“Yea” Daisy replied. “Stripper, hun?” she asked.
“Yea. Is it weird?”
“Nope. In fact, I would love to see you in the costume,” she replied, moving closer to him as he pulled her closer.
“I like you Daisy and I don’t think I’ve met a girl like you.”
“Really? Well, that’s because there is no girl like me anywhere.”
They both chuckled.
“I will come back, or maybe we can run into each other sometimes.”
Daisy was surprised. He didn’t even ask for her number.
“Don’t be angry that I didn’t ask for your number,” he said as if reading her mind, but I feel like there is something going on between you, Kate, Emily and that guy Liam and I don’t wanna be caught in the middle of it. So once you achieve whatever thing you are aiming for...” He dipped his hands in his pocket and brought out a card. “...give me a call.” He said before kissing her on the cheek.
Daisy smiled and took the card. “Goodnight.” She watched as he left and she locked the door after her.
As she turned around, she found Kate, who was holding a card in her hand excitedly.
“Luke gave you his card?”
“Yea. He said to call him once I ditch my fake boyfriend.”
Daisy gasped. “He knew as well?”
“It beats me. I thought we were so good. How come everyone knew what we were up to?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know.” She walked closer to Kate and whispered. “How about the two lovebirds?”
“Still in the lounge,” Kate replied.
“Are they having steamy sex already?”
Kate glared at her. “Seriously? No. They are just talking.”
“Well, talking is good too,” Daisy replied, taking a seat while Kate did the same.
“You know, I have had so many friends but, you rock,” Daisy confessed.
“Really? Wow! I’m impressed,” Kate replied.
“Although I must confess, running on a wedding day, that was still a bitchy thing to do.”
Kate smiled. “Well, I’ve paid for it already. Will you stop talking about it already?”
“Okay, I will.”
“Good. “
“You want a beer?”
“Yea, okay, coming right up,” Daisy said, standing up and walking out of the room.
* * *
Emily laughed at Davis’s stupid jokes.
“I think I’m drunk because those jokes are the most stupid jokes I have ever heard.”
“Hey! That hurt my feelings,” Liam replied, drinking from his glass.
“Sorry but it’s the truth.” She stood up. “I had a great time tonight. It was fun,” she said, handing him back his jacket.
“Yea, me too,” he replied. Then they were both quiet. Liam thought this could be a good time to explain to her...
“Urm Emily, I am sorry about everything that happened between us, I was just...”
“Noo… don’t, please. I think we just started talking and we are okay and it doesn’t matter anymore does it?”
Liam sighed. “I just thought you really need to know what happened that made me....”
“No. i don’t want to know Liam. Please, it will only make things worse between us. Now we are both good, let’s not ruin it,” she said, picking up her bag.
“I’m leaving the island tomorrow,” he declared, to see her reaction. At first, she looked surprised but then covered it up.
“Okay. I got to go home. Goodnight.” She walked hurriedly out of the lounge and bumped into Daisy, who was carrying two bottles of beer.
“Hey, babe. Are you going already?”
“Yea,” she answered hurriedly, trying not to betray her emotions.
“Hey, are you okay?” Daisy asked.
“Yes, can you please sleep over tonight?”
“Sure. I will come once the rest leave.”
“Okay, goodnight.
“Wait, you don’t want me to see you off?”
She didn’t reply as she was already out of the house.
Shortly after, Liam came out.
“What happened between you two ?” she asked.
“I told her I will be leaving tomorrow,” Liam replied.
“Okay, but did you two work things out?” Kate asked, coming out of the room.
“She just left hurriedly,” Liam replied.
Before Daisy could talk, Kate’s phone rang and she picked it up. “Hello....” She closed the receiver side and whispered. “It’s Luke.”
“Loudspeaker,” Daisy said, moving closer to her side.
They could all hear Luke’s voice. “Urm. I don’t know why I’m calling but I want to try my luck, how much would you be interested in getting locked in a room with me tonight?”
Daisy almost laughed out loud but she cautioned herself.
“Well, let me see… a hundred percent,” Kate replied excitedly.
“Okay, dress up, ll meet you by the beachside”
The call ended and the two ladies screamed.
“God! I love that! That is how to do it!” Daisy shouted. “I am so jealous. I get to spend the night with Emily.”
“Bye guys,” Kate said quickly, rushing out of the house.
Daisy looked at the unopened bottles of beer in her hand. “You want one?” she was addressing Liam.
“No. If I leave here tomorrow without her, Daisy, I will relocate to another city. I think I’ve tried. I’m hitting the beach.”
A Bag Of Surprise
Emily heard the doorbell ring and went to get it. She was glad that her friend was finally here.
“How are you?” Daisy asked, throwing her purse on the settee and taking a seat.
“I’m alright,” she lied and sat down beside her.
“So are we cool?” Daisy asked.
“Cool about what?”
“About Nick.”
“Oh, please, the first time he set his eyes on you I knew he liked you so, we are cool. Besides, he wasn’t my type,” Emily confessed and Daisy laughed.
“I knew it. You can be so stubborn. Why do you always do that? Why do you tend to make some things a competition? Why can’t you just take a break and let things work themselves out? Why do you have to always want to win?”
Emily sighed at all the questions Daisy kept bombarding her with. But she was right. She always wanted to win and she had always seen everything as a competition.
“Look, I don’t know Daisy, it’s just who I am.” She replied.
“That’s bad. If you keep up doing that you will start seeing everything as a threat.”
Emily was quiet for a while and later asked. “So, when did you and Liam become friends anyway?”
“Well, that was the night you got drunk when I had to call him,” Daisy replied. “But that kiss tonight was something else babe, you cannot even deny not to have felt anything.”
Emily chuckled as she remembered. “Yea, it was. I caught me by surprise actually and then I just....” She started but her voice trailed off. There was no perfect word for that.
Daisy smiled. “Does that mean you know that you are still in love with him?”
Emily thought for a while. As usual, she wanted to fight it...
“Don’t fight it, just let it out.” Daisy cautioned.
Emily took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes. I am...but it doesn’t mean anything. He is with someone else now and...”
Daisy banged the table. “Stop these ridiculous excuses! What is with you and trying to come up with a ‘but’ for every damn thing? When I saw you with Nick, you think I cared if you two were together? I saw him, I liked him and I went for him. Didn’t you see that? I know you did.”
Emily stood up. “I am not like you okay? I wasn’t brought up in that way, to have strong guts and believe in my guts.”
“Well, you need to start grooming your guts then,” Daisy replied. “Did he tell you he’s leaving tomorrow?”
Emily nodded.
She shook her head. “I didn’t give him enough chance to.”
Daisy shook her head. “What about this? Did he tell you he is attempting to seek a transfer from his place of work to another city?”
Emily gasped. Her heart sank as she heard that. “No.”
“Well, he is, once he leaves here tomorrow night and that means you will never ever see one another again.”
Emily winced. She had been feeling so depressed since she heard he was leaving the island and now he was going to another city. Her life would suck.
“But… what if he does the same thing again? What if he hurts me again?”
Daisy gasped “Then, you forgive him, again and again, because of your happiness and because you love him. But if you want him to stop doing that you need to learn how to listen. Listen to what prompted him into doing what he did. He has everything you want in a man and he is not perfect so he can make mistakes. Don’t expect a perfect relationship.”
Emily stood p.u“I don’t want him to hurt me again.”
“So why are you telling me that when you can always go ahead and tell him. Trust me… infact, you already told me not to meddle but I am your friend, you know he loves you, we both know. In fact, I think he is the only guy that I have ever seen this in love. He would do anything for you. so why are you making yourself miserable when all you need to do is listen and forgive.” Daisy stood up. “I have done what is expected of me as a friend. The rest is in your hands.”
“Are you going?”
“Oh, yea. I am. I need to call my man, he told me to call him once I feel like this is cleared up, and I will. That is how to do it - you go for him because he is what you want.” With this, Daisy stood up, picked up her purse and brought out a card.
Emily watched as she dialled the number.
“Hello, its Daisy… I’m ready… okay, I will meet you.” With this, she turned to her friend again. “I love you and you deserve to be happy. You are a good person and you are very patient with everything but sometimes, you need to act and not wait. You need to forgive easily so that someday you would wake up and realize you have no one to talk to. You need to go for something and not wait till the time goes by. Yes, he hurt you but you have punished him enough. I saw the way you looked when he kissed you. I saw the way you looked at him when you thought no one was watching. You are still in love with him so why pretend. Look at me, I am going to Nick, if he asks me to follow him on a trip or something, I will go, as you know, my writing job offers me good flexibility. Liam will be gone and who would be with you? Loneliness is a terrible thing. It is like death. It kills you slowly. ” She leaned closer to Emily and kissed her on the cheek. “Once you make up your mind, you will find him at the beach.”
Emily watched as Daisy left, shutting the door after her. Then she sat down to have a deep thinking. Something was off about tonight. Now that Daisy and Liam were good friends, was it possible that she had told Liam her plan to get back at him? Plus who was that lady she had seen with Liam? He hadn’t seen her with any particular lady since they got here and now all of a sudden, he just magically appears to have a girlfriend, it was too convenient. She wasn’t buying it.
Taking up her phone she logged into her Facebook account. She wanted to search for any “Kate” who had Liam as a friend on Facebook.
She could hardly remember the last time she used Facebook, she couldn’t even remember her password. Thankfully, she hadn’t logged out the last time and the first pop message she got was from Kate Statham. She frowned. That was strange.
“Hello Liam, I am at the beach now, please we need to talk.”
What? What was the meaning of all this? Oh! She realized it was Liam’s account she had logged into.
She checked the messages and saw all the messages that had been sent by Kate, the same lady who she just saw tonight.
For some reason, she paused. Could Liam have been cheating on her as well? All of a sudden, she was covered in her own sweat. She clicked on the message one after the other.
“Liam, I got your message too late as I’m already in Outer Banks”
“Are you sure you are not coming?”
“Please I need you to come”
“We can fix this, where are you?”
“I booked the place we were supposed to spend our honeymoon, don’t you want to even check it out”
“If I don’t see you within two days, I will assume you have moved on and I will find my way.”
What was the meaning of all these? Honeymoon? Was he planning to get married to another person? Did Daisy know about all these? What kind of game was this? Did he hook up with his ex or had he been cheating all along?
She couldn’t understand anything and she had no idea of what to do. So she dialled Daisy’s number. Tears were flooding her eyes and she could her heartbreaking faster than she had ever experienced before.
Daisy picked up.
“Daisy, I know about Kate. You knew, didn’t you? You all took me for a fool! You all lied to me! You are so despicable. I don’t ever want to see you again!” Then she ended the call and switched off the phone.
Not only did Liam lie to her, but so did her friend. This was why she hated making friends. How could they? They all ganged up together to make a fool out of her. Kate was his ex and she came to reunite with him? So all the kisses, all her confusion, everything was a joke… she had almost believed everything would be fine. She couldn’t stop crying.
Suddenly, her door burst open and Daisy and Kate rushed in at the same time.
“What are you doing here? Please just leave...”
“Babe, please, it’s not what you think! We are all supporting you and Liam...” Daisy started.
“You? I could never believe a word that comes out of your mouth again,” Emily shouted at her.
“Calm down, Emily, please, for the sake of your happiness,” Kate began.
“Look, I saw the messages you sent to him, I know he cheated on me with you and now...”
“No, no no. He was my ex, I met him before you did!” Kate shouted at the top of her voice and this seemed to catch Emily’s attention.
‘What are you saying?” Emily asked, cleaning her face.
“You need to sit down and listen to this,” Daisy said sternly.
Emily sat. “Okay, I want to hear what you have to say.”
“Tell her everything, Kate,” Daisy said to her taking a seat as well.
So Kate started recounting all that happened between herself and Liam. How they had met while he was in school and how they had planned to get married before she abandoned him in the aisle.
Emily frowned. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I was naïve, stupid and reckless and I lost the best thing in my life. I don’t want you to do the same.”
Emily was quiet. “So, what happened next?”
“So, I went to Paris and got married to my ex. I think he found out elsewhere because my ex blocked him on all my social media. He later opened an account to tell me how much I hurt him and how much what I did… in fact, let me show you.” Kate brought out her phone and navigated to her Facebook account. Then she passed the phone to Emily.
Emily got the phone and read the content-she realized the day was 15th of July, the night she had broken up with him and there was no profile picture, indicating it was a new account.
Hello Kate.
This is Liam your ex-fiancé whom you abandoned at the aisle. You are the most wicked woman I have ever met in my entire life and I regret the day I set my eyes on you. what you did to me was wicked but for the sake of the woman I love, I forgive you. What you did to me is affecting my relationship and I was told I needed to forgive you to move on and because I have someone whom I deeply love. I hope you get everything you deserve. Good Riddance.
After this Emily saw Kate’s several replies, which never got delivered.
&nb
sp; Liam, please I am so sorry. I know what I did was wrong. I was so stupid.
Please, are you there?
I will unblock you on Facebook and will try your main account.
Emily handed her back the phone. “He never told me about you,” Emily said, but went quiet as she remembered they had agreed not to talk about their pasts.
“I think he was doing his best to put the past behind,” Kate replied and continued. “So that led to all those messages you must have seen in his inbox. This place was supposed to be for our honeymoon...”
“Wait.” Emily stopped her. “Outer Banks, here?”
Kate nodded and this made Emily remember how he had reacted the first time she had spoken to him about this place.
“I wish he had talked to me,” Emily said, full of regret. “Why didn’t he talk to me?”
“Well, you need to ask him that,” Daisy replied.
“So after I got divorced,” Kate continued, “I didn’t get his reply so I just came straight here.”
“The day she arrived was that day we saw them with Taylor at the shore, remember?” Daisy asked and Emily nodded. Then Daisy continued to explain what they had planned just for her and Liam to come back together.
“You were part of it too?” Emily asked Kate, now getting amused about how they had all come together just because of her.
“Yes. Liam asked me to be his fake girlfriend after he told me everything that happened. He wanted to see how you would react if you know he has moved on,” Kate replied.
“I think, you should listen to this,” Daisy said, bringing out her phone. She scrolled through and played an audio file.” I recorded it the night he carried you from the club.”
Emily smiled as she heard Liam’s clear voice-
“Yea and without any explanation or heads up, then she blocked me on all social media, I rushed into my new relationship with Emily without giving myself enough time to heal. So when I discovered that Kate had got married, it broke my heart and I couldn’t handle it. I was so stupid, I should have just healed, I should have told her, but I didn’t want her to see me as being weak, I didn’t want her to think maybe I wanted to go back to my ex or that she wasn’t enough for me because she is all I need and I love her so much.”
After All This Time: Breaking Point Page 15