After All This Time: Breaking Point

by Brown, Brittainy

  Liam smiled, maybe their plan would work after all. “So, what about the whole issue with my ex-being around?”

  “Well, that one is pretty fucked up, you know. All you got to do, though, is wait here, it’s better if I go to Emily that if she comes here, you understand.”

  “I know, it’s just that I feel, things would have been easier if you had told her you to know where I am than you having to lie.”

  “And you want her to be angry with us both for plotting all this behind her back?”

  Liam nodded, “Okay, you have a point, that’s a problem,” he replied as she took her bag and left the house.

  Liam took a deep breath. Things were becoming so complicated, he wondered why Kate didn’t get the message he had left and why she’d still come at all. He really hoped she’d come with her husband; it would really be most helpful for him if she came with her marriage still intact. Taylor had mentioned just her name and even included a ‘miss’. Of course he knew what that would mean but he just wasn’t ready for such drama yet when he was still trying to make things right with Emily.

  He felt something vibrating and he discovered Daisy hadn’t taken her phone along. Picking it up he released Emily was the one calling.

  “Oh crap!” He waited until it finished ringing and then went to voicemail.

  “Hey babe, it’s Emily, I’m almost at your place, don’t bother to come to mine,” she said before hanging up.

  “Oh! Crap crap crap!” He stood up immediately, and just on time, the door swung open, Daisy came in, looking all agitated.

  “Emily is...” He started.

  “She’s here, fast, take the back door,” Daisy interrupted, pushing him towards a section of the house which led to the back.

  “Stay here. Don’t make a sound. And please, don’t go anywhere” she instructed, slamming the door, leaving him alone.

  Liam sighed. This was becoming a hard work. He looked around and saw only more houses. He thought of taking a walk around. He couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.

  The Plan

  After some minutes, he found himself at the beach; and other people were at the beach this time. He saw one of the ladies that had come over to him the first day. She looked happy to see him, she kept smiling.

  ‘Hey handsome, come to say hi?” she shouted to him, waving, making everyone turn in his direction.

  Liam blushed slightly; he wished she hadn’t done that, even as he proceeded towards her so as not to be rude.

  “Liam. Oh my God, Liam, you came.”

  He froze as he heard his name, recognizing the voice immediately. He regretted not listening to Daisy when she had told him to not go anywhere.

  “Oh, Liam. I knew you would come. I know how much you love the beach.”

  She was right behind him now and he had no choice other than to confront her - his past mistake.

  “Hi, Kate,” he said hoarsely. She was still beautiful, but not like when they had met. Or at least, to him she seemed to have lost her shine.

  She was in a blue dress. Before, he had always thought blue made her eyes pop, but now they had some sadness and regret in them.

  She looked really happy, surprised and guilty at the same time. Just as she began to talk, someone interrupted.

  “So, are you taking the house Miss Kate or...?” It was Taylor. He stopped as he recognized Liam. “Oh. I think I know this face from somewhere...?”

  Liam didn’t want things to get more complicated. If he remembered he had come with another woman earlier, before asking for another room, it might seem as if he was jumping from one woman to the other.

  “Yea, I called last night to book a room...”

  Taylor frowned. “Oh, you are Mr. Liam and, wow! You know each other, how perfect.”

  “Yea, the issue is I...”Liam started but stopped as Taylor kept on walking.

  “He was the one who wants to share the house with you...” he said to Kate, who looked all the more surprised and excited.

  “Oh…that is so good, what a coincidence, we used to be a couple and we are just reuniting...”

  “Wow, that’s a good one. The Outer Banks always lead to love! Okay, I guess everything is settled… about the payment?” Taylor said,

  “Urm, wait...” Liam started but once again, no one was listening to him.

  “Take my card, take the payment, I’ll be responsible for everything.”

  “Wow! How generous.” Taylor exclaimed as he took the card.

  “It’s the least I could do,” Kate replied, smiling at Liam who was now thinking of the deep mess he had just landed in. Before he knew it, she was hugging him. At first, he was so startled, it took him by surprise. Slowly, he eased his way out of her grip, before Taylor handed her back her card.

  “Kate...”he started. She was looking at him, paying attention. “I really need to tell you what’s really going on,” he continued. She nodded, indicating she was with him. Right that minute, he turned his head slightly to another angle, for no particular reason, and that was when he noticed Daisy and Emily, looking at him from across the sand. His voice trailed off.

  * * *

  “What the hell is he doing with that woman, and the way she just hugged him?” Emily demanded. “I thought he left, why is he with her?”

  Daisy was confused, she didn’t know what to say. How could Liam be so stupid as to hug another woman right in front of them when Emily was just coming back to her senses? Why do people have to make so many things so complicated for themselves? Daisy wondered.

  “Well, urm, I don’t know, obviously he never left yet,” Daisy replied, wondering what was going through her friend’s mind.

  “So, he left our place to be with some other woman?” Emily asked again.

  Daisy could sense the hurt in her voice. “I don’t know, babe but I think you made it pretty clear from the start that you didn’t want him around you so why are you hurt?”

  Immediately, Emily smiled. “Hurt, who says I’m hurt?”

  Daisy shook her head. “You are jealous aren’t you?”

  “Of course not!” she replied instantly, “why would I be jealous?” She was walking ahead of Daisy towards the beach.

  Daisy almost laughed out. Emily was still being stubborn and she was still acting proud and pompous, not wanting to deal with or face the truth of still being in love with Liam. Quickly, she took out her phone and began to type a message to him.

  What did I tell? I asked you to stay. Now you are ruining things but this might just be a good way of making her accept that she still has feelings for you. Try to make things more interesting.

  She sent it and watched as Liam took out his phone and afterward, he was walking away with his ex.

  “Are you not coming?” Emily shouted to Daisy, who ran to catch up with her.

  As they sat by the seashore, Emily was quiet.

  “Are you sure you are okay babe?” Daisy asked, and she nodded.

  ‘Sure, why would you think I’m not?”

  “Well, maybe because you are awfully quiet, I hope the whole Liam moving on thing is not making you feel guilty.” It was a tricky question and she waited for her response.

  For a while Emily said nothing. She only smiled. “You know I dated one idiot one time that later came to tell me that he was cheating on me?”

  “Wow, that was cruel.”

  “Yea, I got over that. So whatever Liam thinks he is doing, it is not affecting me.”

  “Well, it shouldn’t because you know that would not be fair on him right? I mean you know since you have been unkind to him and... ”

  “Will you just keep quiet!” Emily snapped at her. Daisy could feel she was getting angry now. “Yes, I said I didn’t want to see him again and all, but he made me take that decision. I was angry with him and I wanted to punish him.”

  “Daisy sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

  “No, I’m not angry,” Emily retorted, cleaning her face with the back o
f her hand. “I’m just saying you should stop blaming me for what he made me do.”

  Daisy smiled with primed lips. “So you are totally okay when Liam is having another girlfriend?”

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  Daisy could tell she was lying but she didn’t want to push. “So will it be okay or will it be weird if all of you are friends?”

  Emily made no response. She dipped a hand into the soaked sand and brought out a pebble which she threw into the sea. “Why do we have to be friends?”

  “So you don’t want to be friends with Liam and his girlfriend?”

  “No.”

  “Then that would mean you are still angry and Liam will think you are jealous and that will actually make him happy.”

  “I don’t care what Liam thinks!” Emily snapped at her.

  Daisy had no idea where she was going with this twisted plan of hers, but wherever it was, she was enjoying it, and she really hoped it would make things better for the couple she had come to care about.

  * * *

  “I don’t care what Liam thinks, okay? He can do whatever he wants to do. I will do whatever I need to do.”

  “What exactly do you mean by that, Emily?”

  Emily was quiet again. Daisy was driving her crazy with all these stupid questions. The truth was that seeing Liam with some other woman just when she was earlier feeling guilty for being mean to him made her angry. She had been so stupid. Maybe if she hadn’t been so strong headed and so bent on taking a break, maybe things would have actually worked for the best between the two of them. Now her only desire was to see him wan hert and beg for her back.

  “I think he’s trying to make me feel jealous by hooking up with a girl so soon...”

  “Okay, hold your horse's soldier. What if they are not hooking up? What if they are just friends, have you ever thought about that?”

  Emily shook her head. “No, they are not just friends. He can’t leave a house we both paid for to come and be snuggling up with some lady at the beach and now you are telling me they are just friends.”

  Daisy smiled. “Well, since you’ve got everything really settled out. What crazy plan did you come up with?”

  “I think I need to make him want me again.”

  Daisy scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Why would you want that? All the while he was trying to make things right, you didn’t give him a chance.”

  Sincerely, Emily had no idea where she must have come up with the plan but she was just so angry that she wasn’t thinking clearly.

  “At the party, do you remember the people I hooked up with?”

  Daisy was quiet for a while, “Yea, like seven of them, why?”

  “I think I need to really hook up with one of them.”

  Daisy gasped. ‘Why on earth will you want to something that stupid?”

  “Because I’m going ahead with my original plan.”

  “What plan exactly?”

  “To have fun and let him know that I don’t give a damn about whoever he is hooking up with.”

  Did Daisy look at her suspiciously?

  She said, “Really?”

  ”Yea, it’s not a big deal, if he can replace me, I can replace him too.” She glanced at Daisy, who was looking at her with pity.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” she snapped at her.

  Double-Work For Daisy

  The whole plan was going sideways and becoming way more complicated than Daisy had imagined. Initially, she had planned with Liam to make Emily feel guilty and probably fall for him again. But his disobedience and lack of patience were putting him in a tight corner with the whole thing with his ex.

  But one thing that might be beneficial was that Emily had no idea that the girl was his ex. Besides, it would be like watching a movie where they would be both be trying to make each other feel jealous without actually knowing it. What was more, she would get to be the referee, calculating the score, it would make a lot of sense if she could just write it as a story for one of her upcoming books. She would need to call her publisher later in the day. Maybe in this game of love, she could actually learn one or two things.

  Daisy snapped out of her thoughts as she realized Emily was waiting for her response.

  “Well, baby, I think your plan is okay. But I don’t understand? I thought you didn’t care about him and his girlfriend. So why would you want him to want you again?”

  “Because he hurt me in the first place and I shouldn’t be the one to be feeling miserable. He should be,” Emily snapped back, but her friend only smiled.

  “You know, you caused all this by being so stubborn. Why can’t you just go meet him?”

  “No,” Emily replied.” It would make him feel so macho and it will make me look weak...” she said quietly.

  Daisy smiled. “Love shouldn’t be about being macho or being weak, it should be selfless and humble.”

  Emily stood up. “You told me you have never been in love before, so how could you possibly understand what it means to be humble or to be weak when you have just been hurt?” with this, she began to walk away, leaving Daisy behind.

  Daisy shook her head as she watched her leave. She was still stubborn and so hellbent. Why was it so difficult for her to swallow her pride and go back to him?

  * * *

  As Emily walked away from the beach, she knew Daisy probably didn’t agree with her and might just be supporting her for friendship sake. Actually, she knew the right thing to do, but she just couldn’t do it. She had swallowed her pride so many times, trying to be the easy and simple girlfriend, she had overlooked so many things and he had thrown it in her face. So now that she wanted to forgive him, that was when he knew he was going to hook up with someone else?

  No, it would never happen.

  Daisy was right, she was jealous… but she was angry as well and she was missing him. Why would he just decide to go hook up with someone else, within how many days? It was not even up to 5 days and he just decided to write one stupid letter and just hook up with the lady? Who the lady anyway and what did she have that she lacked. If Liam’s plan was to flaunt his relationship all over her face, he should keep it up, she was just about to do her own.

  She stopped, brought out her phone and scrolled through some numbers she remembered she had faced just before she got dead drunk the other night.

  * * *

  Finally, they were at the house. It was a beautiful, white-painted cottage it gleamed with the spotless sign of – for-newlyweds only. There were fresh flowers surrounding the house, which had beautiful arched windows.

  “This was the house we would have gotten for our honeymoon Liam,” Kate said proudly and sadly.

  Liam smiled as he watched the house. Perhaps he should feel touched or at least some emotion, but he felt nothing.

  Pulling his arm, Kate asked, “Would you like to go inside?”

  Okay this is it!

  “Dear, dear Kate,” Liam started, easing his arm off of hers “what exactly are you doing?”

  She looked surprised. “Well… I just want us to check out the house and....”

  “Oh, yea, I know you are doing that. But what I mean is, what exactly are you doing with all this, showing up at the beach and paying for a beach house? Look, I told you I forgave you, but it doesn’t mean that I want you back. What do you take me for? What happened to Paris? The man you left me for? Is he dead or something or did you abandon him as well? Cos I don’t understand the meaning of all these niceties.”

  Kate was quiet and was looking sober. “Do you mind if we go in and discuss it please?”

  “No…but we are sitting right there.” Liam said sternly, pointing to two lounging chairs in the corridor.”

  “Okay,” Kate replied and they both walked there together.

  Some seconds later, they were sitting down.

  A Trip To Clarity

  “Liam, sincerely, I know what I did was wrong and I....”

  “No, you don’t, sincerely,” Liam s
aid, standing up. Right now, he had the chance of blaming everything that had been happening on her, and this was the only chance he’d had since she had left him at the aisle. It was like a floodgate had just been opened and he was going to make his anger flow ceaselessly towards the right channel.

  “You don’t know what you did. If you knew, you wouldn’t even be here. You made me a laughing stock. People laughed at me. I became a joke! Do you know how that felt?”

  Kate sat still, covering her face with her hands. Maybe she was sobbing or not but Liam knew his words were getting to her and she should actually feel sorry about that.

  “You just left without an explanation, on the wedding day that we have both been looking forward to, well, I guess I was the only one, but still, when you were not interested, why didn’t you say anything? Did I force you to marry me?”

  “Liam I’m so sorry, please stop,” Kate cried, “I thought you had forgiven me.”

  “Oh yes. I have. But I only did that so I could move on, so I could finally leave you behind me and face my relationship which you had no idea how you messed it up.”

  He stopped. She was sobbing profusely and he hated it. He just had to stop, but not without having some explanation.

  “Why did you do it Kate?’

  His ex-fiancé sniffed, wiping her face slowly.

  “I don’t know. I knew him before I met you and I thought he loved me because I really loved him.” She hiccupped and continued. “When I met you, we were taking a break, and I liked you. I never knew he would want me to take him back. So you started all this wedding plan and I know it was the most unkind thing to do to run away from our wedding, but I didn’t want to hurt you, you were so excited with the wedding and...”

  “Bullshit!” Liam blurted before he could stop himself.