“Hey!” Victoria shouted. I turned my head toward her. “Think about what I said. Okay?”
I knew she was talking about me surprising Tim at work, so I nodded with a small smile and walked through the door. I’d tell her later that it was exactly what I’d planned on doing.
*
After I left the girls, I ran some errands before heading home. I tried to keep Becky and Victoria’s suggestions out of my head, but it was no use. I’d be lying if I said my relationship with Tim wasn’t strained. Ever since we’d moved in together, it was as if we’d distanced ourselves from each other. It could have been our hectic schedules, but it seemed to be more than that.
My days were usually the same: I went to school, work, and spent as much time with Tim as I could. That was my life in a nutshell.
Before Tim worked for the accounting firm, we’d spent every moment together. It had been that way since we’d first met my sophomore year at a party Victoria had dragged me to. I still remembered that night vividly.
Victoria had been dating the guy who was throwing the party, but she didn’t want to go alone. Becky had a date so she wasn’t able to go, which left me. I reluctantly agreed. Even though they’d broken me out of my shell, I was still socially awkward when it came to meeting high-society rich kids. Victoria assured me she wouldn’t leave my side, but I should have known better. She had left me to go lock lips and other body parts with Brad while I stood around, looking like an ass. I didn’t know anyone at that party and was about to leave when Tim approached me. I thought he was so handsome with his dark blue polo shirt and the jeans that hung low on his hips. He wasn’t like any of the guys I’d dated in high school. He was very clean-cut with short brown hair, brown eyes, and chiseled features. We’d been together ever since.
But somewhere along the way things had started to change, and I needed to know why.
Looking over at the clock on my dresser, I could see it was six o’clock. I stepped up to the full-length mirror in my room and looked over myself before I left. I was wearing a pair of faded skinny jeans paired with a light pink, sheer blouse and a white tank underneath. My auburn hair hung in waves down to the middle of my back and my makeup was perfect. I wasn’t one to wear a lot of makeup, but I’d put more of an effort into my appearance and I hoped he took notice. I wanted to look sexy for him. To show him what he had waiting at home.
As I reached for my small purse and the bag with my work clothes, I blocked out the reason I was surprising him at work in the first place. I didn’t want to think about it. I wanted to be positive and give him the benefit of the doubt.
I locked up the apartment and walked out of the building to head to the subway. It was a ten-minute ride to the Stanley & Thomas accounting firm and a fifteen-minute ride to my job, so I had an hour to spare before I needed to be at work by eight.
When I finally got on the subway, my stomach filled with nervous butterflies and the old sweaty-shoe smell which surrounded me wasn’t helping. I sat back, wringing my hands together while trying my best not to think about what might happen or what I might find. Reaching into my purse, I pulled out my phone to check his last text. He’d sent it at five thirty-five saying he’d just made it to the office and he’d text me when he was on his way home. I didn’t text him back. He didn’t know I had to work, but I figured I’d just tell him when I saw him.
The train finally came to a stop and I waited my turn to get out. I made my way up the stairs to the main street and headed toward Tim’s building, looking at all the others as I went. It never ceased to amaze me when I looked over the architecture in New York. We didn’t have buildings like that down in Pensacola, and I was awestruck on my first day there. Actually, it was more like a culture shock, as if I’d stepped into a whole new world. There were so many people bustling along trying to get from point A to point B.
I walked into the building which housed Stanley & Thomas and checked in with the security desk before walking to the elevator. There were law firms, accounting firms, and a couple other companies which shared the space of the high-rise. Tim was located on the sixteenth floor, so I had that many floors to calm my racing heart and not talk myself out of doing what I’d come to do.
When the door dinged open, I took a deep breath and walked to the big oak finished desk where Mrs. Elizabeth sat, answering phones. She was an older woman, in her late fifties. I’d only been to Tim’s office a couple of times, but from what I’d gathered she was a very sweet lady.