The Unexpected Series (Unexpected #1-3) (71 page)

I step out and just as I slam the door shut my phone rings in my hand. Looking down I see Braden’s name and reluctantly pick up. “Hello,” I answer making sure to sound as annoyed as I feel.

“Hadley!” He practically yells causing me to pull the phone away from my ears. “Where the hell are you?”

Taken aback I stop midway through the parking lot. “Excuse me? I don’t hear from you for twenty-four hours and that’s how you greet me?”

I can hear him hiss and know that he is seriously mad. “Where. Are. You?”

My feet finally start moving again, and I open the door to the building. “I’m walking into your building. I’m meeting Janie in five minutes. I saw your car in the lot but...”

I’m pulled into one of the unoccupied offices halfway through my sentence. I don’t have to look to know who it is. “What the HELL, Braden?” I ask using force to pull out of his grasp.

He looks over my shoulder towards the door and puts his phone into his pocket. “Shh.”

“Don’t shush me!” I push off him trying to distance myself but his grip is strong. “Braden, can you please release me?”

Voices fill the hallways, and I turn around to see who it is but in an instant his lips are on mine. Pushing, pulling, prying but I don’t relent. I’m pissed that he would ignore me for a day and then try to kiss me without so much as an apology.

“Get off me!” I yell between tongue thrashings. He pulls back, his chest bobbing up and down with heavy breaths. “What the hell has gotten into you?” I ask.

His eyes stray towards the door again as more voices fill the hallway before returning to mine. The hair on the back of my neck stands up with suspicion.

“Did you get your car fixed?” he asks in an ominous tone.

Throwing my hands in the air I adjust the strap on my bag. “Yes, no thanks to you!”

He doesn’t flinch. “Did your cousin help you?”

Hesitating, I search my brain for some way to tell him about Ryder without him flying off the handle and making our tense situation even worse. I don’t feel like I did anything wrong yesterday before he left...but after, well I can’t help but feel like I shouldn’t have let Ryder into my apartment.

But he left me no choice.

He asks again, growing impatient, stressing every word. “Did your cousin help you?”

“Yea, he did.” I lie not caring about the consequences if Braden should ever find out though I make a mental note to call my cousin Chris later and fill him in.

Braden’s eyes search the ceiling for something but when he doesn’t find it he looks back to me. “Let’s go home.” He reaches for me but I step back.

“What part of ‘I’m meeting Janie’ didn’t you understand? I’m planning your party and whether or not you go, I am.”

I turn around, walking out of the door and towards Janie’s office.

Before I get there Braden turns me around and pulls my face within inches of his. “I love you, Hadley,” he tells me, his voice laced with desperation.

I search his eyes and it feels like hours before I respond. “I love you too,” I tell him.

I swallow hard as the words leave my lips. For the first time in a long time I feel like we might be falling apart without a chance of being put back together. I don’t know what changed from Saturday until today but something has shifted and our world is off its axis. I think he is hiding something and I know for a fact I am. Even if Ryder and my interactions so far have been innocent, a lie is a lie.

I
t’s been a rough week. Between my run in with Ryder on both Sunday and Monday, and barely seeing Braden for the past five days my strength is deteriorating and fast. After my meeting with Janie, I tried to call him and see what his plans were for the week so we could talk with yet again no answer. I’ve heard more from Ryder texting me than Braden and it’s starting to wear on me.

A million thoughts run through my head as to why Braden would be acting this way and all I can come up with is that he is cheating on me. Either that or he wants to break up. What other explanations can there be? He has successfully avoided me, and as I sit here tapping my fingernails on my desk, I wonder what the hell I’m going to do.

“Ugh,” Noelle groans. “Can you please stop doing that with your nails? It’s driving me crazy!”

I turn one hundred eighty degrees in my chair to face her. “I can’t. This thing with Braden is making me sick to my stomach, Noe,” I tell her as nausea settles over me. “I don’t know what’s going on with him!”

Sure, things between us are far from perfect but I’ll be devastated if he is running around with someone else. I think the blow of a break up would hurt much less than finding out he is cheating.

“Ask,” she states simply.

Like it could be that easy.

My head falls back into the chair and I look up at the ceiling wondering if it is truly in fact that easy. I’ve done everything but ask him what the hell his problem is. I’ve called him, texted him, invited him over for dinner...anything I could think of and he just isn’t taking the bait. I don’t know what else to do...except maybe to back him up into a corner with no place for him to go and fucking ask.

Turning my chair back around, I grab my phone and shoot off a text to him before I chicken out.

Me: We need to talk. Meet me tonight or I’ll assume we’re over. I can’t live like how I have the past week.

Our relationship seems like a roller coaster. One minute we’re up and the next we’re plummeting down to the ground only to be saved yet again by the incline. Right now it seems like we are falling with no steep hill in sight...and Ryder coming back into the picture is not making it easy on me.

My emotions are running wild trying to figure out how I can hate what Ryder did to me. Hate that he wasn’t there when I desperately needed him the most but feel my body come alive whenever he is around me or how my heart flutters when I get a text from him. All I can do is attribute it to him being my first love, and you never forget your first, but maybe that is just a lie I tell myself so I can feel better about hating to love him.

All week he’s been checking up on me, on the car, asking to go out for coffee or just to talk. As much as I want to I just can’t. I need to figure things out with Braden and sort through the feelings of letting Ryder back in my life–if that is something I choose to do.

When Ryder isn’t around it’s easy for me to think clearly. Just to let it all sink in that he hurt me, scarred me but anytime he is near all that goes out the window and I can’t think straight. I let him in my apartment. I let him help me. I let him back in just a little and now he’s pushing for more knowing very well that I’m taken. Not that our relationship is stable at this point, but Ryder doesn’t know I haven’t spoken to Braden in a week.

My text pings and I quickly pick it up.

Braden: Just tell me when and where.

~~

I
feel nervous as I get ready for my meeting with Braden. It seems weird to call it a meeting since he is my boyfriend. I throw some liner on to make my eyes look smoky and a tint of pink gloss over my lips. I leave my hair down the way Braden likes it. The red highlights have been dyed back to match the rest of my hair color so that I stop looking “like a teenager” as he so delicately tells me.

I pull the towel off of me and slip into a pair of skinny jeans and a purple sweater adding the small diamond stud earrings he gifted me last Christmas. It makes me think of the upcoming holiday. A week ago I thought maybe it would be when he would propose. Now, I’m just wondering if we will even be together.

My cell pings with a text and I throw some deodorant on and a spritz of body spray before picking it up.

Ryder: Drinks tonight?

He’s relentless. It’s two innocent words but they hit me right in my core. How sad is it that I would rather go get drinks with Ryder than deal with the possibility of ending my relationship with Braden. At this point I’m torn between wanting that and wanting to fight for what we’ve worked hard on the past two and a half years. I have to do the right thing. I respond to him for the first time since Sunday.

Me: Sorry. I have plans.

Ryder: She answers, finally!

Me: Haha. I’ve been busy.

Ryder: Not even one drink. Just one. I’ll buy.

Me: I can’t. Meeting Braden.

That should deter him. When I don’t get an immediate response I put my socks on and head to the door, slipping my boots, coat and gloves on. Once my door is locked, I run through the crisp December air to my car, turning it on and blasting the heat, waiting for it to warm up. Curious, I glance back to my phone and find another text.

Ryder: I’d be much more fun ;)

I smile down at the phone but don’t let it distract me from tonight’s mission to find out what is going on with Braden and me, even if going out with Ryder does seem like more fun.

~~

T
he bar is almost completely empty with the exception of a few patrons. I sit down in a quiet corner booth at promptly six o’clock and order rum and Coke from the waitress noting how completely bored she looks. I used to be a server. I know how much it sucks to work on a Friday night and have it be completely dead. My parents didn’t have much money so I worked my way through college based on the tips of other poor college students. I barely made enough and I am still working through my student loan debt. The job at Events Unlimited saved me from not only being up to my ears in bills but also kept me from the lifestyle of a starving artist. I started off as a receptionist there but have slowly been trained to take on some events. The Christmas party being my first official one I plan from minute one.

I had tried to sell the paintings I made but no one is interested in them unless it’s from a famous artist. Sure, I could go work at a school as an art teacher but unfortunately those classes seem to be the first to go during budget cuts. Even though I would love to spend my days painting in overalls outside on a beach somewhere I still like my job at EU and have fun letting out my creative side when I have free time–which isn’t much.

Halfway through my drink I look at my cell finding it’s already twenty after six. Swiping the screen to the side, I dial Braden’s number, immediately getting his voicemail. I wait another minute in case he is trying to call me and when my phone doesn’t ring I try him again.

Voicemail.

A sinking feeling takes over in my chest when I think that he might not show up. This could be the end of us. If he doesn’t get here soon I know it’s over. Even if we have tough times it always sucks when something you worked so hard at is over.

Without asking the waitress takes my drink off the table and returns with a new one. I must look like I need it. I make a mental note to tip her well.

An hour later, after five calls to voicemail, ten texts remain unanswered and three more rum and Cokes, I’m sad, angry, happy and downright confused. I could be worried that something happened but right now all I can think about is how much Braden doesn’t care about this relationship.

Crossing my arms on top of the table, I lay my head down wondering who I should call to come pick me up. I’m in no shape to drive. When I finally decide that I should just call Emie the sound of heavy footsteps getting closer to my table fills my ears.

“Oh, now you decide to show up?” I say, my voice muffled into my sleeve.

I hear a chuckle and then a voice that most definitely does not belong to Braden. “I would have decided sooner if I knew you were waiting for me. In my defense, I did ask you to join me tonight.”

I pop my head up and take note of the dizzy feeling I have from my five drinks. “What do you want?”

“Nothing, Hadley. I saw you over here and I wanted to say hi. Can’t I just say hi?”

Through the haze of my tipsiness I take in his stance. It’s strong, powerful and towering over me. His hair is messy in all the right places, and a huge smirk showcases the small dimples he has. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and his chest takes in slow shallow breaths. The leather jacket he is wearing is unzipped and I get a hint of the dark blue shirt he has on. A black belt wraps around his waist and between my thighs clench when just a quick flash of what is underneath the jeans that belt holds up enter my thoughts. I’m sure his body is much more toned now than back then, but then I remember how many others have seen what’s underneath those clothes since.

“Okay, you’ve said hi. Now you can go.” I wave my hand around dismissing him. I don’t need this right now. I’m mad at Braden and I’m not thinking straight.

“Who were you waiting for?” he asks, his brows quirking up.

I roll my eyes and breathe out a sad sigh. “Braden. I told you that earlier. So, you should go,” I tell him just as the server walks by. “A shot of tequila please?”

“Make it two,” Ryder requests. “My tab.”

He takes it upon himself to sit where I was so sure Braden would be sitting while we mended our reoccurring broken relationship. Braden should be here. Braden should’ve been there all week. He should have been the one helping with my car.

Taking a deep breath I try to be nice to the man who has done nothing but be nice to me despite my bitchiness. “Thank you for the other day, Ryder. For driving me to get the new battery.”