“No, I’m sorry. He’s not in today. I can take a message for you if you’d like,” Elizabeth said to whomever she was talking to on the phone and gave me a warm smile. She looked down at her note pad and jotted a few things down. “Okay, I have it down for you. Is there anything else I can do for you? You’re welcome. Have a good day.”
She hung up the phone and brought her eyes back to me. “What can I do for you today, dear?” she asked sweetly.
I gave her a bright smile, trying to hide my nervousness. “I’m just here to see Tim. Is he busy?”
She looked at me confused then down to her computer. Clicking her mouse a few times, she furrowed her brow and then turned back to me, shaking her head. “Let me call his office to check. I don’t remember seeing him come through,” she stated as she picked up her phone.
I watched as she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. A few moments later, she was hanging it up. “It doesn’t seem like he’s in today.” She looked at me with a small smile.
A heavy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach, but I kept the smile on my face. “Oh, could you try the meeting room. I know he likes to work in there from time to time. I was trying to surprise him since I hadn’t seen him all week,” I explained honestly.
“Sure, hun, just a second,” she said with a small smile as she dialed the meeting room, but a few moments later, she hung up, shaking her head again. “No one is answering there, either.”
I could feel my cheeks flush at my embarrassment. “Oh, he probably hasn’t made it in from the afternoon meeting with his dad then. Maybe it ended up taking longer than he expected,” I said while giving her another bright smile, not wanting her to see how distraught I was. “I’ll just give him a call on his cell.”
She looked at me confused. “The client meeting with Mr. Stanley was last night. He and Stacey left at five yesterday to meet the clients. Unless there was something scheduled today I don’t know about.” She clicked away on her computer looking for something as the lump in my throat started to get bigger. Stacey was his dad’s assistant. So many things were flowing through my mind. I had that feeling in the pit of my stomach, the one when you don’t want to believe something is true, but deep down you know it is.
“It’s okay,” I told her, interrupting her clicking frenzy. “It was just my mistake. I must have heard him wrong. I’ll just give him a call.” I smiled reassuringly. “Sorry for bothering you,” I said as her phone started ringing with incoming calls. I turned from the desk as she resumed her job, feeling like my world was falling apart.
Inside the elevator, I pulled out my phone and stared at it. There was only one way to find out if he was lying to me. It still didn’t prove he was cheating on me, but it was just another nail in the coffin of our relationship.
As soon as the elevator door opened, I walked to an unoccupied bench against the wall, furthest away from the doors, and dialed Tim’s number. I didn’t want to pace around while I talked to him because I knew my voice would waver. I needed to sit and calm my nerves.
“Hello,” he finally answered after the fourth ring.
“Hey,” I said, smiling to myself. I was trying to act as normal as possible. “Did I catch you at a bad time?” I asked as I started chewing on my bottom lip.
He let out a sigh. “No, it’s okay. I need to take a break anyway. What’s up?”
“Um…I was calling to tell you I had to work tonight. So I won’t be home until late.”
“Oh, okay. That’s fine, babe. I told you earlier it was going to be another late night for me, too.” He yawned into the phone.
The feeling in the pit of my stomach sank lower. “Okay, sorry to bother you. I tried to call your office phone, but you must have not been in there when I called,” I goaded.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I’m not working in my office today. I’ve been in the meeting room trying to get all these files ready for Dad to sign on Monday.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the words left his lips. He was straight-out lying to me and it made my chest hurt. How could he lie to me so easily? I could feel the tingling in my nose as the tears started to form, and I tried not to think about all the other things he could be lying about.
“All right. Well, I guess I’ll let you get back to work,” I managed to get out without my voice cracking.
“Okay, sounds good. I’ll see you tonight,” he blurted quickly before hanging up, like he couldn’t get me off the phone fast enough.
I sat on the bench for fifteen minutes while I gained my bearings. I still didn’t have any proof he was actually cheating on me, but I had this heavy feeling in my chest that something was definitely going on. My mother always told me growing up that I needed to trust my gut, to always follow my instinct, but right then I didn’t want to trust my gut. I wanted to be so very wrong.
I sluggishly got up from the bench and made my way out of the building to walk back to the train. That wasn’t how I’d wanted to start my night, but a part of me knew things might turn sour. And at that point, work would be my only refuge. At least there I’d be too busy to think about my three-year relationship going down the drain.
Chapter 3