Chapter 1

The cold night breeze swept past Josephine Jenkins and she shivered, but that did not stop her from walking. She didn’t know for how long she had been walking and her legs were already starting to ache but she does not seem to care as her only goal was to just keep walking, to wherever her legs would take her.

As she continued to walk, her legs wobbled till the heel of one of the shoes she was wearing finally broke off but that was not enough to stop her from walking either. Instead, she let the shoe slip away from her foot and then, she eventually let the other one go. Now, she walked barefooted and ignored the stares of the people on the streets, staring at her.

She did not care what they may think of her and did not care about what they say. Right now, her greatest concern was that, she had been betrayed, not only by her best friend. Maya, but by her fiancé and others who she thought were her friends, not until this evening.

She loved Brian and they got engaged a month ago. She remembered him slipping the ring into her finger after he had asked her to be his wife which she had happily said yes and her wedding was to take place in a week. But earlier this evening, at the little party he had organized in his house for friends and families, she had gone upstairs to pick something when she saw him having it deep with her best friend.

She felt hurt, betrayed by the two people she loved and what baffled her was that, instead of apologizing or feeling guilty that she had caught them, they didn’t do any of that and did not even attempt to stop her when she was leaving. She had met her other two friends on the way to the living room where the party was being held and she had told them about what she witnessed but they also didn’t seem to care and that broke her even more. They all had been pretending to her.

“Did you know about it?” she had asked Matilda and her boyfriend, Gabriel, who was also her friend. She had met them through Brian.

“I’m sorry,” Matilda had said and Josephine had looked at her with disbelief in her eyes.

She had stormed out of the house in tears, leaving the people who had come for the party in confusion as they could not understand what had happened.

Now coming back to the present, Josephine had nowhere to go. She had no families to go to or a house to stay as she was living with Maya before Brian told her to move in with him. She cursed Brian for betraying her love and cursed Maya for pretending to her all along. Now that she thinks of it, they have been doing it for a long time and she just happened to have caught them just before the wedding which would take place in a week’s time.

“I hate you Brian! I hate you!” Josephine yelled and stomped her foot on her ground as tears started pouring down her face again. 

People stared at her while some thought she was crazy before they minded their own business and Josephine stood in one place, hitting her chest and expressing how hurt she felt.

She soon raised her eyes up and that was when she noticed a bar across where she was, that stood out in the street. She then realized that she needed a drink, something that would help take her pains away and make her forget all that happened for a short time. She had never had alcohol before but maybe she would now. Brian pushed her into this misery. At least, that was what she thought before moving her feet towards the bar.

On getting to the front of the bar, she saw a notice which reads, ‘Special Guests Only.’ Without giving it any thought, she pushed the door of the bar and got inside. The strong smell of different scents hit her nose immediately and she felt nauseated. She hated alcohol but now she didn’t care anymore.

She walked as though she didn’t give a care in the world and didn’t spare anyone in the bar a look as she went to take her seat at a free table. She let her body collapse on the chair and before she could think of the unfortunate incident of her life, a bartender came up to her and spoke;

“What would you like to have, Miss?”

Josephine raised her head to look at the bartender and she found herself staring at a green eyed person. His hairs fell on the side of his face and his lashes were black. Her eyes lowered and she could see how his muscles popped from the white shirt he wore. With two of his upper buttons left unbuttoned, she could see how firm his chest was and he has this alluring scent that clouded her senses.

Wait a minute, was she flirting with a bartender in her mind after what happened to her this evening? Josephine asked herself before the bartender’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Miss?” he called and Josephine looked at him like she had not been staring at him seconds ago.

“Just give me anything alcoholic. And I want it strong,” she added and with the way the bartender looked at her made her wonder if she had mixed it up.

She watch him leave before he came back with a glass in his hand and she wondered what kind of alcohol was in it.

“A margarita for you,” he said and Josephine saw his lips curved in a crooked smile.

Josephine took the glass from him and said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said before handing her a slip and pen. “I need you to sign,” he said and Josephine received the slip from him.

She pen down her signature and gave it back to him.

“Just call me if you need anything else,” he said.

“And what name would I ask for?” Josephine asked, hoping her voice didn’t sound creaky.

At the same time, someone called him, “Gray, we need a drink here.”

Josephine’s ear picked on the name and she heard him say to the person, “Coming right away,” before he spoke to her, “Lucas.”

She saw him smile, showing his cute dimples and he gave her a wink before walking away to attend to his customers.

Josephine took the glass of margarita and placed it on her lip before gulping down the whole content at one go. She dropped the glass and squint her eyes at the taste of the drink. It was strong and it tasted funny to her which made her wonder if this was the normal feeling people get from drinking it or probably because it was her first time. But not really, she had tasted margarita once and she still remembers how it tasted. Why was it different now? She thought to herself and turned her head to the side to look at the direction of where the bartender had gone.

She saw him talking with the customers and at a time, she saw him laugh. Maybe he was familiar with them, thought Josephine and then, as if noticing someone’s eyes on him, he turned his head and met her eyes.

Seeing that he had caught her, she turned her head back and stared at the cup in front of her. But not so smart, because he came to her and asked, “Is there anything you need, Miss?”

“No,” Josephine responded immediately and then said, “Yes, uhm, I think another glass of margarita will do, Gray,” she said the name and saw his lips curve.

“It’s Lucas. Gray is my father’s name,” he corrected.

“Oh,” was all Josephine could say and she felt embarrassed. She thought she could call him the name she heard one of his customers call him. 

Maybe they are well acquainted with each other for them to call him by his father’s name, thought Josephine.

He soon came back with another glass and handed it to her.

“Just call me if you need anything else,” he said again like the first time and Josephine stared into his green eyes.

“I don’t think I need anything more. Thank you,” she thanked him.

“Alright Miss,” he said and walked away.

Josephine looks all sober now and alone. Never had she thought in her life that she would be in a bar and drinking her sorrows away. Since her mother’s death, she had never felt this lonely and she had no one to comfort her.

“Brian is a bastard,” she muttered to herself and soon drunk down the glass of her second margarita.

Now that she had nowhere to go, she would just look for a safe spot outside and sleep before thinking about how to start her life when dawn breaks and with that thought, she stood up with the support of the table as her body felt weak and she staggered to the back a bit.

What was wrong with her? She just had two glass of margarita so why was she feeling this way? She questioned herself when she felt her eyes go heavy and her vision blurred. Her knees wobbled and when she looked at the people in the bar, she saw them staring at her before her knees failed her and she fell to the ground with a thud.

And just then, before she passed out, she saw Lucas come to stand above her, staring at her with those green eyes and just at that moment, she could swear that she saw the color of his eyes change to red and then she heard him say, “She’s out!”

But it was too late to react as she fell unconscious.