The worst kind of feeling erupted in my chest.

“It was really different, because Aimee has never stepped foot in the club.”

Of course not, because Aimee was there, because Jax was there.

“About ten minutes after she showed up, Jax left.” Katie’s eyes met mine. “And Aimee left, too, right behind him. I’m not saying they were together. But she was literally right behind him.”

Oh my God.

“Calla.” Roxy touched my arm. “Aimee is like a step up from a stalker. You know Jax didn’t ask for her to show up there.”

I looked at her, but I wasn’t sure I saw her. The hollowness from earlier was back. “He hasn’t returned my text I sent him before we came to work. I sent him a text. He hasn’t responded.”

“Okay. This doesn’t mean anything,” Roxy said quickly.

Really? Aimee showed up last night. He ran her off, but the conversation was questionable. We got into a huge fight. He didn’t sleep with me, was gone when I woke, and he hadn’t tried to contact me all day and he didn’t respond to me. None of this was looking good.

My throat burned.

Something powerful bled out of me as I stood there, like bleeding out from a well-placed stab wound that was meant to kill you slowly.

“You two are more than friends. You haven’t said that to me, but I know,” Katie said as she tapped her finger on the side of her head. “I know.”

“Katie,” Roxy sighed.

“I told you that your life was going to change,” she went on. “Remember? I told you. I didn’t say it would be easy.”

I stared at her.

Luckily, a whole crew of people rolled in, rushing the bar, so I didn’t get a chance to respond to Katie, and I threw myself into filling orders in a way that bordered on obsessive. I didn’t even notice when Katie left.

Roxy tried to talk to me several times, but I avoided her, because I knew she wanted to talk about Jax and I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t do it.

I made three Long Island iced teas and I smiled. I laughed. I took money. I made tips. And then I made a ton of Jäger bombs for Reece’s table since Roxy was suddenly helping Gloria.

He didn’t mention Jax.

I didn’t, either.

By the time he and the guys left it was almost an hour before we closed for the night, and all I wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. At one point during the evening Roxy mentioned I could stay with her, but I needed to be alone. I was willing to take the risk to just be alone, because whatever started bleeding out of me earlier was still doing it.

I glanced at the doors one more time that evening and my lips trembled and the icy pain in my chest filled the hollowness twisting up my insides. I could feel it building inside me. I was going to break and that would be the icing on top of the fucked-up cake.