The Debt 10 (Club Alpha) (9 page)

“Because,” she said, “I couldn’t look at
myself in the mirror if I let myself be with a guy who was treating me like a
prostitute.”

“That’s over with,” Chase told her.
 
“This has got nothing to do with Club
Alpha or any of that shit.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Let me prove it to you, Faith.
 
Let me show you that I’m willing to
stand up for us—I’m willing to fight for what you mean to me.”

She shook her head.
 
“Just stop it.”

“You know what I said about not taking
the easy road?” he continued.
 
“If I
care about something, I’ll fight to the death to protect it.
 
And I’ll stand up in front of the world
and let them know it, too.”

Suddenly, Faith heard the bathroom door
open and then Haley’s voice, calling to her.
 
“Faith, are you in there?
 
Is everything okay?”

“I have to go,” Faith whispered into the
phone.

“Wait—“

And then she hung up on him, shutting her
eyes tightly as she did so, and feeling the stabbing pain in her stomach and
chest as she realized that she might be ending something that truly mattered to
her.

Why
do I fight so hard for a job I hate and I won’t even fight for a man that I
might be falling in love with?

But she refused to think that way.
 
She couldn’t be falling in love with
Chase Winters.
 
He was unattainable,
he was a star athlete who had seen her as an easy lay, a girl who would keep
her mouth shut in exchange for a paycheck.

No.
 
Just no.

“Faith?” Haley called again, her
footsteps coming closer to the stall. “Honey, I know you’re in there.
 
I can see your cute little heels.”

“I’m okay,” Faith said, trying to keep
her voice light.
 
“I just had to
make a quick phone call.”

“In the bathroom stall?
 
What do you, work for the CIA now?”
Haley asked.

“Something like that,” Faith replied,
opening the door and coming out.

Haley looked at her evenly.
 
“Who is he?” she said.

“Who is who?”

“The guy that made you look so sad.”

“He’s nobody,” she said, thinking that
that was the biggest lie yet.
 
He
was far from nobody.

Haley seemed to accept Faith’s
non-response, which was kind of her.
 
She wasn’t the type to push and pry like Jena.

They left the bathroom together, and as
they went past the pool tables, Todd joined them, throwing his arms around both
their shoulders.
 
“My two favorite
people in the whole wide world,” he said.

“Get off of me—your hands are
sticky,” Haley said.

“Bullshit,” Todd told her, now walking
with his arm just over Faith’s shoulder.
 
“I been waiting to talk to you all night,” he said to her.

“Todd, she’s only been here a few
minutes,” Haley said.
 
“Leave the
poor girl alone.”

“What?
 
I aint bothering her.”
 
He shook his head.

Soon, they reached the table, where Jena
was chatting away with one of Todd’s friends, a tall guy with a backwards cap.

They sat down and now it was a big group,
and everyone seemed happy, laughing, drinking—everyone but Faith.

She tried to smile, tried to laugh and
keep up with the conversation, but it was difficult to concentrate.
 
All she could think about was loss.

You
took the easy road again, because let’s face it.
 
You’re too afraid to fight for what you
really care about.
 
Instead of
really trying to be a writer like you always wanted, you copped out and got a
temp job and kept at it even when the boss treated you like dirt.
 
And then you met a guy—an amazing
guy—who cares about you, who you also care about.
 
But the second things got tough, you
folded.

Chase
was right about you.

She could hardly contain her tears, and
everyone around her seemed like faded old memories, like pictures that were
sitting in a moldy photo album, and now she was drifting away from them,
leaving them behind.

She didn’t want to be there, she wanted
to leave.

Who cared if they got their feelings
hurt?
 
She couldn’t sit there
anymore and pretend to have fun.
 
It
hurt too much.

As Faith cleared her throat and got ready
to announce her departure (
I don’t feel
very well, guys, I’m sorry…
)

She suddenly heard a collective gasp from
the other customers at the bar.

And then someone said, “Shit, that’s
Chase Winters!”
 

The whole place was instantly abuzz, and
Faith felt like she might pass out, as she looked up and saw that Chase was
entering the bar and looking around.

He’s
looking for me.
 
Holy shit.
 
How did he even know to come here?

Part of her wanted to crawl under the
table and hide, but the other part of her was just so happy to see his face,
and to know that he hadn’t given up on her, even if she was mortified at him
showing up to her hometown bar.

After what seemed like an eternity, but
in reality was all of about five seconds, Chase spotted her and then he began
walking towards her, ignoring the shouts and flashes from people’s cell phone
cameras as they tried to capture the moment.

“What’s he doing?” Jena cried.
 
“Why’s he coming over here?”

Only Haley appeared to grasp what was
going on, as she turned towards Faith.
 

“Is that him?” she asked, softly, but
clearly audible beneath the rising din around them.

Faith nodded, as Chase got closer and
closer, looming larger and larger.
 
Compared to every other person in there, he was practically a giant.

It was interesting, Faith noted, how whoever
he came close to, the small area of people in that vicinity fell silent.
 
And it was the surrounding people that
were further away that were loud, yelling and joking and laughing.
 

But Chase was such an intimidating
presence, that as he got near, those same people inevitably fell silent.
 
And they wouldn’t start talking again
until he was sufficiently far away from them.

And that’s just what was happening at her
table, as he got within a few feet and his eyes locked on Faith.
 
Her whole table fell dead silent.

“I told you I wasn’t afraid to do this,”
he said to her.

Nobody else knew who he was even talking
to.

Haley’s brother, Todd, pointed to
himself.
 
“Are you talking to me?”
he asked, his larger than life persona now turned as meek as a church mouse.

“No,” Chase said his gaze flicking over
to Todd and then immediately locking back onto Faith.
 
“I’m talking to her,” he said, stepping
closer again.

The din and the bar was simmering now, as
people strained to hear their conversation.

Faith swallowed, realizing all eyes were
upon her now.

“How did you know I was here?” she said,
her voice seeming to carry and echo.

“I followed you.”
 
He didn’t appear at all embarrassed by
this admission.

Meanwhile, her cheeks were burning.
 
“I—I don’t know…what to even say.”

“Say that you’ll forgive me,” he told
her.

There was a long silence.
 
“Chase,” she began.

“You better forgive him!
 
He’s fucking awesome!” someone yelled
from nearby, and the whole entire bar burst into laughter.

Chase
Winters came for me.
 
He came and found
me.
 
He really did.

As the tension broke, Faith found herself
smiling.
 
“Why not?” she said,
feeling stupid for being so casual about such a huge moment.

But then the entire place was clapping,
hooting and hollering, and Chase was coming over and grabbing her hand, pulling
her to her feet as he planted an incredible, magical kiss on her lips in front
of everyone.

The amazing thing about it, she realized,
was that in the moment, as their lips met and she felt his flesh pressing into
hers—Faith didn’t care about who was watching or what they thought about
it.

All she knew was that she was with
Chase.
 

And she understood that it was more
important to her than she could ever have imagined.

***

Faith checked the time on her phone and
saw that it had been nearly two hours since Chase Winters had showed up at the
sports bar.
 
It felt like only ten
minutes had gone by, because she was on such a high, such a rush, and her
emotions were carrying her away as if a tidal wave had burst through the thin
wall she’d erected to keep her feelings at bay.

Chase was right at this very moment
playing pool like any regular local boy.
 
He was playing pool with Todd, who looked like he could die and go to
heaven happy, because he was hanging with the quarterback of The New England
Nationals.

Everyone at the bar was watching Chase,
of course, but he’d asked everyone to please not take anymore photos or video
of him for the rest of the time he was there, and people seemed to be
respecting that.

The place had almost immediately filled
with people who had been texted about the superstar’s arrival, and now they’d
stationed bouncers out front that were keeping the rest of the unruly masses
from getting inside.

Faith smiled to herself as Chase leaned
down and took a shot on the eight ball, missing the corner pocket by mere
inches.

Todd gave a fist pump.
 
“I cannot believe I’m about to beat
Chase freaking Winters at pool!
 
My
life is so awesome right now.”
 
He
spun around gleefully in a circle.

Chase lifted a plastic cup filled with
beer to his lips and took a sip.
 
“You still gotta make the money shot, young man.
 
Don’t blow it or you won’t have any
amazing story to tell your grandkids.”
 
He turned and gave Faith a wink and a grin.

Haley gripped her arm so tightly that
Faith almost yelped.

“How the hell did this happen?” Haley
asked her for about the twentieth time.

Faith looked at her.
 
“I told you—we met at a contest
thingy before his first game.”

“I know, but come on.
 
What happened next?”

Suddenly, Jena was standing next to them,
butting in.
 
“There’s got to be more
to the story, Faith.
 
Did you, like,
give him an instant blowjob?
 
I
mean, I know your personality is cute and all, but a guy like Chase Winters
needs more than a cute personality.”

Faith shot Jena a look.
 
“I’m not going to even dignify that with
a response.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Haley said,
shaking her head.
 
“She’s just
drunk.”

“I am not.
 
I’m a realist.
 
There’s more to this than meets the
eye.”
 
Jena stuck out her bottom
lip, turning and folding her arms as Haley’s brother missed the eight ball and
left Chase a wide-open shot.

“I told you son,” Chase said, striding
confidently to the table, bending down and knocking the eight ball in.
 
“You can’t talk smack unless you know
you can back it up.”

Todd closed his eyes and laughed.
 
“Holy shit.
 
I just lost to Chase freaking
Winters.”
 
Then he opened his eyes.
 
“My life is so awesome right now.”

Chase shook his hand.
 
“Let me buy you a beer, okay?”

“Absolutely.”
 
Todd walked over to the bar with him and
Chase bought him a beer, then looked around thoughtfully and turned back to the
bartender.
 

“Actually bartender,” Chase said.
 
“Why don’t you put the next round on my
tab—for everyone in this joint?”

The whole place went wild, screaming and
yelling and you’d have thought the Nationals had just won the Super Bowl from
the reaction in the bar.

Chase locked eyes with Faith, laughing at
the scene around him, and she smiled back at him, feeling so lucky to be
connected to him like this.
 
They
were somehow able to share an entirely private moment together, even in the
midst of this madness.