“I just came to see Daniel,” I said in explanation. “My soon-to-be ex-boyfriend.”
Daniel winced, rearing back as if my words caused a psychical blow. I glanced at him.
“Why are we breaking up?” I asked, honestly curious. Just yesterday, he was telling me he loved me. How had the situation changed in twenty-four hours? I looked at Cecily, the reason behind the change. She was taller than me, with dark hair cut into a sleek bob, sharp features that could be considered pretty but I found cold.
She turned her eyes to me and I winced. There was no warmth in them.
“I’m Dr. Cecily Michaels,” she said. “Up until nine months ago, Daniel and I were in a relationship, had been for three years. We decided to take a break, the idea being that after six months we would pick up where we left off. Daniel just needed time before making a final commitment and I was more than reasonable in giving it. However, that time is now up. I hope you understand that whatever the two of you have shared can’t be permanent.”
Chapter 28 – Eve
For the first time in my life, I was acutely aware of the fact that I was blinking. I was aware of this fact because it was all I was capable of. The scene had become a tableau of three horrified expressions and one extremely smug look.
When my senses returned, I turned to Sienna, who by the look on her face, could have murdered Cecily Michaels and not regretted a thing.
“Is she for real?” I asked quietly.
“I feel like I’ve stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone where my brother is dating my mother,” Sienna mumbled back, shuddering violently. My eyelids fluttered. She said dating, in the present tense. With a rush of emotion, I realized why I Cecily’s name sounded familiar. I had seen it on Daniel’s phone all those months ago when we were still skirting around admitting that we liked each other. They had been talking for five fucking months. That was almost the entire length of our relationship!
“Cecily, we’re not getting back together,” Daniel spoke up. “When we broke up, that was the end of it. You can’t just show up here and demand to get back together. What is wrong with you?”
Cecily turned to Daniel, tilting her head innocently.
“We had an agreement,” Cecily said. That was the part that was holding me up. They agreed to get back together in six months. They were on a break. Like they were fucking Ross and Rachel. Oh, I was going to faint again.
“You had an agreement? In writing?” I demanded. My knees felt like jelly but I was also angry. Pissed off. This woman was going down.
“Of course not,” Cecily said dismissively.
“Then you can’t prove it? I mean, I can say that Daniel agreed to marry me. If we went to court, neither one of us would be able to prove anything, would we?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sienna step up next to Daniel and both of them watched the verbal sparring between Cecily Michaels and I like spectators at a tennis game. Sienna in particular looked thoroughly entertained. I was having a hard time looking at Daniel.
“It was a verbal agreement,” Cecily said through gritted teeth.
“Hmmm. My legal knowledge is lacking, so I can’t be sure if verbal agreements are binding in the state of Illinois. However, if no goods or services exchanged hands, it will be your word against Daniel’s.”
Cecily smiled, not a happy smile, an evil smile, crossing her arms and straightening her shoulders. She looked me dead in the eyes.
“Daniel and I have been communicating for the last few months. While no goods or services exchanged hands, I have proof that some form of communication was taking place between us, which led me to think that we were on the path to getting back together.”
My blood turned to ice at her admittance. Tears pricked my eyes and throat. I will not cry. I will not cry. I. Will. Not. Cry.
I was in love with him.
I thought we were in love.
And he spent our entire relationship talking to his ex-girlfriend and letting her think they were getting back together.
“How are we even related?” I heard Sienna ask quietly.
I saw Daniel move, saw him come to stand in front of me like he could shield me from Cecily’s words. But my vision was a blur and I couldn’t focus on anything.
“You can’t just come here and demand that I break up with the woman I love. I have a life here, a job, a house. Did you think these things were temporary? What, that you would snap your fingers and I would drop everything and move back to Chicago like nothing happened? You wanted to know why I wanted to break up? You just answered that question. I can’t live by your demands and expectations. They made my skin itch, made me want to do something reckless and be reckless, be the person I promised myself I would never be again. You need to leave. Now.”
“Daniel—”
“No!” Daniel said loudly. “Look, the only reason I talked to you was that I respected the fact that we spent three years together. I thought we could eventually be friends, that maybe seeing me move on will help you get your closure. Not this, Cecily. I never wanted to get back together. I told you that when I left, I told you I didn’t see a future for us.”
It all made perfect sense, in a strange way. Everything I had learned about Daniel confirmed for me that he wasn’t the sort who gave up on people easily. I didn’t know whether Cecily was still in love with Daniel or whether he was just something she had to acquire based on the way Daniel made her sound, and Sienna comparing her to their mother. There was still a small part of me that felt sorry for her. A larger part of me was relieved that Daniel didn’t want to go back to her, that he never saw it as an option.
I didn’t wait for Cecily’s response. I turned around and opened the door, walking out of the room and towards the elevator. I pressed the button to call the elevator, my emotions too confusing to make sense of. I guess I was happy that the issue with Cecily was resolved? No, I was. The thing that still bothered me was that the issue had arisen in the first place.
“Eve!”
I looked over my shoulder, finding Daniel standing behind me looking pleading and desperate. He reached for my hand and I let him. I didn’t want to leave him, yet I was suddenly glad that I would be in Orange County for the next two days. It would give me time to straighten out my feelings.
“Where are you going?” Daniel asked in a low voice, stepping up beside me. I stared ahead at the elevator.
“To Orange County.”
I heard Daniel breathe out. His hand tightened around my mine and I wasn’t sure if he was even aware of it.
“Because of this, of Cecily?” His voice was quieter than before, so quiet that had I not been standing next to him, I wouldn’t have heard him at all.
“My parents are insisting I come home with them because Dr. Singh says I need to take some time off. But now…” I trailed off.
“This has nothing to do with us,” Daniel insisted.
I finally looked up at him and regretted it immediately. He looked like his heart was breaking. How did he think I felt? I swallowed.
“Your ex-girlfriend shows up here demanding that you break up with me and get back together with her and that has nothing to do with us? You asked me to trust you, all the while talking to your ex-girlfriend, letting her believe that you will one day get back together and that has nothing to do with us? Me, having one of my worst fears realized and standing in front of you giving this monologue that makes me feel like Molly Ringwald in a John Hughes movie has nothing to do with us?”
“So instead of talking it out, you’ve decided to leave and ghost me until you feel you’re ready to talk about it?” Daniel demanded, clenching his jaw. Our voices were still low and with us standing so close to each other and still holding hands, anyone would think we were talking about something entirely mundane.
“Don’t you think I need a couple of days to process what just happened back there?” I asked.
“Of course, I want that. But if I call you, will you answer? Will you give me a cha
nce to explain before you come to a conclusion?” That hint of fear in his eyes gave me pause.
The elevator arrived and the door slid open. I stepped inside, though Daniel didn’t let go of my hand. I smiled softly, pulled him closer, and kissed him deeply, sighing against his mouth.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days,” I said against his mouth. I stepped back into the elevator, leaving him standing there, looking like he wanted to pull me back and knowing he had no choice but to let me go.
I was depressed. I knew I was depressed because I hadn’t left the bed in two days. I slept, I woke up, I stared at the pastel green wall or the white floral wallpaper, I ate pieces of toast and I slept again. That had been my existence for the last two days. Daniel and I hadn’t broken up, yet it still felt like a break-up. My heart and trust had been broken and I was using this time to recover from that.
My parents left me alone for the most part. They hovered outside the door and sometimes I could hear their whispered words. Once, when I had woken up in the middle of the night, their words had startled me because, in my disorientation, I thought I’d somehow ended up in a gothic novel, in a haunted house. That was until I woke up fully and realized it wasn’t the middle of the night, it was seven in the evening and my parents no doubt wanted me to join them for dinner. I had rolled over and gone back to sleep.
It was as I hung between sleep and wakefulness on the third day of self-imposed isolation that I felt a presence standing at the edge of my bed. I caught the black outline of something and this time I was certain it was the devil come to take my soul, or whatever was left of it. I sat up in a quick movement, hoping to startle the devil right out of the room, and instead met the amused and sardonic gaze of my best friend. Maddie wore all black as per usual, her curly, unruly red hair pulled back into a bun. She set her purse down on the dresser behind her. Honestly, she looked like she had just walked off a runway and come right into my room. She was blinding.
“Hello,” she said.
I fell back onto the bed and pulled the blanket to my chin.
“I don’t mean to sound rude, but please go away. I’m exhausted.”
My voice sounded rusty from disuse. I cleared my throat.
“Your mum says you’ve been sleeping for two days,” Maddie said.
“Yes, because I fainted from severe exhaustion. I was advised to take it easy and rest.”
“Right, so you’re storing sleep for the next time you decide to work yourself to exhaustion.”
“Exactly.”
“Then this has nothing to do with the fact that Daniel’s ex-girlfriend decided she wanted him back because they had some sort of ridiculous agreement?”
“It has nothing to do with that,” I said, swallowing roughly. My voice didn’t crack, and I was proud of myself for that.
I heard the soft click of her heels as she came closer to the bed and felt the bed dip under her weight when she sat down.
“Break-ups are never easy, especially when you’re emotionally invested. Or so I have been told by other people who become emotionally invested. Love is an illusion,” Maddie said gently.
I finally looked at her. She was sitting with her back straight, her legs crossed primly.
“Says the woman who refuses to go out on more than one date with a man until she believes she can fall in love with him. And thus hasn’t dated in three years.”
“I never said I don’t buy into the illusion.”
I smiled, reaching out a hand from under my blanket and wrapping it around Maddie’s. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until I had her here in person. I was starting to realize that I didn’t take people for granted. I always had a foot out the door because I thought it would hurt less when they left me.
My girls weren’t going to leave me. Sienna had proven that when she had followed me to my hospital room, hugged me fiercely, and told me she was on my side no matter what. Maddie was proving it by putting her work on hold and coming here. I was important and they were important to me, so I needed to take them for granted. I needed to believe that they will be around for a long, long time.
“I missed you,” I told Madelaine.
“Enough to get out of bed and start getting over this break-up?” Maddie asked.
I opened my mouth to tell her that Daniel and I didn’t break up; the words got stuck in my throat. I didn’t want to make any definite statements when I hadn’t even had the chance to work through my feelings.
Maddie squeezed my hand, making me look up at her.
“You’ll have all the time when you’re in Los Angeles. Or have you forgotten that you are still expected to shoot with Caroline Bishop?” Maddie said.
I leaned up on my elbow.
“That’s still happening?” I asked. I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Caroline’s people, and truth be told, by the time I remembered, I didn’t want to call only for them to tell me it was too late.
Maddie twisted her lips to the side. My heart sank. I got excited too soon, and for nothing.
“I may have called them up and told them what had happened. They were more than willing to wait with my support behind you,” she said.
I groaned with frustration. “I told you I didn’t want that.”
“No, you said you didn’t want me to get you on a show. Caroline’s people contacted you on their own. I merely told them you were worth the wait.”
“I suppose that’s fine,” I said. I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I was glad Maddie had her connections and could hold that spot for me. I sat up and wrapped my arms around her. Maddie stiffened and squirmed out of my grasp in less than a second.
“There, there,” she said, patting my shoulder. “I suggest you get out of bed and take a shower. You smell. Also, start packing. You have to be in Los Angeles tonight.”
It felt good to shower and wash my hair. It felt so good that I stayed in there for thirty minutes, just standing under the spray and letting it wash away everything. When the water started to run cold, I stepped out, dried myself, and pulled on a pair of leggings and a loose Star Wars t-shirt that had probably belonged to my brother at one point. He was the Star Wars fan in the family. After applying collagen patches under my eyes I finally left the room.
I took the stairs down to the first floor where I could hear Maddie talking with my father.
“These are not bad,” she said.
“Not bad?” Dad asked, sounding outraged. “They’re a family favorite.”
“Yes, but I’m French. We invented crepes, and nobody does them better than the French.”
“You sound so sure of yourself,” Dad said.
“As is the French way,” Maddie countered. “But these are not bad.”
I walked into the kitchen, seeing my Dad standing at the stove making crepes and Maddie sitting at the counter eating said crepes. What stopped me short at the entrance of the kitchen was that all the girls were, crowded around the dining table.
Clarissa was the first to notice me and she threw both arms up towards the ceiling.
“Huzzah! She hath risen!”
“What are you girls doing here?”
“We came for your Dad’s amazing crepes,” Stella said. “They may be subpar but they’re delicious.”
“You came to Orange County for crepes?” I said. My throat was suddenly choked with unshed tears and I cleared it.
“For delicious crepes,” Logan clarified.
“We came to see if you were still alive, or we had to fill a vacancy in our dream team,” Stella said.
“Oh, trust me, if I die, I’m coming back to haunt each one of you,” I said, laughing.
“Here, here,” Rosie said, raising her glass of OJ. I looked at Sienna, who was avoiding eye contact with me. I looked at the other girls, wanting to know what was going on.
“Sienna thinks you’re going to take out Daniel’s anger on her,” Clarissa explained softly. Sienna shot her a look.
I snorted. How the tables ha
d turned. “At one point, I was afraid you would be upset with me because I was dating your brother. You’re the one who made me understand that what happens between him and me has nothing to do with you and me.”
“I knew something like this would happen,” Sienna said.
“Let’s not talk about this, okay?” Logan cut in. “If and when Eve is ready, she will let us know. That’s not why we’re here.”
I gave her a grateful smile. I didn’t want Sienna to say ‘I told you so’. When she had told me to be careful, I hadn’t thought I would be facing this. Was my worst fear worth breaking up over? If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have even thought about it. I wouldn’t have fallen in love, either.
“Have I mentioned that I don’t like him?” Dad asked.
“Yes, Dad,” I said, rolling my eyes. It was all he could talk about on the drive home from the hospital.
“His sister doesn’t like him,” Dad pointed out.
“To be fair, he is the best brother a girl can ask for. He’s made mistakes, I won’t deny that. But I would still pick him over my sisters,” Sienna said, making a face.
Dad harrumphed.
“Don’t feel like you’re in any hurry to make a decision,” Dad said to me. “Now, come try these crepes and tell Madelaine they’re the best,” he said. I walked over to him and kissed his cheek.
“Better let that go, Dad. It’s best not to argue with Maddie when it comes to food. She’s been everywhere and tried almost everything,” I said.
“While I may not be an expert in all the foods, I do believe I know what’s what when it comes to Italian and French food. I spent years learning from the best.”
Dad looked at me for help. I shrugged. “I love you, but Chef Guillaume does make some of the best crepes you’ll ever have.”
“No one can replicate Papa,” Maddie said. “Not even me.”
She took the last bite of her crepe and went to Dad to show him how to do them the right way.
Not My Type : Golden Girls 1 Page 23