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I lock my computer and stand.
“I’ll go down.”
Jillian grabs her tablet and follows me to the elevator to go down to the third floor. I need to stay busy today. I’ve been too distracted, and I need to get my head in the game. I’m the CEO of Bishop Enterprises, a billion-dollar company, and I can’t afford to slack off. Not even on a day like today.
The workday finally comes to an end, and I feel like I’ve just been through the ringer. I’m exhausted and hungry, and all I want to do is go home and go to sleep, but I know I won’t.
If I go home now to that big, empty apartment that I just can’t seem to get warm enough, I will lay awake. I climb into the back of my car and tell Steven, my driver, to take me to the club that my best friend Josh owns.
I need to get drunk and find someone to keep me warm.
I know I’m going to wake up tomorrow and feel terrible, but I don’t care. I need this tonight.
Even though it’s a Monday night, Josh’s club is still packed with people by the time I get there. It’s what happens when you live in New York City; the nightlife never stops, and the city never sleeps.
As I step into Josh’s club, the thumbing from the music travels though the floor and up my feet until I can feel is in my chest. I take a quick look around the place; it’s a typical New York club, a flashy bar that stands out in the dark atmosphere, beckoning people to buy more drinks as they dance together out on the floor. Small spotlights are pointed to the dance floor, and red and purple lights are attached to the walls to give the place some kind of way to see. There are tables and couches set to one side of the room for people to take a break, and behind them, a set of stairs that leads to the VIP area. I make a beeline for the VIP section where I know I’m going to find Josh. He stays up here for most of the night, a constant flow of drinks and women coming through. It’s decorated similar to the rest of the area, just with bigger couches made of more expensive materials.
I step past the rope that blocks off the section, and Josh is sitting exactly where I knew he was going to be, a woman on each side of him.
“Chandler! I didn’t know you were going to show tonight!”
He stands to greet me, and we shake hands before he pats me on the back and leads me over to sit. He motions for the women to leave, and they get up without question.
“So, decided to come out into the land of the living this year instead of wallowing away in your apartment?”
I shoot him a glare, and he just laughs while signaling the waiter for drinks.
“Hey, don’t give me that look. I’m just glad you’re out. I’ve been telling you for years to come out with me. It’s been too long for you to still be spending today locked away in your tower.”
The waiter brings our drinks, and I knock mine back as soon as he hands it to me.
“I wasn’t locking myself away, Josh. I was, I am, mourning the loss of the love of my life.”
He rolls his eyes at me.
“She didn’t die, Chandler. She left your ass.”
For the past nine years, he and I have been having the same argument over and over again. I had been out with him on this day nine years ago, and when we arrived back to my place late in the evening, the woman that I had been dating for just over a year had been gone. There was a bag half packed on the bed, and her phone was sitting next to it. I had called the police and tried to file a missing person report, but they had told me it looked like she had left and there was no sign of forced entry. There was a hastily written note that they found under the bed that simply said, I need time, and they took that as a sign she simply left, but I know better. Something had to have happened for Tanya to never come back.
Now, nine years later, Josh and I are still fighting over what really happened. I don’t know what, but I know with every fiber of my being that something happened to her. She wouldn’t just run away and leave everything behind. Josh thinks that’s exactly what she did. He thinks she left her phone and all the clothes behind because they were things I bought her. He thinks that she didn’t want to take anything that reminded her of me or that I could use to find her after she took off. There’s no way he could be right, though.
We were in love, and I was planning on proposing to her. How could she have been so unhappy as to leave without me noticing that something was wrong?
I shake myself from those thoughts and lift my empty glass for the waiter to bring me another.
“Either way, she’s gone, and I need time to get past that.”
He stares at me for a moment with a look of disappointment before shaking his head.
“Hey, give me a break. I rarely turn you down when you ask me to hangout. Can’t you give me that? You know I don’t party that much.”
He smirks at me and turns to face two women that have been eyeing us since I sat down.
“Well, you’re out now, so we need to make the most of it.”
Sipping my drink, I make eye contact with one of the women, and she smiles at me. I let my eyes trail over her body, and it hits me how much she looks like Tanya. She has dark brown hair, and her eyes look dark from this distance, but I can’t tell what color they are in this lighting. She has a curvy body, and her legs look a mile long with her stiletto heels.
My stomach tightens with both lust and pain. She’s beautiful, but I don’t think I could even have a conversation with her without picturing Tanya, never mind having her in my bed.
