“I don’t want to hear whatever lame ass story you’re about to tell me. I can clearly see what’s going on here. I never expected something like this from you, Della. Was anything that we had real? Were you just playing me the whole time so you could get back at me for before?” I pinched the bridge of my nose as Della stared at me, her mouth gaping open. Evidently, she was too ashamed to even explain herself. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Well, good job, you succeeded, joke’s on me, I guess. I’ll drop all of your shit off later.” I slammed her bedroom door shut behind me, the frame rattling, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d cracked it. I really didn’t give a fuck.
Della’s silence said it all. I didn’t need to hear or see anything else. I guess me slamming the door for good measure had a double meaning, because I was slamming the door on our relationship too, or whatever the hell it had been. Who knew if anything she did or said had been truly real? All I knew was my chest hurt and I needed to get the hell out of there and not look back. That was the last time I would see Della McGregor and although it hurt like fucking hell, it was for the best because that girl destroyed my heart, breaking it into a million tiny pieces and I wasn’t sure if it would ever go back to normal again.
She ruined me.
Four years later
I CROSSED MY legs as I sat on his desk, and then uncrossed them before crossing them again. I had no idea why I was so nervous; we had just seen each other that morning at home before both of us left for work. I guess it was actually a good thing that I still felt these butterflies in my stomach whenever I saw or thought about him since it seemed like we had been together forever. I looked around his office that was dotted with pictures of us together, some of me alone, and I smiled to myself. Whoever came in here could tell how in love we were from the memories captured by camera and placed around the room in frames.
If they only knew the mess that we went through to get to this point.
My eyes stopped at the picture of us together at Callie and Drew’s wedding. Right next to that was Zoey and Will’s wedding picture, and just beside that one sat Mia and Nate’s photo. I looked down at the sparkly ring sitting on my left finger, wondering how in the hell we were the last ones to get married out of all of my friends. It really didn’t matter, it wasn’t like it was a race, but ours would come soon enough. Two weeks to be exact.
Today had been a teacher workday and I somehow managed to get out of there early. Honestly, I was a little relieved not to have school today. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job and I was glad that I had picked it as my profession, but every once in a while, it was nice to have a break from a bunch of crazy kindergarteners.
I was glad that I had been able to find a job around this area once he transferred and we were permanently settled in. Though I hated to leave Grams and Grandpa behind, and my dad who had finally decided that he was sick of the travelling. Really, it was only about an hour and a half drive so I guess that wasn’t too bad. My dad came to visit more than anyone, actually, along with his girlfriend Nadine. Yes, that’s right his girlfriend. I never thought I would see the day. And he was extremely happy. He stepped up a lot after my mom was gone, and I think that’s part of the reason why he took a permanent job near my grandparents’ house.
I still thought about my mom at least once a day probably. Within a couple of days of her death, it was determined that her overdose was on purpose, mainly due to the fact that they found a letter that she left behind for me. It had taken me at least a month before I actually grew some balls and was able to read it. It simply explained how her whole life had been a sham, using my dad and then Gerald to try to make her happy, and neither of them could, and she couldn’t make them happy either. She explained that there was never a third husband lined up because no one wanted her. It hurt me to know that she thought that way of herself. Clearly, we never had a great relationship, but I used to think that maybe in the future we would have.
I heard the door open behind me, the lights flicking on, and I twisted my body around, letting my legs drape over the edge of the desk. He flashed a wide smile, tugging at the tie that he wore around his neck as he came toward me, stopping once he was resting in between my legs. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I surprise my fiancé?” I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him tighter against me as I buried my hands in his hair, tugging his head closer to mine.
“Of course you can. But I thought I was picking you up from the school,” he whispered against my ear, his warm breath causing goose bumps to cover my whole body.
“Marley dropped me off on her way to the boutique,” I managed to say as my eyes involuntarily closed and every part of me shivered.