"Effective as of when?" I questioned.
"Effective today at five."
I glanced at my watch. In an hour and a half I was jobless. What the hell was I going to do? I had rent to pay, bills to pay, a car to pay for, food to buy. I stood there for a couple of minutes, trying hard to let the words process, and that was when the anger hit. Tom sat there still typing away as if I had already left his office.
I glared at him and then slammed his door shut. He stopped typing and looked up at me. "Does this have something to do with the other day, when I rejected you?" I bit out. "Is that why I am being fired?"
"No, of course not. Why would you think that?"
"Because, Tom, I know you. If I wasn't on the chopping block, I was probably put on it by you after that. Am I right?"
"That isn't it. Now is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked, looking up at me, a smug smile on his face.
"No. I will be cleaning out my office," I bit out.
"Yep, at the end of today, you still have two hours or so worth of work time. Just be aware that your key card won't work tomorrow morning, so make sure you have everything that is of your personal property before exiting the building today. Otherwise, you will have to be escorted up here by security."
"Ha, no, Tom, I won't be waiting until the end of today," I bit out. "I will be cleaning out my office the second I get back down there. As for the rest of my work day, you can shove it."
"Kristy..."
I turned. I had nothing else to say to him, and I began walking back down towards the elevators. I could hear him calling my name and turned to see him step outside of his office door. Ignoring him, I pressed the down button.
I struggled with the box of my belongings as I took the elevator up to my apartment, almost dropping it twice. Finally, the elevator opened, and I made it into my apartment just in time for the side of the box to rip and the contents to fall to the floor. I swore under my breath and leaned against the wall, fighting back tears. What the hell was I going to do?
I couldn't even call my best friend to let her know what had happened. I needed to talk to her so bad, but because of keeping things from her, I knew in a situation like this, everything would just come pouring out. I hated this entire situation, and with my fists balled up, I punched the wall. The second my hand hit, pain shot up to my shoulder, and the tears that began to fall—. Once the pain subsided, I grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and sat down, wrapping my swollen hand in a towel.
I didn't have time to be upset. I needed to take a look at my finances and then hop onto the local job site to find something before Austin arrived to go to the movies. I left the mess of stuff on the floor inside the door and changed into my favorite pair of ripped jeans and a sweater.
I sat down on the floor and grabbed my laptop, quickly searching through the available jobs in the area. After forty minutes of that, I was beyond frustrated. There was nothing in my field, and unless I was going to flip burgers at the local burger joint, I had nothing.
I rubbed my eyes and opened up my online banking. I had a little over five thousand dollars in my savings account and was only three hundred to the positive in my checking account. I blew out a breath and, once again, the tears started to slip down my cheeks. I still had two paychecks coming, but after that, it would be a matter of six or seven months before everything was gone, and that would only be if I were strict with myself.
I curled up on the couch and cried for almost an hour, then I did my best to clean myself up after the meltdown I'd had in the living room. I had just applied fresh makeup and came walking out into the living room when the phone rang.
"Hello," I answered.
"Hey, Kristy, it's Addie."
"Hey, Addie." I closed my eyes, fighting back more tears.
"Everything okay? You sound down."
I felt so off balance it wasn't funny. My best friend was calling and asking if I was okay because she could tell from the sound of my voice that I wasn't. Hell, she had probably already sensed something was wrong from the other side of the city, that was how in sync we were.
I suddenly started having doubts about everything including my friendship with her. It was practically non-existent since I had been keeping things from her. And Austin? I had no clue where to even go with him.
"Not really. I..."
"It's okay, Kristy. Don’t be upset anymore. I already know about you and Austin."
The words sank into my ear, and I felt the anger boil inside of me. He had promised.
"What?" I questioned, frowning.
"Austin told me everything. It's okay. He said you were going to be upset when you told me. I already knew, though. I knew it was his shoes inside your door the other night the second I had seen his coat hanging on the hook. I didn't want to embarrass you, so I just played along with you."
Every alarm bell in my body went off as she continued talking. I barely heard a word she had said. The only thing going through my mind was just what I had been worried about: that Austin couldn't be trusted. He had gone behind my back even when I asked him not to and told her before we had agreed to. Tears filled my eyes and everything blurred in front of me.
Addie continued rambling on, while I stood there wishing I could just punch the wall in front of me again, but then both hands would be aching and swollen. Just like usual, I would lose him, just like the others, because without trust, there was no way I couldn't move forward in a relationship with him.
"So what else is going on with you?" Addie asked.
"I have to go, Addie," I whispered and hung up the phone without even saying good-bye.
Austin was supposed to be here in twenty five minutes, and he was the last person I wanted to see right now. I grabbed a water from the fridge and drank enough to remove the huge lump that sat in my throat. I picked up the phone and punched in his cell number, waiting for him to pick up.
"Reeves," he said into his phone. He must have been getting showered because he never answered the phone like that when it was me.
"Hey, would it be possible to meet me at The Roasted Bean?"
"You don't want to see the movie?"
"No," I answered, biting my trembling lip.
"All right, give me twenty minutes to shower, and I will swing by and pick you up."
"It's okay. I can meet you there."
There was silence on the phone, and I choked back the tears that were about to fall.
"Kristy, is everything okay?" I could hear the unease in his voice, and I knew in that second I was going to crush him.
"Yep. I've got to go get ready. See you then."
I didn't wait for him to hang up. I couldn't because, as I spoke to him, I could already feel my heart breaking. I had no idea how I could have been so stupid. He wasn't ever going to be right for me. We would never have worked out, and I felt foolish to think that we would.
With that thought in my mind, I figured I would have felt better. Instead, my chest ached, and ten minutes later, I found myself in the bathroom with my head in the toilet.
18
Austin
I hung up the phone and toyed with the idea of not showering after my workout. Kristy had me worried that something was really wrong, and I wanted to rush to her aid. Then I glanced at the clock and realized I had at least half an hour before I had to meet her. If I left here now, I would be at her apartment before she planned to leave. She sounded so serious on the phone. I knew in my gut that something was wrong. I swallowed the sick feeling I had and decided that if she wanted to meet at The Roasted Bean then that was where I would meet her.
I didn't waist time. I hopped into the shower, and then, with a towel wrapped around my waist, I headed to my locker, and dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. I grabbed my cologne and threw on a splash before grabbing my jacket and heading out the station door.
I impatiently drove across the city, hitting every single red light and slow driver there was. I sat at the light around the corner fro
m The Roasted Bean and nervously tapped my thumb on the steering wheel, replaying our conversation in my mind.
A couple of minutes later, I pulled up outside of the little cafe and parked the truck, shutting the engine off. I spotted Kristy's car right away in the full parking lot and glanced to see if she was still sitting in it, but the car was empty. I climbed out of my truck and walked into the full cafe looking for her through the crowd.
Immediately, my eyes fell to a sign just inside the door. Poetry slam was written in a fancy script on their events chalk board for tonight. That explained why the place was so full. It also proved why this was probably not a good meeting place for us. Talking would be impossible.
I looked through the crowd and finally spotted Kristy standing off to the side. She stood there, her arms crossed over her chest, but when I saw her face, I knew something was indeed very wrong. It looked as if she had been crying.
I walked over and put my arm around her, kissing the top of head, but she didn't move. She didn't step in to greet me, and she certainly didn't kiss me back.
"Did you want something to drink?" I asked.
"I already ordered for us," she said, swallowing hard turning her gaze to a crowd of people who were getting louder by the second.
I was about to ask her if she wanted to grab a table when someone from behind the counter called out her name and set two to-go cups up on the counter. I guess that was my hint that she didn't want to stay. She stepped forward, grabbed the cups, and handed me mine.
"It's crowded in here. How about we go for a walk," she suggested.
I looked around. I didn't want to be in this crowded place anyways. I sensed that whatever she wanted to talk to me about was serious, and I wanted to find out what it was.
"Sure, let’s go." She ducked under my arm as I pushed the door open.
We crossed the street to the largest park in the city. She walked beside me, her one hand holding her drink, her other shoved into her coat pocket. I held my free hand out expecting her take it, she glanced at my hand, but she shook her head and kept walking.
"Okay," I muttered under my breath. "I'm getting the hint that there is something wrong? So how about you just spill it.”
She didn't answer me. Instead, we walked in silence through the park until we came to the first free bench. I didn't say anything. I didn't need to ask again. I had learned over my years of being married not to push. If she wanted to tell me, she would.
I watched her out of the corner of my eye. Something was weighing heavily on her mind, and I wanted her to lean on me. I wanted to scoop her up in my arms and tell her that, no matter what, everything would be okay. Instead, she just sat there staring off into the park, distancing herself from me even more so than she had already, sipping on her tea.
After a bit, I glanced down at my watch. We had been sitting here for fifteen minutes exactly and she hadn’t said a word. I was about to try and strike up some sort of conversation when she cleared her throat and looked down at the ground.
"I lost my job today," she mumbled.
"What? How? Why? Does this have anything to do with what you told me about the other day?" If Tom was somehow behind this because she had turned him down, I'd go and have a little chat with him.
"No, it hasn’t got anything to do with the other day. They are downsizing. Apparently, my entire department has been cut and will now be outsourced. I don't know what I am going to do. I have rent, bills, my car to pay for."
"It's all right. No need to panic. We will figure it out," I said, placing my arm behind her on the bench. I wanted to let her know I was going to be by her side through all this. That she could lean on me.
"We will?" she questioned.
"Of course. Trust me. Everything will work out. If need be, perhaps we could find a place together."
She started laughing under her breath. "Trust you. That’s a joke."
"Kristy?"
"You heard me."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I said, sitting forward. “When have I ever given you reason to believe you can’t trust me?”
"Oh, well, let's see. I was really upset when I got home. I knew you were busy at work, so I didn't call you, but then Addie called. I was about to tell her what happened when she started spouting about how she knew about us and—"
I closed my eyes. "Fucking Addie," I muttered. Addie had told her. My own damn sister had gone behind my back and told Kristy that I confessed after promising me she wouldn't say a fucking word.
"It was supposed to be a secret, Austin. Our secret, remember? No harm. We agreed."
"We also agreed on talking to her."
"Yes, together, in a week, but you took it upon yourself and went behind my back. How do you think that made me feel?"
"No, I told you I would talk to her, to take the pressure off of you. Remember?"
"Yep, I remember. I also remember asking you to wait one more week."
"Kristy, she cornered me in the kitchen the other night and asked me some question regarding you. She caught me off guard. She was the one who set us up."
"Don't blame Addie for this, and don't make things up about her just because you are in shit. You fucked up."
My eyes locked with hers. She was pushing me. "I'm not making it up, Kristy. She sent you up there first, and then me."
Kristy turned her head and looked off in the opposite direction, then I heard her sniffle and looked over at her in time to see her wipe her cheek with the back of her hand.
"You know, Kristy, I'm not ashamed of us."
"You think I'm ashamed of you?"
I thought for a moment before answering. "Yeah. Yes, I do. I want everyone to know that we are together. You've made me so happy, and I don't feel that we should be a secret. A secret that we keep from our friends and family. This is something that we should be celebrating."
Kristy stood up and threw her cup in the nearest garbage and turned to face me, both hands in her pockets.
"Austin, I can't do this anymore, especially right now. This, us, you, you're just a distraction. A distraction that, frankly, I don't need right now. I don't have a clue what I am going to do with my life now. I need to figure all of that out before..."
I stood up from the bench, the ache in my chest too much for me to handle. I studied her face and could see the tears already welling up inside them.
"When I said we would figure this out together, I meant it. I'm in love with you, Kristy. I know you think that it's impossible for someone to love you or impossible for good things to happen to you, but they aren't. They happened. We happened, and I do love you. I love you, everything about you."
Kristy let out a gasp, and the tears that followed broke my heart because I had told her the blatant truth. I had confessed my love to her in a way that I never imagined I would. I imagined lying in bed with her in my arms after we'd made love when I told her how I felt. Not standing in some stupid park freezing and fighting.
"Austin…" She swallowed hard and met my eyes. "I can't do this..."
That was all she said before she took off back in the direction we'd come. I felt her literally slipping through my fingers as I watched her run off through the park. In those seconds, I literally felt my heart break.
I'd stayed sitting on that park bench for close to an hour. The sun had set before I decided to get up and head back to my truck and drive home.
The drive across the city was a long one and I was glad when I pulled into the driveway. The house was dark, and for once, I was thankful that Addie wasn't home. I picked up my phone, calling Greg to let him know I would be back in the morning. I needed time tonight to be alone. I needed to sort everything out. The first thing I planned to do was get my own place. I'd had enough. This had been the last straw. Addie had interfered one too many times.
I rooted through the fridge looking for anything that I could just shove into my face before I crawled into bed, but there was nothing quick. Instead, I slammed the fridge door shut and
started down the hall when I heard the floor creak behind me.
"Austin, what are you doing here?" Addie's small voice asked.
"I'm going to bed," I barked.
"I thought you were going to the movies."
"Yep, so did I," I muttered, kicking my door open.
"You're also on the job, so aren’t you supposed to be staying at work."
"Jesus, who the hell made you my keeper. I think I know damn well where I should be. Don't worry, Mom, I called Greg to let him know. He approved of my decision if it’s all the same to you."
"Is there something wrong, Austin?" she asked, as if she didn't already know.
I turned to face her. She looked up at me with an innocent expression. "As if you don't know."
"No, Austin, I don't."
"Seriously, you told her that you knew we were together."
"So what? I also told her I was the one who set you up."
I laughed under my breath. "Yeah, well, she apparently didn't hear that part."
"Is that why you're home so early, because she got angry? Here, I will call her. She gets a little uptight sometimes. Surely, you remember. It’s nothing to get worked up over. Give me a couple of seconds." Addie pulled her phone out of her back pocket and started scrolling for Kristy's contact information.
"Addie, don't bother. It’s over. I don't need you to call her."
"Seriously, Austin, I know her better than she knows herself. Just give me five minutes to sort this out. I assure you."
I reached and ripped her phone from her hand. "You also assured me you wouldn't say anything. It doesn't matter, Addie, because there is no more us. She broke it off." I could hear the shake in my voice and cleared my throat to hide it.
"She what?" Addie's eyes bugged out.
"You heard me. She broke it off with me. She doesn't feel she can trust me."
"Please, you are the most trustworthy guy I know. Why else would I set you up with her?"
Fireside Love Page 10