Forever Kind of Guy by Khelsey Jackson

sung in public in a long time.”
    “I’m getting us another round, ” Laura said and Gretchen shook her head.
    She needed to drive home, and with her drinking what she had been, she needed to stop. “Laura I need to drive, can you just get me some water?”
    Her friend rolled her eyes and got up, leaving her and Stefan alone. She looked down at her hands on the table. She didn’t know what to say to him besides that she missed him.
     
    * * *
     
    Stefan wanted to take Gretchen away from the cop bar, he wanted her away from the horny DJ that wanted into her panties. “How are you doing?”
    She tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced at him through her black eyelashes. “I’ m…good.”
    He knew she was lying, and he wanted to be the one to make her smile like she was when she was on stage. “I stopped by your work a few days ago and your boss told me you wouldn’t be in for the rest of the week.”
    That got her to look at him, but not with the loving smile he wanted, nope she was glaring at him. “Why would you be checking on me?” she asked and sounded annoyed.
    H e had to hold back his grin. She was so freaking beautiful, but when she was mad he wanted to do things to her that would make her whole body blush. He tore his gaze from her lips to look in her eyes. “I wanted to know you were doing well, I wanted to see you again.”
    Her eyes soften ed a little and he moved closer to her, but she scooted until her back hit the wall. “Well…I’m good, now you don’t need to check on me. And you got to see me so we are done.”
    There it was again . The same ache in his chest, it had been there since she’d walked out of his apartment. His sister was right. He should have gone after her, he should have told her he wanted her anyway he could get her. He just hoped it wasn’t too late to get her back, she was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
    He saw that she was ripping up a napkin into tiny pieces on the table, he reached over to h er and put his hand top of hers. She jerked in response to his touch, but he didn’t pull away. “I miss you.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him, and took her hand away from his. “If you missed me , you wouldn’t be here with someone else.”
    What! He hadn’t come here with anyone. His partner had forced him out tonight because she’d said he was too depressing. “I didn’t come here with anyone besides my partner,” he said and wanted to kick himself when he saw the expression on her face, she was more hurt than before.
    “You mean your ex-girlfriend?”
    Crap, I forgot that she knew that. “Yes, but you have to know that I want you and not her.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear like she had.
     
    * * *
     
    Gretchen wanted to scream at Stefan, he kept touching her in some way. “We want different things, and like you said, you aren’t a forever kind of guy. Truth is I don’t want to be in a relationship.” She knew she was lying, but hoped that he believed her.
    He narrowed his eyes. “But what if I want forever with you?”
    She didn’t get to respond to him because Laura came back with Ben Zelevansky, and he was looking between her and Stefan. She smiled at him trying to calm her nerves down.
    “Look who I found, Gretchen! He said he was looking for you!” Laura said with a smile, but when she looked at Stefan she glared. “Claus, you and I need to talk.”
    Gretchen could tell by the way he turned to look at her that he didn’t want to leave her alone, but he got up from the table and followed Laura.
    Ben sat next to her and grinned at her. “Boyfriend?” he asked and she shook her head. “Good, so your friend told me you were done drinking tonight , so I got you a coke.”
    “Thank yo u, so do you DJ here a lot?” She couldn’t believe how stupid she sounded. She had never been good with men and her mind was on the man that had just told her he missed her.
    He laughed, and nodded. “Yes , I’m here every night. Maybe