Marco is in the corner of the bakery slicing up sheet cakes that Caroline and I made so that everyone that stops in can have a free piece of cake. I’ve already had one person book an appointment for a consult for a fiftieth anniversary party!
So far today is going better than I could have ever hoped. We haven’t been swamped but we have had a steady flow of people coming through the door. There is just one thing that would make this day even better and as the day passes I am becoming more anxious to see him.
Every time the door pings, I look up hoping its Tyler, but it never is. We’ve had twenty people stop by in the last two hours and none of them come even close to resembling the blue haired boy that has my heart in a vice. We have about half an hour left until we close and I keep thinking he’s going to walk through that door. With every tick of the clock, I feel more and more like a fool.
I know that we had broken up or taken a step back or whatever you want to call it but I really thought after the conversation we had the other night...I thought he’d come. I don’t even know why I am getting so upset. I don’t even care that he didn’t come...except...I do care. I actually care a lot. Out of everyone Tyler is the one person I wanted to show up the most and he didn’t even come.
Even Noah stopped by today. Granted, he was dropping off the picture of Dean and his guitar for Caroline and I suspect he had come to see her more than me, but the point is he stopped by on my opening day. He congratulated me. He even bought a pecan swirl, two cream puffs and a small chai tea.
I walk back into the kitchen, open up the refrigerator and my eyes go directly to the plate of chocolate covered strawberry hearts that I made specifically for him. A couple of tears slide down my cheeks. I take a deep breath and quickly wipe them away.
Enough. This is my day and he isn’t going to take this away from me. If he can’t be bothered to show up than I’m not going to bother crying over him.
“Alright little sis, we just closed up shop!” Chloe exclaims as she and Jack walk into the kitchen.
They walk over to the stainless steel island and lean their elbows on it. I grab the plate of strawberries and slide them across the counter.
“Here, I made these for you guys. Thank you so much for helping me tonight.” A forced smile plays at my lips.
Chloe frowns. I can tell by the look on her face that she isn’t buying my act. She glances at the clock and then at Jack before looking back at me with sad, apologetic eyes.
“Tyler didn’t show up did he?”
“No,” I turn towards Jack. “And if you knew he wasn’t coming, I don’t want to know about it.”
“As far as I knew he was. I’m so sorry Abby.” Jack frowns sadly and his forehead creases.
“It’s okay. Really, you two go on. Take your strawberries and get out of here. I’m just gonna clean up a few things around here and leave.”
“Alright,” Chloe says. “We’ll see you back at our place?”
“Yes, I’ll be back there in a bit.”
And when I say a bit I mean after the two of you have gone to sleep because the last thing I want to see right now is two people all over each other.
I sit in the bakery by myself long after everyone leaves. I don’t even realize how long I have been sitting here until I get a text from Tyler.
I’m so, so sorry. Please let me make this up to you.
I don’t respond. I just click out of my messages, turn off my phone and slip it back into my pocket.
He’s sorry? He’s sorry? How many times am I going to have to hear him say that this month? Why does he have to keep doing things he is sorry for? So what happens if I let him make this up me? Is he going to end up doing something else he will end up having to apologize for?
I wonder where he is and who he is with. It doesn’t make any sense. Two days ago he was asking me to talk to him so I tell him to come and talk and he doesn’t even show up. He was so happy about it too so what the hell could be so important that he just stands me up?
Why didn’t he text me a couple hours ago and say something came up and he would be later than he had originally thought? Suddenly, a sinking thought settles into the pit of my stomach. What if he is with Cath? If he is with her...if he stood me up on the night we were supposed to try to salvage our relationship and he is with her, then we are through.
I’m not interested in trying to save our relationship if it means I have to constantly deal with her or them being friends. I should come first in his eyes not her.
Suddenly, I have to know. I have to know where he is and who he is with. My hands are shaking as I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn it back on.
Dean or Noah? Dean or Noah? Ummm...Dean.
I go into my contacts list and press the little icon by Dean’s name. He answers on the second ring.
“Hey Dean, its Abby,” I say. “Listen, Tyler isn’t with you is he? He was supposed to come by the bakery so we could talk and he hasn’t shown up yet.”
“Sorry Abby, he isn’t with me.” Dean says.
“Do you have any idea where he could be?”
“No, sorry Abby. The last I heard he was getting ready to go see you.”
I sigh. “Thanks any way Dean.”
I am about to call Noah when Chloe’s number pops up on my screen.
“Abby, where are you?” She asks.
Her voice is full of dread which is causing knots to form in my stomach.
“I’m still at the bakery.” I say.
“You aren’t waiting for Tyler are you?”
“What? No...”
“Abby...”
“Okay, maybe a part of me is, well was. I just got a text from him apologizing again so I am assuming he isn’t coming.”
“I think you need to come home.”
“Why, is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine it’s just...”She sighs and I know something bad is coming. “I just got a phone call on my work cell. Tyler was seen going in to a hotel with Cath a couple hours ago and he just ran out not too long ago.
“Please tell me you are joking. Chloe...please tell me you are joking.” I beg her.
She sighs. “I wish I was, I...look he’s calling me back right now. Just come home and we can talk about it when you get here.”
I stand there in a daze for a moment, not quite sure what I am doing. Did that phone call just happen? Did Chloe really just tell me Tyler has been with Cath this entire time? All I see is red. All I feel is anger. I snatch my purse up from the desk in my office so hard that the strap breaks.
Great. This is just friggin great.
Tyler is sitting outside Chloe’s door when I get there. He looks upset and almost scared. His hair is disheveled, but more like he has been sitting there rubbing his hands back and forth through it and not like he just played romp around the mattress with some pink haired bitch. As soon as he sees me, he scrambles to his feet.
“Abby, I”
“I’m not interested Tyler. Just go.”
“No, I won’t just go. We need to talk. You know it and I know it.”
He moves closer to me and I take a step back.
“I’m not interested in listening to anything you have to say anymore. We’re over. I don’t want anything to do with you. So you are free to go be with Cath since you would clearly rather spend time with her than with me. At least now you don’t have to sneak around about it.”
He takes another step towards me.
“Don’t.” I spit it.
He takes a step back, holding his hands up in front of himself.
“Please just let me explain. It wasn’t like that. I don’t want her. I want you.”
“Were you with her tonight?”
“Yes but it wasn’t like that. I swear to you it wasn’t. Please just give me a chance.”
Tyler takes another step towards me and then another. One minute we are on opposite sides of the hall from each other and the next he is standing in front of me, wrapping his arms around my wa
ist and pulling me close to him. I want him to hold me but, at the same time, I don’t want him anywhere near me. I just can’t do this with him anymore. He starts to lean his forehead against mine and I shake my head, stopping him.
“Ty, if you wanted the chance, if you really wanted it, you would have been with me tonight and not her.”
“Abby don’t do this. Please don’t do this.” He begs me.
“I didn’t,” I say quietly. “You did.”
I push away and start to walk towards the door. Just as I am about to reach for the knob, the door swings open and Jack steps out. He places his hand on my lower back as I walk past him and, as I drop myself down onto the couch and start to cry, I can hear him talking to Tyler.
“Just go home mate. You and I can talk about this tomorrow. For tonight you need to just leave her alone.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“I know you didn’t but you did. Now you have to man up and take responsibility. I know you want to talk to her but for now you just need to let her be. That’s the best thing you can do for her right now.”
“I can’t go home. I don’t want to be there without her.”
“I know you don’t but...Tyler, I really want to be able to help you but you can’t stay here. I’m sorry. Look go and we can talk tomorrow.”
I hear the door close and a few minutes later Jack walks into the living room. He sits down on the floor next to where I am laying on the couch.
“I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay?” Jack reaches one hand out and gently runs his fingers through my hair.
“Far from it. What is going on with him?”
“I don’t know Abby but I’ll find out for you tomorrow, okay?”
I nod. “Where’s Chloe?”
I hear the front door open and close again. I start to tense up thinking it is Tyler coming back and getting in this condo this time. Jack must think the same thing because he jumps up to his feet.
“I’m here!” Chloe shouts as she runs into the room. She holds up a grocery bag. “I have Ben & Jerry’s. Do you want Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia or S’mores?”
“S’mores,” I reach out and grab the ice cream. “I’m gonna need a big spoon too cause I am shoveling this entire container in my mouth.”
Chloe hands Jack Chunky Monkey and pops open the Cherry Garcia for herself. I open my mouth to ask her what Tyler said to her but close it again without saying anything. She offers me a small smile.
“He didn’t say much to me. He said he wanted to talk to you first so I was actually going to ask you the same thing.”
“I told him I didn’t want to hear it and he could go be with her because it was over between us...you don’t think he is really going to go be with her do you?”
“I don’t.” Jack says.
Chloe and I turn to look at him.
“I’m not just saying that because he is my best mate either. He had been talking about your date to talk since you made it during the show Saturday night. I don’t know what happened tonight but I don’t think it was because he made other plans. Plus he has been telling everyone, Cath included, that you are the only one he wants to be with.”
I take a big bite of my chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker swirled ice cream and closed my eyes.
“This doesn’t make me feel better but it sure is delicious.” I say with a mouthful of ice cream.
Chloe gives me a disgusted look. “Really attractive Abby.”
I shrug. “Hey, I have no one in this room to impress. I’ve had a really crappy night. I’m going to eat this ice cream and chase it with some fudge. I don’t care how unattractive it is.”
“Is that what women do when they are upset? Eat a bunch of junk?” Jack asks.
“Sometimes, don’t men?” I ask.
Jack’s eyes widen and a disgusted look crosses his face. “Heavens no! We are men! We hit things. The more upset we are the harder we hit.”
I set my ice cream container down on the table and place the lid back on top.
“You know what?” I say. “I could go for hitting stuff right now.”
Jack gives me an amused smile. “You want to go hit things?”
“Yes. I want to hit things. I want to hit things as hard as I possibly can.”
“Alright follow me.” Jack puts his container down and slips his feet into his sneakers.
“Where are we going?”
“There’s a fitness room downstairs for residents. They have a punching bag so we are going to go hit things.”
I follow Jack down to the fitness room. He takes some boxing gloves and slips them on my hands. Then he walks around to one side of the punching bag and paces on hand on each side.
“Alright Abby,” He says. “Hit it as hard as you can, want or need to. Just do me one favor and don’t hit me.”
“Okay, I’ll try not to.”
I stare at the punching bag for a minute, visualizing Cath’s face. I cock my fist back and punch...and it feels good! I punch that dingy looking off white bag over and over and over. I punch because of my anger towards Tyler, I punch because of how betrayed I feel by him. I punch because Cath had the nerve to go after my boyfriend. I punch because my heart feels like it is in a million tiny pieces and this is the one thing that makes me feel even the tiniest bit better for the moment.
“How does it feel?” Jack asks me.
“Amazing!” I say. “For the first time since this started I feel like I am in control of something.”
“Better than eating ice cream?”
“Oh yeah, but I still want to finish my carton when we go back up.”
I punch the bag a couple more times, taking out every ounce of anger that I still feel radiating through my bones. When I’m finished, I pull of the boxing gloves and toss them on the floor. I need to invest in a punching bag. Even if Tyler and I break up, his best friend is marrying my sister so it isn’t like I can completely cut him out of my life. Our paths will constantly be crossing. My own personal punching bag would probably be a good investment.
Chapter Sixteen – Tyler
I feel like today is my first date with Abby all over again. I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m feeling confident with the talk we are going to be having soon and with any luck, she’ll be coming back home with me tonight!
This day feels like it is never going to end but, finally, Collin comes in and tells us we can pack it up for the day. I am putting on my coat, more than ready to leave for Abby’s bakery, when I feel a hand lightly grab my arm. I turn around and frown when I see the worried look on Cath’s normally smiling face.
“Hey Cath, you okay?” I ask.
She runs a hand through her hair, twirling a strand of her soft pink curls through her fingers.
“I...uhm...I was wondering if maybe we could hang out.” She said timidly.
“Well I am about to head over to Abby’s bakery. Today is the grand opening...is everything okay?”
She chews on her bottom lip as she continues to nervously play with her hair.
“Umm, well, do you remember what happened with that guy, Jesse?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Stalker Jesse? How can I forget? He gave me a black eye and a swollen lip. What about him?”
“He just keeps calling and texting and...and judging by the things he’s saying...I feel like, like he might be watching me too. I’m really scared and didn’t really want to be alone.”
Great. Now what do I do?
For a moment I wonder if Cath is making this up just to hang out with me, but the second that thought enters my head, I push it back out. Of course she isn’t making this up. Look at how scared she is. I can’t just leave her like this. If I did and something happened...well I don’t want that on my conscience.
“Do you want to come with me?”
Why on earth did I just ask her that?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not going to pretend that Abby likes me
or that I like her for that matter. I’ll just walk back to the hotel and hang out in my room.”
“Let me at least walk you back just in case he is watching from somewhere.”
Cath smiles and loops her arm around mine. I grab her pink guitar case with my free hand and we walk out the door and into the cool breezy evening.
I notice Cath looking all around as we walk down the somewhat busy sidewalk. It bothers me that she feels so unsafe but there really isn’t anything I can do about that.
“Will you come up? Just to make sure that the room is secure?”
This is a bad idea.
“Uhh...sure. I can’t stay though.”
She smiles and nods. “I know. I won’t keep you.”
We ride the lift in silence to the fifth floor. So far I have seen no evidence of Jesse lurking about. Cath unlocks the door to her suite and I step inside, setting her guitar case by the door.
I move quickly from room to room but nothing seems out of sorts to me. Everything seems to be in order. Aside from the tornado of clothes in the bedroom, it doesn’t look like anything is out of place. Maybe she is just being paranoid.
“All clear.” I tell her.
“Do you think you could stay a little bit longer?”
“Look Cath, I...”
“Please? He just has me so freaked out.” Her bottom lip starts quivering and I start to feel bad for her.
I sigh. “Okay but I can’t stay any longer than thirty minutes.”
“Deal.” She walks over to the cream colored couch, her hips swaying as she moves.
Shit. What have I gotten myself into? I need to stop checking her out and get out of here as soon as possible before I get myself into even more trouble than I am already in.
Cath hops onto the couch and pats the spot next to her.
“Come sit and we can watch some TV or something.”
I sit down next to her and she immediately scoots closer to me. She starts nudging my arm with her elbow and I know she is hoping I move it – either to put it around her or across the back of the couch so that she can scoot closer to me. Either way it’s not going to happen. Cath sighs softly as she realizes it’s a lost cause but she doesn’t move away. She picks up the remote and clicks through the stations a couple of times before settling on some movie that actually turns out to be pretty funny. The next thing I know, my cellphone starts beeping like crazy.
Always in my Heart (The Subzero Series, #2) Page 12