Too Broken to Love

11

Spencer's POV

If you would have asked me a month ago what I would be doing right now, Honestly I would have said drinking a beer and watching a football game. Life seemed to have a funny way of messing up the plans future me had for myself.

Here I stood in the kitchen of no other, Averleigh Allen. I would have given my last breath all those years ago at that winter formal to kiss her again and again, and while she clearly doesn't seem to remember teenage me, I certainly remember her.

She always was a girl who never wanted the typical guys that showed her the slightest attention, instead she had always wanted to wait and experience everything properly the right way. One of the reasons why I waited so long to ask her out all those years ago.

I mean at least with the winter formal if she had rejected me I was already moving. I had to have a back up plan to protect myself the embarrassment of being one of the many rejected by her. To my surprise she said yes, and it truly was a night I would never forget.

I had hoped that we would get a chance to talk after the dance or at least exchange phone numbers and keep in touch, but after what was the best kiss of my life, she had to get home. The next day I was gone. Uplifted to another state by my parents for some job my father took, so that he could be richer than he already was.

A year later one of my friends told me she was dating that Chris guy. He was a little older than us, and back then the only time he came to school was for lunch to hit on girls. I never really liked the guy, but it was all mostly jealousy because he had the woman I wanted. Her.

When we moved back here a year ago, I was so consumed in work that I never really ventured back out in the town. I mostly stayed at the office, or at home. When I did go out, I usually ventured to the next town over, opting to spend my hook ups in a hotel rather than my house. I mean sex is sex, and if there is not attachment then I don't need them knowing where I live.

I'll admit when my mother arranged that birthday party I was hesitant, I mean who celebrates their birthday after 21 anyway? But I noticed her as I walked out the bathroom, right as she appeared for her shift.

She was just as beautiful as I remembered although it was clear from her smeared make up that she had been crying. So when she reappeared in the party room for my party, he back facing me I decided to try my luck with flirting.

She had agreed to owing me a favor to quiet the rowdy group I call my family, a favor I planned to cash in on if and when the opportunity presented itself. I still didn't know what she had been up to all this time, and she definitely did not recognize me at all.

As we began to clear out I handed my mother a note to put in with her tip. She knew who Averleigh was. I had begged her all those years ago not to make me move so I could be with her.

The next night I saw her again at the bar. This time she was throwing back some fruity cocktail. I could tell by her eyes that it probably wasn't the first one she had but who was I to tell a grown woman how to act.

While I had planned to use my favor for a kiss, I instead found myself asking her to tell me when she got home safe as I put my number in her phone and sent a text to myself. Once she agreed she jumped off the stool and walked out.

I stayed to finish my beer, not too far behind her when I could hear a man yelling in the parking lot, and what sounded like a slap. I hesitated in the doorway for a minute, but I heard her before I saw her.

I would recognize her sweet voice anywhere. It was the voice I could only dream of hearing every single day, but right now it was quivering and instinctively I looked towards the sound. I saw the pleading look in her eyes as she clutched the side of her face, tears threatening to spill over those beautiful cheeks.