The Replacement Girlfriend

Chapter 38

For the amazingly made book trailer!!

 

38. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Live music resonated from the stage inside the musky, old pub as Chase took a seat at the bar near the pool tables. It wasn’t usually the type of place he went to, but he had spare time for a drink, and wasn’t feeling the motivation to go into a place with more energy. On settling down, he quickly ordered a beer before studying the pub in finer details. The place had a rundown, small town feel to it, but it had its own unique flare and was reasonably packed with the odd space here and there.

Truthfully, he would have preferred a higher end establishment, but Pete and the guys at work liked to go out for drinks and mess around after hours Friday nights, and Chase didn’t want to accidentally run into them. They would get nosy on why he refused to join their fun – especially Pete – and Chase didn’t want to admit he had a date. In fact, to avoid their possible harassment, he had run off right after work with the intentions of going straight home, but much to his frustration and annoyance, Krislynn had called right about then and forbid him to come home any time earlier than 6:45.

At first he was suspicious. The possibility of a catastrophe happening at home while he had been away at work was extremely high, but then he heard giggling in the background – recognizably Michelle’s annoying laughter – and just left it at that.

Chase checked the time on his Cartier watch as the bartender set down a beer in front of him. He had dropped by his studio office downtown and already taken a shower and changed his clothes there for convenience, yet it was just passed six and he had at least half an hour before he needed to get going.

Sighing, he slapped a twenty on the counter. “Keep the change.”

The bartender nodded appreciatively and Chase took a sip of his beer before he turned around and checked the place out for girls. He was quickly disappointed to find that the male patrons in the pub massively out-numbered the female, and even among the females, not a lot could be said about them. There were a few good-looking ones, but most of them were either trashy or way too old.

Chase had never quite understood the attractiveness in older women, and as far as he knew, it wasn’t Seth’s either. It was more of Pete’s thing – though for some reasons, Chase had always found that strangely befitting.

Not like it would have mattered if there, in fact, was a young stunner at the bar. He wouldn’t have approached her and even if she approached him, Chase wouldn’t have been interested.  

Still, old habits are hard to die, and he frequently found himself checking out girls regardless of interest or not. He would label them based on attractiveness, and even if he led them on a little, his mind didn’t wander far from what it really was – something to past away time. He still had his masculine urges, but they were more or less tamer than they were before.

It was a recent phenomenon, he realized, but he wasn’t quite sure how recent – whether it started a little bit after he met LaCienega... or a little bit after he met Krislynn. Shaking the thought out of his head, his mind backtracked and landed on LaCienega.

LaCienega.

LaCienega.