“Pleased to finally put a face to the voice, Ms. Andrews. I would love some lunch.” He shook my hand in a firm grasp. “That is a grip you have there. I like a woman who knows how to really shake a hand, we will get along famously.” He winked at me and sat down at the head of the table.
I handed him a few menus and we finally settled on some Italian food. I made a phone call to the restaurant and asked it to be delivered in a rush and that there would be an amazing tip in it.
We sat for a few moments in silence, and then I felt his eyes set on me. He was watching me fiddle with my wedding rings.
“Forgive me. When we first met, I called you MS. Andrews; I didn’t realize that you were married.” He said quietly. “Oh, please, I didn’t even notice. No harm done.” I smiled at him. “While we wait would you like to see some of the documents that I put together? The slides will explain them a little better, but if you wanted to look over where we will invest some of your funds and how we will spread it out appropriately.”
“That would be nice.” I handed him the folder and watched him read every line. Most of my clients skimmed my work and it made me a little nervous that they weren’t really reading what was going to happen, our charges and what we can do for them.
Our food arrived just as he was finishing up the paperwork. We ate with the occasional banter about home life and then I knew that it was getting awkward because we began to talk about the weather. I did learn that he had been married four times! The man believed in falling in love but apparently the women he had married believed in falling in lust. He had three sons that would be taking over his company at some point down the road and while they were all very smart with his company, money wise they needed some extra help.
After I had finished up my last couple of bites from my spaghetti, I began my presentation. He looked very impressed with all of my work and continuously made comments about how amazed he was that I looked so young and could manage to handle this amount of money.
“There you have it, Mr. Rogers. I promise that the moment you sign the contracts, we will have everything taken care of for you. Your company and family will be in very good hands with us. Do you have any questions?” I asked as I powered off the projector and took a seat next to him.
“Mrs. Andrews.”
“Please call me Ryleigh.” “Ryleigh, this amazing work and I think that I would be a fool not to sign. And please call me Frank from now on. I have always hated that I had the same name as that dork on TV.” He laughed and shook my hand.
I couldn’t help but laugh as well. I handed him a pen and went over each page of our contract for him to sign. After each page was sign, we shook hands again and I walked him to the elevators. “Frank, thank you so much again for coming down here. I hear that you are off to St. Tropez next week? I hope you have a lovely time!”
“Ryleigh, I am not going anywhere next week, but in order to see how willing you were to drop your schedule to bring me in, it shows me a lot of dedication. However, I am going to go golfing in Phoenix this weekend, so I will have just as much fun.” He winked at me and stepped on to the elevator and pushed his button. Cheeky bastard.
I headed back to my desk to see Ava on the phone. Iwaved at her and signaled for her to come into my office. She gave me a nod and I walked into my office.
I pulled my phone out of my purse to see I had three missed calls, six text messages and one voicemail.
I dialed up my voicemail first, it was Liam.
“Hi, it’s me. I am getting on the plane in about 20 minutes. I should be home by 8:30. I love you!”
Two of my texts were from him just saying that he was catching an early flight and he was at the airport.
The third text was from Caleb. My heart dropped into my stomach at that moment.
Ryleigh. Of course I want to be friends, but after last night it would be best if we just cooled off for a bit. You gotta understand I love you more than anything.
That was it. I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute, in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to respond, but I didn’t want to start crying again. I could already feel the tears building up.
“Hey you wanted to see me?” Ava knocked and poked her head in the doorway. “Yeah, come in. Have a seat.” I had pulled up my emails; thankfully they had just approved my request. “I just want to thank you very much for all your hard work. You make sure that everything is taken care of and I don’t know what I would do without you. So I went ahead and had Human Resources adjust your pay and you should also know that I will be getting a check cut for you, it will be a thousand extra bucks.” I told Ava as she began to tear up.
“Ryleigh, this is more than amazing! You really didn’t have to do all this for me!” Ava said grabbing a tissue off of my desk. “Yes, I did. We’re going to be getting a lot more business with the account that I just signed and it means that you are going to be quite a bit busier as well. So I know it’s only 2:45, but I want you to take the rest of the day off, go shopping, get a pedicure, go enjoy your man and come in here tomorrow ready to kick some ass. Sound good?” I asked with a smile.
“I am not going to argue with you at all!” She stood up and came around towards me. I stood up to give her a hug and then she headed out. I pulled my phone out and dialed up Courtney. “Hey! I just finished up my meeting! Up for a shopping trip?” I asked. I was so ready to get out of here for the day and be around Courtney. I needed the girl time.
“Yes! I’m actually heading down towards the mall right now; we could meet up and then have something for dinner down there? Oh hey, Jason is calling on the other line, meet you there in a little bit.” Courtney then clicked off.
I grabbed my stuff and shut down my computer. Just as I as I was heading out my office line rang.
“Shit.” I ran over and grabbed the receiver. “Ryleigh Andrews.”
“Hey sweetheart.” It was my mom.
“Mom? Everything okay?” I asked. My mom rarely called my work phone, unless something was the matter.
“Oh everything is fine. I was wondering if you and Liam wanted to come over for dinner?”
“Funny you mention that, Mom, I was supposed to call and set this up with you. We were thinking of doing a dinner on Sunday?”
“Oh that would be nice. I ran into Caleb’s mom today, I told her that we should all do a dinner! I will invite them all over on Sunday as well!”
“Uh, Mom. I really don’t know if that is a great idea.” I paused; I really didn’t want to get into with her here in the office.
“Why not honey? I like the Martins! They haven’t seen you in a while; they would love to see you!” She sounded upset that I was protesting the idea.
“You’re right; I haven’t seen them in a while. We will see you all on Sunday night. Anyway, I am actually heading out the door, so I will call you later okay? I love you Mom!”
“Love you too sweetie. See you on Sunday, 6pm.” We hung up and I decided to book it out the door before anything else stopped me. I finally met up with Courtney inside the Macy’s; she had already managed to find 3 yellow dresses that she was in love with. Thankfully, they were not that bad of a yellow color and definitely not an ugly, typical bridesmaid dress.
“Do you have a dress Court?” I asked as I headed into the dressing room. “Actually, I do! I found it the other day and fell in love with it! I have it at home; you’ll have to see it! Can you believe that next weekend I will be married? I can’t believe all this!” She was definitely on cloud nine.
“Courtney, I am so excited for you! I am excited to get away for a weekend as well. The last couple weeks have been total and utter hell. I need a night or two just to let my mind be nothing but an alcohol induced party!” I laughed as I opened up the dressing room door. “I think this is the dress!” I had a duck yellow, strapless dress on.
“Oh god! That is definitely your dress! It looks amazing on you! Why do you say that yellow is not your color?” Courtney was smiling so big, I think I saw all of he
r teeth.
“I just have never found the right shade, I guess.You don’t think it’s too short?” I asked. It hit right above my knees, but I didn’t want to show too much leg for her wedding. “I’ve seen shorter on you, this is perfect! Look it’s on sale; it’s a sign that you were meant to get this!” She said a little too overly excited. “Alright, now that the dress is taken care of, we need shoes and to talk about what is going on with Caleb.”
“Well, there really isn’t much to talk about with Caleb. I told him last night that I can’t continue what we we’re doing. He obviously was not very happy with it. He sent me a text saying that we can still be friends but right now it would best if we don’t talk for a little bit. The hardest part, Court, is that my mom is having his family over for dinner WITH us on Sunday and I don’t know if he will be there and how that will go over.” I plopped down on the couch next to Courtney.
“Well. I am at a loss for words and I don’t know what to really say to that. Obviously it was for the best right?” She asked in awe. “It was. I need to get everything back to normal and I can’t really do that it if I am distracted. Court, I do love him. I just can’t do this to Liam. Before you say anything, I know that he did the same to me; call it being even. Now we need to work on these things and see how everything works out. If things can’t get back to normal for us, maybe this was a sign that we weren’t meant to be and we should go our separate ways. Just for now we need to work on things.” I felt like I was regaining my confidence once again.
“You’re right. I hope that everything works in your favor though.” She reached out and gave me a hug before I went to get my clothes back on.
When I came out of the dressing room Courtney was on her phone, it looked like an important call by the look on her face so I waved at her as I walked towards the registers.
I finished up paying and she came up beside me.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, just talking to an old friend and catching some gossip.” She said putting her phone back in her bag.
“Anything interesting?” I tried to be nosey.
“Nah, they are just dealing with family stuff. Nothing big, so you bought the dress. Wanna go get your shoes?” She asked checking her phone for the time. “Or are you hungry?”
“I am still full from lunch, but always have room for ice cream!” I winked at her and she got a smile. “So food and then we can find some sexy shoes.”
We headed towards the food court and I found that Courtney was texting someone. She had a very serious look to her as she texted back and forth.
“Is that your love muffin?” I asked trying to peek over her shoulder. “Love muffin? That’s hilarious! I will tell him that is his new nickname.” She laughed. “Yeah, he is asking what time I think I am going to be home. He has a meeting tonight, but wants to make sure that I am home when he gets there.” She giggled.
“Don’t you know how you got pregnant?” I laughed.
“These hormones are crazy! I think they have rubbed off on him too! We can’t seem to get enough of each other!” She put her phone back in her purse and stepped up to order a cheesesteak sandwich.
“I would have thought that it would be the opposite!”
“Yeah, me too, Ry, but it is just crazy. I am not going to complain though, because when I am as big as a house; I am not sure that it’s going to be happening as much.” She stuffed fries in her mouth.
We walked over to the ice cream counter, so I could order a cone. We sat down and enjoyed people watching and eating our food. I tried to think of the shoes that I was going to pick out. I was so excited to have this weekend away. I just needed to get through the rest of this week and next. In this time, I can really get my life back on track.
We finished up and headed to a couple other storesto search for the perfect shoe. After trying on fifteen pairs, I finally found the perfect heel and it was going to match the dress amazingly. I was getting more and more excited, until I realized I had yet to book our trip!
“Court, I really need start heading out! I didn’t book the trip at work today! I need to get on it before I am not even able to go!” I stood up abruptly, thinking that if I got out it would make it somehow better.
“Calm down, we can go. Rushing home is not going to make it better. Where did you park?” She gathered up her trash.
“Outside Macy’s. I think I actually parked a few cars down from you.” I started to slow down.
“Great, I will walk out with you.” She grabbed my arm and linked hers in mine. We headed out and said our goodbyes. She even wished me luck this weekend with dinner with my family and Caleb’s. She said it in a sarcastic tone, but somehow I was going to take any luck I could get. I got in my car and headed home.
I checked the time several times, I was anxious to see Liam. I really didn’t want to have the house to myself again. I made a brief stop at the local liquor store to grab some more wine and some beers for him; this weekend was going to require having a lot of liquor, especially if Caleb did show up at my mom’s house for dinner.
I pulled up into my driveway to see that the house was still empty looking. I had pulled up his flight information on my phone, Liam’s flight was on time, but he was going to be another hour at least. I headed upstairs and put on some romantic music and put on something a little sexy, if we were going to work at this together, I needed to put my half the effort.
Since I had the extra time, I was going to take a nice hot bubble bath. I lit some of our tea candles around the tub and turned on my music. Rihanna’s song ‘Stay’ came on and my mind, which was sidetracked all day, drifted towards Caleb. Glimpses of how sad he was when I left, how he had begged me to stay, just everything that we shared together. I finally had a good cry, I may had lost it in the car on the way home, but it felt good not to have to worry about getting home or running into anyone.
When the water finally started to get cold and the tears stopped falling, I got out and quickly dried off and put on my nightgown that Liam had bought me last Valentine’s Day. I was now starting to feel a little bit better. The bath and breakdown seemed to be exactly what I needed.
I really wanted to try and get things back to normal with Liam. I tried to make myself feel sexy in this nightgown but the emotion wasn’t there at all.
When he came around the corner, I sent him a soft smile.
“Hi. How was your flight?” I asked. “I missed you.” “I missed you too.” He smiled back. “It was a long flight. I really couldn’t wait to get home and so I think it took even longer.” He laughed. “How was your day?”
“Well, I acquired an account that is going to be some big bucks and found a dress for Court’s wedding. Then I decided what a better way to welcome my husband home than to show him a little skin.” I leaned in and gave him a soft kiss.
“So did you get the tickets booked for Vegas?” He said undoing his tie and getting out his sweats from the drawer. “Oh shit! I can’t manage to remember to do that! Let me grab my laptop and we can book them together. I am going to run to the bathroom and then I will grab it from the other room.” I reached up and gave him a quick kiss and headed to the bathroom.
When I came out, Liam had gotten my laptop for me. He was showcasing it like he was Vanna White.
“You won a new laptop!” He said in the cheesiest voice I had ever heard.
“You are such a nerd! But thank you for getting it for me.” I laughed at him and headed into the closet to grab a long nightshirt.
I ran and hopped onto the bed and landed with a plop, we both were laughing. It felt like old times again. We both then heard his phone ring; I shot him a dirty glare.
“Look, I am not going to answer it. I promise, I am not doing anything and I want to work on this.” He grabbed his phone off his night stand, pressed the reject call button and turned his phone on silent.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, let’s see what flights we have here.” I pulled up some flight
sites and hotel prices. I was beyond ready for a weekend away, I quickly made the purchase. “And… we are booked! Vegas, here we come!” I squealed.
“Well in two weeks, but this will be a good time. So they both decided on Vegas to get hitched?” Liam asked as he leaned back on his pillows with a yawn. “Yeah, they both figured that they wanted to get married before the baby came and Court really wanted to get married before she really started showing. So she called me and told me Vegas was the perfect place.” I shut down my laptop and grabbed the TV remote.
“I think it’s awesome. Hell, it came it at the best time. I think that we need the time away from all the shit here.” He rolled over to look at me. “Ryleigh,I really am glad that we are going to work at this. Things will get back to normal again. I promise.” He leaned up and gave me a kiss.
“I know they will. I think that we have been together long enough that we can have a screw up, that doesn’t mean you can have anymore! I just think that we’ll get back there, whatever normal is, and we’ll be happy again.” I leaned into him again and gave him a kiss. “Look, Seinfeld is on!” I smiled and leaned back with him and cuddled up to him.
It wasn’t long until my eyes were forced to finally close. I felt them get heavy as soon as I cuddled up to him. I felt like tonight I was going to get the best sleep. I was going to bed happy, relaxed and not alone.
I woke up at 3:47, in a sweat. I don’t really remember what I was dreaming about, but I could see Caleb and he was in his military uniform. I do remember that I was screaming don’t leave. I don’t know if it was all sweat or if I had tears running down my cheeks as well. I looked over to see Liam still sound asleep, thankfully I wasn’t screaming out loud to wake him.
I threw the covers off and tried to calm myself down. I felt my heartbeat still pounding away. I couldn’t remember the entire nightmare, but I just knew that I hated the feeling of Caleb walking away from me and not listening. I was so confused.
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