Better With You - Maddie Poppe and Caleb Hutchinson Series (Book 2)

Chapter 23

Maddie's POV

I pull away from Caleb as he turns and looks at Bella.

"Bella.. I'm..." he says.

"Well, someone led me back here. I came to bring you your wallet," she cries, "How could you Caleb? How could you do this to our family?"

I quickly put my shirt back on and get off of the counter, "Bella, I'm-"

"No," she glares, "don't talk to me," she then looks back to Caleb, "you knew I didn't want you to come here anyways but I still trusted you."

"I don't know..." Caleb shakes his head.

Bella sets his wallet on the counter before turning around and leaving.

"I should go," I say, eyes watering.

"Maddie, wait," Caleb says.

"No," I look at him, "I'll see you later."

I get in my car and drive over to Gabby's apartment. I hurry to her door and knock. She opens almost immediately, "Maddie?"

I walk in and sit down, "Gabby," I cry.

"Hey! What happened?" She sits next to me.

"You know, I had the show tonight. Caleb played rhythm for me. We were in the dressing room and we almost... we almost, uh, you know..."

"What?!" Gabby smiles.

"Stop smiling!" I say, "Bella walked in."

Gabby keeps smiling, "Mhm."

"Gabby, stop. Caleb is still dating Bella and we still kissed and stuff," I put my hand over my mouth before removing it quickly, "I almost got intimate with him and he's dating Bella."

"Maddie! Have you already forgotten what Bella did to Caleb?" She asks.

"No! But that doesn't make it okay for us to do that!" I say.

"Just calm down," she says, "it'll work out."

I take a deep breath, "it's just the look in her eyes when she saw us, she looked so hurt."

"Okay, first off, you have an extremely big heart because even after everything that bitch put you through, you still care about her feelings, but..."

"But what?"

She looks at me for a moment, "she's not worth it."

"Gabby.."

"What?"

"She asked Caleb how we could do this to their family," I say.

"What the hell! Maddie, you know Caleb is never going to look at Bella the same way after what she did with Jace. He will never fully be back with Bella."

"But still!" I say, "ugh."

"Maddie, it has been constant back and forth, but when Caleb has been with you, he's been there fully. I saw him and Bella the other day, and they didn't even act like a couple."

"So what?" I say.

"Don't you understand?" She grabs both of my wrists, and looks deeply into my eyes.

"What?" I say confused.

"When Caleb kissed you tonight... Maddie, he chose you."