great timing,'" the bar tender said and chuckled. He patted the counter before walking away, returning to his job. Aaron pulled out his phone and saw that it was Haley calling him. He sighed softly before answering the phone.