Torn (20 page)

 

“Why not honey? I like the Martins! They haven’t seen you in a while; they would love to see you!” She
sounded upset that I was protesting the idea.

 

“You’re right; I haven’t seen them in a while. We will see you all on Sunday night. Anyway, I am actually
heading out the door, so I will call you later okay? I love you Mom!”

 

“Love you too sweetie. See you on Sunday, 6pm.”

We hung up and I decided to book it out the door before anything else stopped me.
I finally met up with Courtney inside the Macy’s; she had already managed to find 3 yellow dresses that
she was in love with. Thankfully, they were not that bad of a yellow color and definitely not an ugly,
typical bridesmaid dress.

“Do you have a dress Court?” I asked as I headed into the dressing room.

“Actually, I do! I found it the other day and fell in love with it! I have it at home; you’ll have to see it! Can
you believe that next weekend I will be married? I can’t believe all this!” She was definitely on cloud
nine.

“Courtney, I am so excited for you! I am excited to get away for a weekend as well. The last couple
weeks have been total and utter hell. I need a night or two just to let my mind be nothing but an alcohol
induced party!” I laughed as I opened up the dressing room door. “I think this is the dress!” I had a duck
yellow, strapless dress on.

“Oh god! That is definitely your dress! It looks amazing on you! Why do you say that yellow is not your
color?” Courtney was smiling so big, I think I saw all of her teeth.

 

“I just have never found the right shade, I guess.You don’t think it’s too short?” I asked. It hit right
above my knees, but I didn’t want to show too much leg for her wedding.

“I’ve seen shorter on you, this is perfect! Look it’s on sale; it’s a sign that you were meant to get this!”
She said a little too overly excited. “Alright, now that the dress is taken care of, we need shoes and to
talk about what is going on with Caleb.”

“Well, there really isn’t much to talk about with Caleb. I told him last night that I can’t continue what we
we’re doing. He obviously was not very happy with it. He sent me a text saying that we can still be
friends but right now it would best if we don’t talk for a little bit. The hardest part, Court, is that my
mom is having his family over for dinner WITH us on Sunday and I don’t know if he will be there and how
that will go over.” I plopped down on the couch next to Courtney.

“Well. I am at a loss for words and I don’t know what to really say to that. Obviously it was for the best
right?” She asked in awe.

“It was. I need to get everything back to normal and I can’t really do that it if I am distracted. Court, I do
love him. I just can’t do this to Liam. Before you say anything, I know that he did the same to me; call it
being even. Now we need to work on these things and see how everything works out. If things can’t get
back to normal for us, maybe this was a sign that we weren’t meant to be and we should go our
separate ways. Just for now we need to work on things.” I felt like I was regaining my confidence once
again.

“You’re right. I hope that everything works in your favor though.” She reached out and gave me a hug
before I went to get my clothes back on.
When I came out of the dressing room Courtney was on her phone, it looked like an important call by
the look on her face so I waved at her as I walked towards the registers.

I finished up paying and she came up beside me.

 

“Everything okay?” I asked.

 

“Oh, yeah, just talking to an old friend and catching some gossip.” She said putting her phone back in
her bag.

 

“Anything interesting?” I tried to be nosey.

 

“Nah, they are just dealing with family stuff. Nothing big, so you bought the dress. Wanna go get your
shoes?” She asked checking her phone for the time. “Or are you hungry?”

 

“I am still full from lunch, but always have room for ice cream!” I winked at her and she got a smile. “So
food and then we can find some sexy shoes.”

 

We headed towards the food court and I found that Courtney was texting someone. She had a very
serious look to her as she texted back and forth.

 

“Is that your love muffin?” I asked trying to peek over her shoulder.

“Love muffin? That’s hilarious! I will tell him that is his new nickname.” She laughed. “Yeah, he is asking
what time I think I am going to be home. He has a meeting tonight, but wants to make sure that I am
home when he gets there.” She giggled.

“Don’t you know how you got pregnant?” I laughed.

 

“These hormones are crazy! I think they have rubbed off on him too! We can’t seem to get enough of
each other!” She put her phone back in her purse and stepped up to order a cheesesteak sandwich.

 

“I would have thought that it would be the opposite!”

 

“Yeah, me too, Ry, but it is just crazy. I am not going to complain though, because when I am as big as a
house; I am not sure that it’s going to be happening as much.” She stuffed fries in her mouth.

 

We walked over to the ice cream counter, so I could order a cone.

We sat down and enjoyed people watching and eating our food. I tried to think of the shoes that I was
going to pick out. I was so excited to have this weekend away. I just needed to get through the rest of
this week and next. In this time, I can really get my life back on track.

We finished up and headed to a couple other storesto search for the perfect shoe. After trying on
fifteen pairs, I finally found the perfect heel and it was going to match the dress amazingly. I was getting
more and more excited, until I realized I had yet to book our trip!
“Court, I really need start heading out! I didn’t book the trip at work today! I need to get on it before I
am not even able to go!” I stood up abruptly, thinking that if I got out it would make it somehow better.

“Calm down, we can go. Rushing home is not going to make it better. Where did you park?” She
gathered up her trash.

 

“Outside Macy’s. I think I actually parked a few cars down from you.” I started to slow down.

 

“Great, I will walk out with you.” She grabbed my arm and linked hers in mine.

We headed out and said our goodbyes. She even wished me luck this weekend with dinner with my
family and Caleb’s. She said it in a sarcastic tone, but somehow I was going to take any luck I could get. I
got in my car and headed home.

I checked the time several times, I was anxious to see Liam. I really didn’t want to have the house to
myself again. I made a brief stop at the local liquor store to grab some more wine and some beers for
him; this weekend was going to require having a lot of liquor, especially if Caleb did show up at my
mom’s house for dinner.

I pulled up into my driveway to see that the house was still empty looking. I had pulled up his flight
information on my phone, Liam’s flight was on time, but he was going to be another hour at least. I
headed upstairs and put on some romantic music and put on something a little sexy, if we were going to
work at this together, I needed to put my half the effort.

Since I had the extra time, I was going to take a nice hot bubble bath. I lit some of our tea candles
around the tub and turned on my music. Rihanna’s song ‘Stay’ came on and my mind, which was
sidetracked all day, drifted towards Caleb. Glimpses of how sad he was when I left, how he had begged
me to stay, just everything that we shared together. I finally had a good cry, I may had lost it in the car
on the way home, but it felt good not to have to worry about getting home or running into anyone.

When the water finally started to get cold and the tears stopped falling, I got out and quickly dried off
and put on my nightgown that Liam had bought me last Valentine’s Day. I was now starting to feel a
little bit better. The bath and breakdown seemed to be exactly what I needed.

I really wanted to try and get things back to normal with Liam. I tried to make myself feel sexy in this
nightgown but the emotion wasn’t there at all.

 

When he came around the corner, I sent him a soft smile.

 

“Hi. How was your flight?” I asked. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” He smiled back. “It was a long flight. I really couldn’t wait to get home and so I think
it took even longer.” He laughed. “How was your day?”
“Well, I acquired an account that is going to be some big bucks and found a dress for Court’s wedding.
Then I decided what a better way to welcome my husband home than to show him a little skin.” I leaned
in and gave him a soft kiss.

“So did you get the tickets booked for Vegas?” He said undoing his tie and getting out his sweats from
the drawer.

“Oh shit! I can’t manage to remember to do that! Let me grab my laptop and we can book them
together. I am going to run to the bathroom and then I will grab it from the other room.” I reached up
and gave him a quick kiss and headed to the bathroom.

When I came out, Liam had gotten my laptop for me. He was showcasing it like he was Vanna White.

 

“You won a new laptop!” He said in the cheesiest voice I had ever heard.

 

“You are such a nerd! But thank you for getting it for me.” I laughed at him and headed into the closet to
grab a long nightshirt.

 

I ran and hopped onto the bed and landed with a plop, we both were laughing. It felt like old times
again. We both then heard his phone ring; I shot him a dirty glare.

 

“Look, I am not going to answer it. I promise, I am not doing anything and I want to work on this.” He
grabbed his phone off his night stand, pressed the reject call button and turned his phone on silent.

 

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Alright, let’s see what flights we have here.” I pulled up some flight sites and hotel prices. I was beyond
ready for a weekend away, I quickly made the purchase. “And… we are booked! Vegas, here we come!” I
squealed.

“Well in two weeks, but this will be a good time. So they both decided on Vegas to get hitched?” Liam
asked as he leaned back on his pillows with a yawn.

“Yeah, they both figured that they wanted to get married before the baby came and Court really wanted
to get married before she really started showing. So she called me and told me Vegas was the perfect
place.” I shut down my laptop and grabbed the TV remote.

“I think it’s awesome. Hell, it came it at the best time. I think that we need the time away from all the
shit here.” He rolled over to look at me. “Ryleigh,I really am glad that we are going to work at this.
Things will get back to normal again. I promise.” He leaned up and gave me a kiss.

“I know they will. I think that we have been together long enough that we can have a screw up, that
doesn’t mean you can have anymore! I just think that we’ll get back there, whatever normal is, and we’ll
be happy again.” I leaned into him again and gave him a kiss. “Look, Seinfeld is on!” I smiled and leaned
back with him and cuddled up to him.
It wasn’t long until my eyes were forced to finally close. I felt them get heavy as soon as I cuddled up to
him. I felt like tonight I was going to get the best sleep. I was going to bed happy, relaxed and not alone.

I woke up at 3:47, in a sweat. I don’t really remember what I was dreaming about, but I could see Caleb
and he was in his military uniform. I do remember that I was screaming don’t leave. I don’t know if it
was all sweat or if I had tears running down my cheeks as well. I looked over to see Liam still sound
asleep, thankfully I wasn’t screaming out loud to wake him.

I threw the covers off and tried to calm myself down. I felt my heartbeat still pounding away. I couldn’t
remember the entire nightmare, but I just knew that I hated the feeling of Caleb walking away from me
and not listening. I was so confused.

I slowly rolled out of bed and headed downstairs to get something to drink. I made my way into the
kitchen and grabbed a glass to fill it with water. I found I was chugging it down and refilling my glass. I
chugged the second glass down fast as well.

I took a seat at our bar, on the stool and tried to figure out what was going on.

 

“What the fuck?” I whispered to myself.

 

I then felt a hand on land on my shoulder and let out a scream.

 

“Ryleigh! It’s just me!” Liam cried flipping on the light.

“Oh god! I know it was just you, but I thought you were still asleep! I just didn’t expect you to come
down here!” If I thought that my heart rate was high earlier, it now was at an even more rapid speed. I
just was glad that I hadn’t a full on heart attack!

“Well you woke me up for a little bit. You were having some sort of a nightmare, I was just trying to go
back to sleep when you sat up. You okay?” He pulled me into a hug.

 

“Umm. Yeah, I am fine. I don’t even remember what it was about.” I lied.

“You were mumbling and I couldn’t make out any words. You sounded like you were crying and then
you sat up. I wanted to make sure when you headed down here.” He rubbed my back as he still held me
in his embrace.

“Thank you. I’m fine, though. I just needed to get some water. I will be back up in a second, you can go
back to sleep. We gotta get up in a few hours and you had a long flight. Not to mention the jet lag! I’m
fine.” I started to push myself away.

“Alright. I will meet you up there then. I love you, baby.” He kissed my forehead and headed back
towards our room.

 

I grabbed another refill of water, but this time began to sip. I sat down on the stool for another few
minutes before heading back to bed. I really needed a vacation from my own brain!
Chapter Fifteen

The rest of the week, I tried to keep my focus on just work and home. Liam and I finally were getting
back to normal and I hadn’t had anymore nightmares. He really put the charm factor on, we had yet to
have sex and I felt like I was avoiding it altogether. Liam tried to be home before me every night to make
dinner, although on Thursday night he tried to make a new recipe and we ended up going out to grab
some Chinese. We were starting to have a good time. I did find myself wondering what Caleb was up to
at least once a day, but I tried to resist the urge to text him. He said he needed some time, I think I
needed the same time away and we will be able to talk again soon.