Free Just One Sip by Scarlett Dawn Page B

party, for fucks sake!”
    I closed my eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay. “Jet, it’s not you. Or your family.” I held a hand to my head that was screaming at me to run up to my room. To hide. To be alone . “I just can’t be around so many people right now. I need my space.”
    He growled under his breath. “My family will start to take offense to this, Lucy.”
    His family was frightening, their ties to this city strung so tight even the Mayor was sitting nice and pretty in the Mak’s back pocket. That was what money and long-standing Karim heritage will do. The Mak’s owned damn near half the city. Too bad it was my own fears that took precedent, even over the fact that I would piss off his family. I whispered, “I’m sorry, Jet. I just can’t go tonight.”
    Rubbing his hands over his face, he stared, his ice blue gaze tracking over my upset features. Then his feet were moving, stalking toward me. I held still as he stopped right before me. In a sweet and tender motion, his hands cupped my cheeks like I would break. His thumb brushed away a tear that had escaped. Quietly, he pleaded, “Lucy, my mom… She’s been acting different lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She’s been forgetting things.” His ice blues beseeched me to give in. “I need you there with me tonight. I don’t know what to do when she’s like that.”
    My lips thinned, hearing him beg. He never did that. And still…the ice crept over my shoulder blades up to my neck. I needed to get away. From him. From everyone.
    I shook my head. “I just can’t.”
    As if I had burned him, he pulled his hands away from my face. He took a step back. Then another. Then one more. His brows furrowed so deeply that they touched. Gradually, he shook his head. “Space? You say you want space, Lucy?” He took another step away. “Well, you’ve got it.” He turned and prowled to the front door.
    I raised my right hand. “Wait!”
    Not peering back, he paused, his shoulders hunched and tight in his silent fury.
    My mouth bobbed and fresh tears began streaming down my cheeks. I fisted my hand and let it drop down to my side. “I don’t want to break up, Jet. I just… can’t …go with you tonight.”
    In a quiet beat, his chest heaved, and then his feet were moving again. Away from me. He opened the front door and glanced at me once over his shoulder, I saw the pain radiating there in his eyes. He shook his head and stated softly, “That’s too bad. I think we do need a break.” The door shut soundlessly as he left.
    My mouth hung open in a silent plea. He had actually broken up with me.
    He was mine.
    I was his.
    Shit like this wasn’t supposed to happen to us. We had been together longer than any of our friends had. We were made for each other.
    What the hell had just happened?
    My heart splintered into a million pieces, aching so much that I sat heavily on the couch and yanked the afghan over my shoulders. Holding my head in my hands, furious tears poured down my cheeks. My stomach ached with each inhale, and I jerked when I felt my mom sit next to me.
    Why couldn’t I be like a normal person?
    I had always been shy, but whatever this new introversion was, it was ruining my life.
    Silently, my mom pulled me against her, holding me close as I wept.
    Stuffing my face against her neck, I sobbed, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
    Gently, she rubbed my back and used the cover to brush away the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing. “We’ll figure it out, hun.” She placed a soft kiss on my sweating forehead. “And Jet will be back. You know he will. He loves you.”

Present Day
    Waving my hands in front of my face, I choked heavily on the marijuana smoke that filled my mom’s—and now my—bakery downtown. “Mom?” For the love of god, she was smoking it in the shop now. “Mom, where are you?”
    Her soft tenor rang from the kitchen. “In the back, hun!”
    Coughing twice more, I locked the front door to