After the Pain

by Gia Riley

  By the time I get done cleaning up the disaster that is my kitchen, it’s bath time. Hope and Alex are nowhere to be found. I search the house and find a bathtub filled with bubbles, literally spilling over onto the floor and a soaking wet Alex. “This looks like it’s going well,” I say with a laugh.

  He shrugs his shoulders and says, “She needed more bubbles.” Considering Hope can’t talk, it was Alex who needed more bubbles. Something tells me I’m going to have another huge mess to clean up by the time he’s finished in here. I can’t get mad though once I see how happy Hope is to be splashing in her bubble paradise. I’ve already sent Sean a picture of her eating her dinner. One more certainly won’t hurt. We aren’t supposed to be in communication tonight, but he’s probably missing his little lady as much as I miss him. I tell myself just one more pic will be okay.

  “Am I going to have to hide your phone, Hallie?”

  My parents always had eyes in the back of their heads, but apparently so does Alex. He’s not even looking at me. “What? No! I’m just checking the weather on my phone for tomorrow. Still bright and sunny, thankfully.”

  “I can see your reflection in the glass and you’re smiling like a loon. There isn’t a weather report in the world that can make someone that happy.”

  He knows me so well. “Sorry. I’m trying.” We finish up bath time together and put Hallie in her pajamas. She’s out like a light as soon as she rests her little brown curls against the mattress. While Alex goes to get the movie ready, I stand next to her and watch her sleeping peacefully. Maybe just one more picture for Sean would be okay. He has to be missing putting her to sleep. I tip-toe over to the doorway and peek my head out into the hallway. I bite back my scream when Alex is standing there with his arms crossed looking fierce. “What are you doing hiding out here!” I whisper-shout.

  “You were about to break the rules again weren’t you,” he asks.

  “Yes! So what! I suck at not communicating.”

  He shakes his head at me in mock disgust. “Then hurry it up and get it over with. I’m taking your phone when you’re done though. You wanted tradition, Hallie.”

  Reluctantly I shake my head in agreement, but not before I snap a picture of Hope. Quickly I send the picture message to Sean just before Alex snatches my phone from my grasp. He puts it in his back pocket and pulls me down the stairs behind him.

  My living room is filled with popcorn, Swedish fish, and Goobers. Alex does know I have a dress to fit into tomorrow, but I guess this trumps any fashion emergency we might run into on the morning of the wedding. You don’t have to tell me twice to indulge. Where are the Sno-Caps?

  “What movie did you pick?” I’m scared to hear the answer to my question.

  “It was a toss-up between the original Halloween and Friday the 13th. Unless you want to watch Saw? Sean has that one here already.”

  “He tried to make me watch that. I almost threw up.”

  Alex laughs and chucks some popcorn at my head. “You’re such a wimp. Just hit play. It’s ready to go.”

  Reluctantly, I hit play and prepare to cover my face with my blanket. I never know when something is going to jump out at me. Instead of being met with haunting visuals and chilling music, I see Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. “Pretty Woman!”

  “You didn’t seriously think I was going to make you suffer through a scary movie the night before you get hitched did you?” Alex is looking at me with a fake shocked expression that makes me smile. He isn’t my best friend for nothing.

  “Thanks, Alex. You’re the best.”

  “Love you too, woman. Now eat some Goobers before I finish them all.”

  Just as the movie ends, I look over at Alex who is snoring softly on the couch. He gave it a good shot at least. Hope probably wore him out earlier with her endless amounts of energy. As quietly as possible, I reach over and slide my phone out of his back pocket. It’s a good thing he was laying on his side and not his back or this would have been ten times more challenging.

  Before I can check the messages on my phone, I walk over to lock up the front door. From the looks of it Alex will be spending the night on the couch. Just as I start to turn the lock, I see someone walking towards the front porch. I’m filled with excitement when I realize Sean couldn’t stay away from me. I whip open the screen door. “Hey, baby.”

  “Hey, hot shot.”

  “COLBY? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” I watch him stagger then sway back and forth. He grabs onto the porch post to steady himself. It’s been months since I’ve seen him and I thought I might never run into him again considering the way we left things at Shorty’s. I was under the impression we had an understanding that we would go our separate ways and move on with our lives.

  “You miss me too, beautiful?” He reaches out for me and I have to dodge his advances. I definitely wasn’t referring to him when I said baby. He’s never and will never be my baby.

  “No. I thought you were Sean coming home.”

  “You guys fighting again? You two always were a mess. I’ll take his spot in bed, babe. Keep you nice and warm. No worries.”

  “Colby, what do you want? I need to get back inside and you need to leave.” He tries one more time to touch me, but I back away before he makes contact.

  “Hallie, don’t do it. Don’t marry him tomorrow,” he pleads.

  “How do you know I’m marrying him tomorrow?” I question. If Audrey is involved in this again I will lose my damn mind. She promised she was done playing games.

  “It’s the talk of Shorty’s tonight. Sean stopped in with his buddies.”

  “Oh. I bet that went well.”

  “Don’t worry, sweets. He didn’t see me. I watched him though. Does he really make you happy, Hallie? He doesn’t even give a shit about your music.”

  “Colby, don’t do this.”

  “I can take it, hot shot. Tell me. What does Sean have that I don’t.”

  “My heart.” Nobody else will ever own my heart like Sean does. Colby is clearly in a bad place right now and needs some help. “Colby, who can I call to come get you? Is Audrey close by?”

  “Fuck her.”

  Well, this is going well. I wasn’t really expecting to have a counseling session on my front porch the night before I get married. I’m about ready to throw something at the window to wake Alex up. I’m afraid Colby will barge into my house if I open the front door, so I need to keep him talking while I figure out a way to get him to leave.

  “Colby, what’s going on?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? She’s never getting over him. It’s always about Sean.”

  “Has she said anything about him?”

  “No, but if she won’t be with me, what else could it be? That fucking prick can’t have the both of you. I won’t let him.” His fists are clenching at his side and he looks about ready to punch a hole in the side of the house. This isn’t the carefree Colby I know exists inside the shell of a man he currently is. He’s been put through a total mind fuck by Audrey, I know that much, but he deserves happiness as much as anyone else does.

  I’m trying to think of something else that will keep him talking, but Sean is the therapist, not me. He knows how to handle these situations. “Colby, I’m sorry you’re going through a tough time, but there’s someone else out there for you if Audrey isn’t the one. You’re an awesome guy when you want to be.”

  “Who never gets the fucking, girl!” he shouts.

  I jump back, startled by him and his harsh words. “Calm down, you’ll wake up the whole neighborhood. How about I call a cab to come get you? In the morning you’ll see what a mistake it was to come here. This isn’t you. You’ve never raised your voice to me.”

  He starts moving closer, “I want you Hallie. Don’t you see that?” I inch backward as far as I can until my back is flush against the front door. I’d do anything for Alex to wake up right now and get his ass out here.

  Colby continues on, “All the flowers, all the notes. They might have bee
n a part of Audrey’s master plan, but I meant them. Every word written from me was the truth. The longer it went on, the harder I fell for you. You made it so damn easy to want you.” He reaches out for my arm and grasps it roughly. There’s no place for me to move, so I put my hand on top of his and try to push him off.

  “You think you did, Colby. When it comes down it, you’re just a guy who wants to be loved. And everyone deserves that. You were a good friend to me, but I will never love you the way you want me to. Tomorrow, I’m going to marry Sean. I’m sorry. Nothing you can say to me will convince me otherwise.”

  “Me, Hallie. Tell me you fucking want me. Say it.” He says through gritted teeth as his grip on my arm tightens. I panic and lift my free arm, stretching it as far as I can to bang on the doorbell hopefully waking Alex up in the process.

  “You’re hurting me Colby.”

  As he’s looking into my eyes, I see them begin to soften. His muscles relax and are no longer straining against the fabric of his t-shirt. After blinking his eyes a few times, it’s like he’s finally present in the moment instead of being stuck inside his head. He looks down at his hand that’s clenching my arm and his eyes widen. Immediately, his grip loosens and he lets go. He backs away from me and inches his way off the porch. I begin to relax, but before I can try again to get him to take a cab home, two men take Colby down right in front of me. Once I focus in on the blur, I realize it’s Sean and Tanner. “You motherfucker! If you did anything to hurt her, I’ll break every bone in your useless body,” Sean yells.

  I gasp and feel the door to my house open up behind me. Alex is tucking me into his side while we watch the fight unfold in front of us. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. I called for help as soon as I woke up and realized what was happening.”

  Sean and Tanner are on top of Colby after tackling him to the ground. Sean has punched him in the face at least once. Tanner is holding Colby down on the ground and shouting for Sean to stop throwing punches. I’ve never seen Sean like this before and it’s scaring the shit out of me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful they came when they did, but I don’t want anyone to get hurt. “Please, stop.” My words aren’t loud enough or intended for anyone to hear. I just need to say them. Turning myself, I use Alex as a visual shield. He walks my shaking body inside the house. Immediately, I run upstairs to make sure Hope is still sleeping soundly. When I see she is, I walk to the other end of the hallway and lock myself inside my bathroom. I need a minute to collect myself from everything that just went down outside. I’d like to believe Colby wouldn’t have hurt me any more than he did, but I can’t be sure when he was clearly so out of it. Between the alcohol and his crazed state of mind, it was one menacing combination.

  Sirens are suddenly approaching and I rest my head on my knees wondering how the night took such an unexpected turn. My phone vibrates across the tile of the bathroom floor. Snatching it up before it makes any more noise, I look at the screen.

  Amie: Saw Colby at the bar tonight.

  Hallie: He was here.

  Amie: STFU!

  Setting my phone back down, I feel incredibly tired right now. Before I can get up, there’s a knock at the door. “Who is it?”

  “Open up, baby girl,” Alex says.

  I reach up to unlock the door and realize I tend to retreat to the bathroom when shit decides to hit the fan. I play with the ruffle on the bathroom rug Sean hates and laugh. He said he feels like he’s standing on a dress when he gets out of the shower. I told him it’s shabby-chic and women pay good money to decorate their homes with this specific design. Alex comes inside, shutting the door behind him. He gives me a once over and seems okay when he realizes I’m just sitting in here decompressing.

  He sits on the floor and plops me in his lap. He knows I’ll talk when I’m ready. Having the police involved and hauling away a drunken Colby was never how I wanted things to pan out. He’s better than all this. I hate that a weak moment turned his life in the wrong direction. Sean’s told me a million times, you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. While I tried to get Colby to leave peacefully, he ran out of time.

  The door knob rattles for a second time. It’s Sean, but I’m not sure I want to see him. We were trying really hard to make tomorrow extra special by staying apart. Colby went and ruined everything, again. “Hallie, unlock the door. Is Alex in there?”

  I stand up and rest my cheek against the door so I won’t have to shout through the thick wood. “He’s in here.”

  “Open the door.” He rattles it a few more times, his impatience growing by the second.

  “I’m good. I just wanted to stay away so you wouldn’t see me. Just go get some sleep. I can’t have a tired groom tomorrow,” I say playfully while trying to lighten the mood.

  I hear his head clunk against the door. He’s struggling, I can tell. “Baby, I can’t leave here after what just happened. I need to see you with my own eyes or I won’t sleep at all.”

  “But Sean, it will ruin everything.” I’m whining. I can’t stand whiners.

  “No, it won’t. Just let me see your beautiful face and kiss your lips one time. Then, I’ll go back to Tanner’s house with him and the rest of the guys. I need this, babe.”

  Well how can I argue with that? I turn to look at Alex who has his arms crossed and is tapping his foot. “If you don’t open that door soon, I’m gonna do it for you. That shit’s romantic!”

  I snort and unlock the door. Sean pushes it the rest of the way open and I feel Alex squeeze by the two of us, leaving the room. Sean is on me so fast; I don’t have a chance to blink. True to his word, his lips are on mine without wasting a precious second. Before he gets too carried away, I have to put a stop to this.

  “That was two kisses,” I say to his gorgeous blue eyes. He kisses me again.

  “And that was three,” he responds.

  We take a moment to hold each other right in the middle of the bathroom. Before long, he moves us out into the bedroom where we have room to sit and talk. We each sit on the edge of the bed facing one another. “Will you tell me what happened?”

  “I went to lock the door and saw someone walking toward the house. Thinking it was you, I walked outside and then once he got closer, I saw it was Colby. He was drunk and all over the place. At first I was scared, but I don’t think he would have hurt me.” I look down at my arm and notice a bruise forming. Sean’s eyes follow mine.

  “Did he do that to you, Hallie?”

  He’s going to flip out but I promised him no more lies. “Yeah, he did.”

  Sean’s up off the bed, pacing frantically. He’s grumbling under his breath of what he should have done to Colby instead of listening to Tanner and backing off. Tanner was right though. It wouldn’t have done any good for Sean to keep fighting him. Nothing would have changed other than complicating things even further. “Sean, I’m okay. It’s nothing.”

  “It’s something and you know it, Hallie.”

  I shake my head yes. “Did you call the police or did Alex?” I question.

  “Pretty sure we both did. I told him to call when I hung up with him, but didn’t want to take any chances that Colby might stop him, so I called myself.”

  I shake my head again, letting him know I understand. It’s upsetting it came to this. Nobody wants to see someone else hauled away when you’re the reason they were emotionally unstable in the first place. The news of our wedding really destroyed Colby.

  “Babe, I had to call the police this time. You heard me warn them that if anything else happened I’d have a case opened. There’s no telling how far he might have taken things tonight. I won’t ever risk your safety. When I tell you I’ll keep you safe, I mean it.”

  “I know you do. It just doesn’t feel good knowing he was upset because of us. I just want him and Audrey to be happy,” I confess. He pulls me close and hugs me tightly.

  “We’re going to enjoy our day tomorrow and I’ll deal with this after our wedding, okay? Nothing is coming in betw
een the two of us or our day. I won’t let it.”

  “But I’ll have to talk to someone, right?”

  “Yeah, baby. You will. Please don’t worry though. Alex and I both gave statements downstairs. I’m not sure of the exact plan right now, but they were willing to wait for yours considering the circumstances. For now, what Alex and I had to say was enough to hold him. We should be getting a call soon though.”

  Looking down at my hands, I realize how much trouble Colby got himself into tonight. He’s going to have a record because of me. That isn’t a good feeling no matter what shit he tried to pull tonight. I’ve always been able to find the good in people, no matter what. This is the first time it’s been taken out of my hands.

  Now that Sean’s sitting here holding me, I don’t want him to leave. While I know the police are holding Colby for the night, I’d feel safer if Sean were with me. There’s no telling what Audrey is up to or where she might be. What if she gets wind of this and comes after me too. Or Sean?

  “Will you stay with me, Sean?”

  “You’re okay with breaking tradition?”

  “Yeah, I’d rather have you than worry about rules. I need you to hold me tonight.”

  He kisses me again and runs his hands through my silky hair. “Baby, you never have to convince me to stay with you. There’s no other place I want to be.”

  “Thank you for coming when you did tonight.”

  “I’ll never let anything happen to you, Hallie. Every second of the rest of my life will be spent loving and protecting you.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, beautiful. Let me go tell Alex and Tanner they can go home. I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay,” I thankfully respond.

  He stops right before exiting the bedroom and glances back at me. I’m busy removing my clothes so I can get a quick shower, but sense his eyes on me.

  “I’d be okay with you ditching the pajamas tonight,” he says.

  I put my hands on my hips and act shocked by his request. “Sean! I’m not your wife yet.”