Heart of Glass [ON HOLD]

Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Micah

I woke up the next morning feeling like I had been run over by a truck. I also had absolutely no idea where I was until I looked around.

"Josh?" I croaked. My voice was completely shot to hell. "Where the hell are you, dude?"

With great difficulty, I lifted myself to a sitting position. My head was going to explode. 

"You've crashed on my couch one too many times." 

I looked up to see where the voice was coming from. A burly redhead was coming out of the kitchen with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. I took the water and drank half of it in two gulps. He handed me the aspirin bottle and I stared at it for a minute.

"It doesn't matter how much of a headache you have. Only take two."

"So, let me get this straight...no matter how much my head hurts, I'm not supposed to take the whole bottle?" I snapped, sarcasm dripping from my voice. I swallowed the pills, then asked, "How did I end up here anyway?"

"I saw you trying to leave the bar with a prostitute last night, so I saved your sorry ass and brought you back here."

I thanked him and gulped down some more water. Glancing at the clock, I saw it read 12:19. 

"Josh," I begged. "Please tell me that clock's ahead."

Josh glanced at the clock. "No, it's on time. Why?"

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I groaned, jumping up and pulling my shirt on. "I was supposed to meet Victoria for lunch at noon. You know how she gets when I'm late."

Josh nodded understandingly. "You might also want to shower and brush. And maybe change shirts. You smell like a brewery."

"I don't have time. Just give me one of your shirts and some cologne," I demanded, peeling off my slightly damp shirt.

By the time I reached the restaurant, it was well past 12:30. I looked and smelled decent, so I wasn't worrying too much about that. 

Victoria was sitting in the back drinking a glass of white wine and most likely saving the world from her Blackberry. I sat down across for her. She glanced at me before hitting a few more buttons on her phone and setting it down.

"You're late," she stated simply.

"Look, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I had to get a few things done at the office, so...yeah."

She sipped her wine for a few minutes. "I talked to Dad last night. Why don't you want to talk to Arielle?"

Leave it to Victoria to cut right to the chase. She really wasn't one for beating around the bush. To be honest, I was totally contemplating lying, but Victoria was one of those people that were impossible to lie to. 

I sighed. "She's a kid. I'm sure she doesn't want this any more than I do. It's going to be too awkward to talk to her over the phone. I'd rather to talk to her face-to-face."

Victoria nodded. "Micah, I know what your problem is. Your problem is that you're stubborn. Once you make up your mind about something, that's it. There's nothing that can possibly change your mind. You already have it in your head that you're not going to like Arielle, so you refuse to even consider the possibility that maybe you might actually like her." 

I opened my mouth to argue, but thought about what she said. It was true. What I couldn't admit to myself, Victoria told me straight to my face.

"I'm right, aren't I?" she whispered.

I gave her a dry smile. "Aren't you always?"