Tempting /A Jordan Knight fanfic ✔️

27

Chapter 27: The Aftermath

I had three missed calls from Mel. Over the last hour, I'd received and let three calls from Mel go to voicemail.

Each call that came through turned my stomach over with guilt and by the end of the hour, I felt so nauseous I considered asking Patrick if I could go home early for the day.

Unfortunately, our afternoon shift was slammed and through the dizziness and headache, I had to stick it out. Each patron I served seemed more difficult than the last, requiring special drinks or allergy specifications or took an extra five minutes to order a simple beer just so they could look down my shirt.

I barely registered any of them towards the end of the afternoon past a blurry face and a thankless cash-out. My mind was elsewhere, dragging behind me every step of the way. No matter how hard I tried to distract myself with drinks, orders, and cleaning, those three missed calls always managed to run me down.

What was she calling for? Did she know? Did Jordan tell her what we'd done?

Last night, I replayed that kiss over and over again and each play through the kiss got, the heavier the rocks in my stomach felt. Throughout the night I cried, I screamed, and I ate an unhealthy amount of ice cream but I never slept. Not even for a minute.

Jordan called me a few hours after he left yesterday, but I let it go to voicemail. And as misguided fate would have it, he did, in fact, leave a voicemail. One that did more damage than his kiss ever could have.

The voicemail consisted of only three words and one nickname.

"This isn't over, Slim."

After listening to his message twenty times, I turned off my phone for the night and crawled onto the couch to soak the rest of my tears into the polyester.

Mel deserved so much better than either Jordan or I had given her last night. I hated myself more with every second that passed, thinking about what I had done to her. The secret I now had to keep from her.

All I could do now was hope she never found out.

Hope hadn't gotten me anywhere lately, but right now, it was the only string I had left tethering my whole world together.

Then somewhere around 5pm, that string came loose and the pieces of my world started to fall away as Mel walked through the doors— And she wasn't alone.

Mel barrelled towards me, wide-eyed and anxious, and my heart punched through my stomach, the pain pushing tears to my eyes before she even spoke.

"Why haven't you been picking up your phone? I tried calling you like ten times."

Fear ripped across my chest, gashing my heart that felt like it was vibrating it was beating so fast. Mel leaned over the bar, whispering just out of earshot of the woman she'd come with.

"I'm so sorry. She insisted we come here for lunch. I tried to warn you!"

My brain trying to splice together realizations that Mel might not be here to tear me a new one, I managed to ask, "Who is she?"

"Jordan's hard-ass mother." Just before she whipped back around to the woman she'd brought, she slipped in, "So keep the alcohol flowing."

The split second of relief I'd experienced at knowing Mel wasn't here to confront me about what I'd done with her fiancé was gone as I locked eyes with the middle-aged woman coming my way.

Her eyes were scrutinizing as she approached and the same shade of beauty as Jordan.

"Marlene, this is my sister Amber," Mel introduced. "Amber, this is Marlene, Jordan's mother."