A/N: Ooops I have neglected this for far too long. I'm sorry! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter :) x
The rest of that first week dragged. Macey spent most of it in the office, finding it easier to focus there than anywhere else.
She'd met a lot of new people, a few who definitely had the potential to be good friends. The people who sat at the desks closest to hers seemed nice enough. Eliza, the keen intern from her first day, sat on the desk opposite. She was 21 and had lived in the city her whole life. Next to Macey was Malia. She was 22 and had just graduated from Princeton where she had majored in journalism. She wasn't super chatty but was a sucker for a sarcastic comment, Macey liked that about her. On the corner next to Malia was CeCe. She was 26 and had majored in fine art. She was fairly chatty, and usually in a bubbly mood which helped to keep spirits up around their little corner of the city. And finally, seated next to Eliza was Steven. Steven was 27 and had been working at the magazine since he graduated from Brown. He was loud and loved to laugh. He was also great at making coffee and, so far, had complimented Macey on her outfit every morning. To an uninformed stranger, it may have looked like Steven was flirting, but the picture on his desk of him and his boyfriend was a talking point that swiftly changed the direction of that conversation.
By Friday afternoon, everyone in that office was tired. The chatter had died down, people were heading home and the few that were left were clutching to cups of coffee like they were the last things on earth.
"You finishing up?" Eliza looked over at Macey and smiled.
"I mean, I've not got anything else to do really. I've been waiting for Juliana to read through my final draft."
"She won't touch it until Monday, don't even give it a second thought" Steve laughed a little as he closed his laptop.
"Hey, do you guys want to go for drinks?" CeCe piped up.
"I can't. I'm getting on a train to Connecticut in a half hour to see my sister." Malia apologised as she got up from her desk and put her laptop in its case. "You guys have fun, I'll see you Monday!" She smiled as she sauntered out of the office.
"So Malia's out, anyone up for it?" CeCe asked again. She seemed rather determined and Macey wondered whether she was making an effort for her sake or whether she was always this upbeat.
"Sounds good to me." Macey smiled, joining the others in closing her laptop and shoving it in her purse.
"We could go to that new place round the corner, Cee?" Steven suggested and Eliza nodded furiously in agreement.
"Great plan! Let's go."
Macey was excited. She'd had a few people that she'd gotten along with in Seattle but these people felt like they could really be her friends. And she hadn't been for drinks with a group of friends in ages. It was everything she needed right now. As they walked out of the office together, laughing and joking around, Macey's mind couldn't have been further from Preston. Instead of focusing on the past as she had been these last few days, she was living in the present. And it felt so different, but so much better.
The bar was less than a ten minute walk away and by the time they got inside it was practically full. They finished their first round of drinks in no time, and before they all knew it, they were 4 drinks in.
"So." CeCe started "What's your story, Macey?"
Macey smiled, but before she had chance to speak Eliza cut in "How do you not know her story? She's Macey McHenry."
"Yes thank you for that, smartass. Of course I know who she is."
"But we want the actual story." Steven added, looking like he was patiently waiting for Macey to begin.
"What do you want to know?" Macey shrugged, shouting over the noise of loud people and louder music.
"Where did you go when you left the City?" CeCe asked.
"Seattle. Next question" Macey laughed, keeping it short and snappy.
"Why did you go?"
"Change of scenery" She shrugged again.
This wasn't her. She didn't want to be this person. It wasn't authentic, it wasn't who she was. This was 'Paparazzi Macey' who answered difficult questions with short, snappy responses and batted her eyelashes to make the problems go away. These were new people, new friends. She didn't want to lie to them. But lying to them seemed so much easier than telling the truth right now.
They asked more questions about college and her parents and her dad's career and everything she expected. And then there was the one she was anticipating but hoping wouldn't pop up.
"And what about Preston?"
She sat for a moment. Then she downed what was left of her drink. "Preston…" She started, but as soon as his name left her mouth her stomach turned a little. She froze. Should she lie? Tell them they were all good and that they were the best of friends now? No. This wasn't right, and she knew it. She'd grown up, she was better than this old version of herself that used to lie her way through life. Tell them the truth then, she told herself. Don't tell them the whole truth, but goddamn it Macey tell someone the truth.
"Preston is not in my life anymore." Macey heard the words as if they weren't her own. It must have been obvious to everyone around her that she was upset because nobody said another word about it. It was like Preston had never been mentioned, for everyone else that was. Not for Macey.
"You guys want another drink?" Eliza piped up, switching the mood of the conversation dramatically.
"I think we need some tequila" Steven laughed.
"I'll get this round." Macey snapped herself out of yet another daydream as she got up to go to the bar.
As she stood there waiting, she felt like she was being watched again. Just for a second. The reality of it was that, yes, she was probably being watched. She was a beautiful girl in a bar in New York City on a Friday night. Probability argued that she was almost definitely being watched. Macey tried to argue with herself, believing that she knew the difference between a guy-staring-at-your-ass-because-your-skirt-is-kinda-tight stare and a criminal-staring-at-you-because-they-want-to-kidnap-you stare. Macey trying to argue with herself when she was fairly drunk meant that she'd ended up daydreaming rather than ordering, and the bartender was eagerly waiting.
When she returned to their table, their mouths fell open.
"So when I said tequila…" Steven trailed off
"Oh, you didn't mean a bottle?" Macey laughed. She'd always been known to be a bit too eager with her card when she was tipsy but a bottle of Don Julio was nothing to her.
"Well I'm not about to complain" Eliza laughed.
"One shot and I'm heading out for a smoke." CeCe informed them as Macey poured the shots
"Two shots and I might join you." She laughed
One shot was easy, so number two followed straight after.
"Right, I'll be back in ten." CeCe started to get up "You coming, Macey?"
As she stood up, the room began to spin a bit more for Macey. They stepped outside and the air hit her face. It was still warm, but there was a gentle breeze.
"So, you smoke?" CeCe asked, handing Macey a cigarette.
"No, not really. I quit when I was 15. Then I started again for a while in the first year of college. Then I stopped. Then I moved to Seattle and I'd smoke whenever I had a drink which, for a while, was fairly often. And then I stopped completely again about 4 months ago. So it's safe to say that me and those good ol' cancer sticks have a long and complicated history."
CeCe laughed, breathing out the smoke. "I only started when I moved here. Made me feel cool for a little while but you soon realise there's nothing cool about a crippling addiction to nicotine, right?"
"God, everytime I drink I have to convince myself not to buy a pack" She took another drag.
"Here." CeCe said, holding her hand out to Macey. She passed her the packet of cigarettes. "There's like five left or whatever. I've got another pack in my bag."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, no biggie. Oh, you'll want this." She passed her a lighter.
They finished their cigarettes and headed back inside. The noise of the bar hit them as soon as the doors opened and it was mildly overwhelming. Back at the table, four new drinks had appeared.
"Where did these come from?" Macey laughed, looking between Eliza and Steven
"Eliza went to get a drink and was flirting with some guy who bought us all drinks" Steven replied, seemingly impressed.
"Well I'll give it to you, girl, you've clearly got game." Macey laughed, taking a sip of the drink she'd been given.
More shots followed until the whole bottle was gone and none of them were seeing straight.
"I'll probably head out soon guys, I told Scott I wouldn't be home too late and…"
"Tell him to come out! You only live round the corner, right?" CeCe slurred drunkenly.
"I mean, yeah… But.."
"No! Do it Steven, I bet he'd love to meet Macey." Eliza jumped on the bandwagon and Macey smiled.
"I'm up for more drinks." Macey shrugged "Eliza, go flirt with that guy again." She laughed.
"Yeah you never even pointed him out to us."
"Fine, I'll point to the table but you guys need to look really closely." Eliza giggled, subtly pointing to a table in the far corner.
From what Macey could see, there were 6 or 7 men sitting around the smallish table. Three of them had their backs to her, so she couldn't make out their faces. The others looked fairly young, probably early to mid-twenties. She immediately deduced which one was Eliza's new friend.
"Wait, dark curly hair?" Macey asked Eliza
"How'd you guess?" Eliza blushed a little
Macey shrugged "Just a random guess." She laughed, knowing that it wasn't random at all. The one with the dark curly hair was probably the cutest one out of the three she could see. He was also the tallest. It seemed like the most logical conclusion.
"I wonder if any of his other friends are cute." CeCe began to think out loud, as a result of the obscene amount of alcohol that they'd consumed.
"Guys, Scott isn't picking up. He's probably asleep, I'm gonna head home."
"Oh Steven!" CeCe whined. "See girls, this is what happened when you tie yourself down to one man." She laughed, giving Steven a hug before he left.
"I'll see you guys on Monday." He waved as he walked out, leaving their table quieter and calmer but in the worst possible way.
"And then there were three." Eliza sighed.
"Well, go ask your friend if we can join and then there'll be ten" CeCe laughed
"I'll grab drinks" Macey said, standing up but CeCe stopped her
"It's definitely my round" She said, grabbing her purse and heading for the bar.
"Should I really go talk to him?" Eliza asked
"Girl, you spoke to him already. Just go do it again!"
"Yeah but he was alone. There's 6 other guys there!"
"Wait here." Macey instructed, picking up her bag and coat and walking over to CeCe who was standing by the bar waiting for their drinks. "I'm going over there, you coming?"
"Wait, you're going?"
"I'm sending Eliza's friend over to her, we might as well check out his friends in the process."
"Oh I'm so there." CeCe grabbed two of the drinks as Macey took one back over to Eliza and joined her at the bar again.
"Let's go then." Macey laughed.
As they approached the table, the group of men in suits looked up. Only five of them were sat around the table now and Macey guessed that they were either in the bathroom or out for a smoke.
"You alright there ladies?" One of the men sitting next to Eliza's guy spoke.
"So my friend over there." She pointed to Eliza "Really wants to say thank you for that drink you bought her earlier." She said, speaking directly to the guy with the dark curly hair. "And, in case you didn't notice she's super cute." She smiled.
"Go on, man." One of his friends nudged him and he began to get up. The other two fist bumped him as he walked away, which Macey immediately rolled her eyes at.
"So you see our problem now is that we have no table. But luckily, there are seats right here." CeCe smiled innocently, sitting herself down right in between two of the guys. Macey pulled up a chair from a nearby table and sat with her back to the door. She sipped on her drink, scrolling through her phone and occasionally looking up to check on Eliza and CeCe. She may not have had any spy training for 5 years but she was almost certain she could still take all of these guys in a fight, although maybe not all at once. She chatted for a little while, pretending to be interested in their names. They told the girls that the worked at the UN. Some were interns, some a little higher up. All Macey could think about was how much the room was spinning.
"So where are your other friends?" Macey heard CeCe ask.
"One went for a smoke and the other had to take a call."
"A call? On a Friday night?" Macey laughed a little "That's got to be the girlfriend."
"Could be. He's a quiet one about personal crap."
"It's probably his mom." The guy who'd introduced himself as Sam said, making them all laugh.
"Ah they're finally back!" Another guy, Jared, exclaimed.
That was when everything went wrong.
"Ladies, this is Luke." Sam gestured as a skinny guy with black hair sat down at the table. "And this is…"
CeCe gasped as Sam tried to speak. Nobody knew why, but Macey was programmed to fear the worst. She didn't look behind her. She couldn't. His hand was on the back of her chair. He was inches away from her and yet she just couldn't turn around.
"This is Preston."