My Real

by Mallory Grant

  “What did she say to Bailey?” I say through my teeth.

  “I don’t know. I told her to make something up. What is your issue?” Jessica asks.

  “Bailey is missing. No one knows where she is. She is supposed to be at school in tomorrow, and no one has heard from her,” I scream.

  “Wow, she’s more pathetic than I thought,” Jessica says.

  Ella, who has been silently standing behind me this whole time stalks to the couch when Jessica starts laughing again . Ella grabs a hold of her shirt and pulls her off the couch.

  “Listen you bitch. I know Andrew is too much of a gentleman to hit a woman, but you’re not getting that luxury from me. What in the Hell did your skank friend say to Bailey that made her disappear,” Ella threatens.

  No one has ever treated Jessica like that so she is frozen in fear. Ella shakes her hand jostling Jessica a little.

  “Alright, alright.” Jessica yanks away from Ella and backs away to the other side of the room. “She told Bailey that she was your girlfriend. She alluded that you dated her the entire time you were married to me.”

  “Why would do you something like that?” Ella beat me to the question.

  “Emerson told me you were proposing to Bailey. That pissed me off. I always knew you loved Bailey more than me. I didn’t want either of you to be happy,” Jessica answers matter of factly.

  “Where is Bailey now?” Ella asks clenching her fists together and slowly walking toward Jessica again.

  “How am I supposed to know? Samantha said she ran out of there crying,” Jessica admits.

  Jessica hit the floor before I could get my next question out. I look up in surprise as Ella shakes out her hand.

  “Damn. I had no idea punching someone would hurt that bad. Let’s go,” Ella says still shaking her hand. We both glance at Jessica moaning on the living room floor, before we walk to the car.

  “Where are we going?” I ask.

  “I know where Bailey is. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before,” Ella admits.

  Ella gets in my driver seat of my truck and pulls out of the driveway. “What do you mean you know where she is?” I ask anxious to get to her as fast as we can.

  “The day she walked in on Dave cheating on her, she just went home for lunch. She was supposed to come back to school. When she never showed I tried to call her. She wouldn’t pick up,” Ella explained speeding just as much as I did. “I called Dave to see if he knew where she went and he explained that Bailey had walked in on him and then left. It took me all night to find her.”

  I sit in the spa tub with candy bar wrappers covering the floor. My friend Jay in guest services has been sending me a steady supply for two days now. He promised he’d keep sending them if I promised to eat something other than chocolate twice a day. He’s been so great ever since he saw me wandering around downstairs looking less than presentable. He went through this with me in the spring when I found out Dave was cheating on me, so he knew exactly what to do.

  The heaviness in my heart has not gotten any better. I could stay locked up in this room forever. I get out of the tub, wrap myself in the plush terrycloth bathrobe, and head back to bed. Pulling the covers over my face to block out the little bit of sun that comes through the curtains, I start to fall back asleep.

  A banging at my door wakes me from a sound sleep. I jump when I hear it again.

  “What in the world Jay? Is it really necessary to pound that hard?” I slowly make my way to the door. I open it and turn to go directly back to bed. That would be Jay with my dinner. It’s a little early, but maybe I’ll be hungry later.

  “Just put it over there Jay.” I say pointing to the table.

  “Bailey” I hear at the same time as two arms surround me.

  “Andrew, what are you doing here. Please leave.” The tears begin to well even though I thought for sure I was all cried out.

  “Bailey. It was all a lie,” he says.

  I try to wiggle free of his arms and push away from him.

  “I saw her. I saw the gorgeous blond in your shower. She so kindly told me that she’s your girlfriend.” Andrew is shaking his head. “Don’t deny it Andrew. How could you string me along like this? Were you going to keep her on the side while we were married too?”

  “Bailey, shut up and listen.” Ella yells from the doorway.

  “Ella, don’t tell me you believe him.” I turn to snap at her and walk away from Andrew. I need to be as far away from him as possible.

  “It was all Jessica. Andrew found the note that went with the flowers she sent to your house. He recognized the writing. We just came from Jessica’s house,” Ella explains.

  “But I saw the woman in your shower,” I seethe.

  Andrew walks toward me again. “Jessica admitted it. It was her friend in the shower. Emerson told her that I was proposing to you, and she couldn’t stand to see us happy. She came up with this whole thing,” Andrew explain.

  I stood there in silence. Jessica. My head is spinning again. I need to sit down. How could I have not figured out that it was all Jessica? I shake my head, not understanding.

  Ella puts her hand on my arm and winces. I look up at her worried.

  “I may or may not have punched Jessica when she told us what she did,” Ella explains laughing.

  I sit down on the end of the bed and buried my face in my hands.

  “Bailey, why would I invite you over to my house and not be there? Why would I send you roses? I know how much you hate roses,” Andrew explains. “I would never cheat on you. You have to know that. I went through it. I know what it feels like to be treated like that. I would never put anyone through that Hell because I lived it.”

  He’s completely right. How could I have even given a second thought that he cheated on me? Why didn’t I put the pieces together? If not at first, then once I had a chance to calm down. I ran again. I feel horrible. How is he ever going to trust me again?

  When I still didn’t say anything, Andrew kneels in front of me and puts his hands on my knees. “Please talk to me,” he begs.

  I look up at his face to see that he has fear in his eyes. I wrap my arms around his neck.

  “I am so sorry that I doubted you. I can’t believe I let her do this to us. Will you ever forgive me?” I say.

  He backs away from me, pushing my shoulders back. “Forgive you? For what?”

  “For not believing in you. For not trusting you. For running away when I should have known it wasn’t true,” I say.

  “Oh honey,” he pulls me close again. “If I saw some beefy guy step out of your shower, I would have had the same reaction. I thought I’d lost you. I was so scared.”

  “You haven’t lost anything,” I say.

  “That was the worst few days of my life and that’s saying something, considering I was married to Jessica for ten years. You need to promise me that if we ever fight, which I’m sure we will, that you will never run away again. We need to work through our problems, no matter what they are,” Andrew says.

  “I promise. I’m sorry I ran. It’s what I did when I found out that Dave cheated on me. It was what I knew made me get through it with Dave,” I explain.

  “Never again baby. You’ll never have to run again. I’m not him,” Andrew reminds me.

  “Let’s go home.”

  When we walk into the house, Emerson comes running down the hall toward Bailey. She falls to her knees and wraps Emerson in a hug.

  “I missed you so much.” Emerson says into Bailey’s hair. “Why did you leave us?”

  “I’m so sorry. I promise I will never leave you again,” Bailey cries.

  “I hope not, I would miss you too much,” Emerson says.

  “It’s been a long weekend, why don’t I read to you while we cuddle on the couch? I have an early morning tomorrow, I need the rest,” she says.

  Emerson grabs her hand and drags her to the couch.

  Emerson is now asleep on the couch lying next to Bailey. She mus
t have read her ten books to finally her get to go to sleep. Em was having nightmares the past two nights, not knowing where Bailey has been. I’m so glad to see my two girls asleep together on my couch. The past two days have been terrifying not knowing what happened to Bailey.

  Bailey has to go back to school tomorrow, and Emerson starts Kindergarten in a week. Bailey and I will be married this time next week. I can’t believe that my life is coming together like this. I take a blanket and lay it on top of the two of them. I sit down on the recliner next to them and drift off to sleep.

  My alarm goes off at five. I hop up quickly to turn it off so that it doesn’t wake the girls. I go into the kitchen to make lunches for Bailey and me and breakfast for the three of us.

  “Good morning,” I hear a groggy voice say. Bailey walks up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist.

  “Yes, it is.” I say as I twist around and hold her tightly in my arms. She lets out a big sigh. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

  “Ditto,” I smile down at her.

  “This time next week I’ll be Mrs. Cooper,” she says.

  “Thank God!” I exclaim. Bailey laughs and stretches up to kiss me. “Okay, future Mrs. Cooper. Time to get you off to school,” she wrinkles her nose.

  Soon Bailey is off to school, and my mom come and leaves with Emerson, and I follow them out the door to work.

  I walk into school and pull out all of the scholastic flyers from my mailbox. Ella walks up next to me and throws her arms around me. All of the flyers fall to the floor.

  “I can’t believe you did that to me,” she scolds while she hugs me fiercely.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t even get to talk to you last night in all the craziness,” I say.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” Ella orders.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you. I left his house after seeing that woman in his shower and all logic left me. I should have known Jessica would try something like that. I know that Andrew would never cheat on me,” I say. She finally backs away and bends down to help me pick up the flyers.

  “I know. It just scared the Hell out of me that you weren’t answering my calls. I thought if you were mad at Andrew for something that you would at least answer my calls. I thought something horrible happened to you,” Ella explains.

  “I turned my phone off because I didn’t want to hear from him. That whole fear of confrontation thing. I really need to work on that,” I say.

  “Ya think?” Ella scolds. “Bailey, you are one of the strongest women I know. You’ve been through horrible things. You need to stop worrying about the past and your insecurities and live your life now. Andrew loves you for who you are, you need to trust and stop running away.”

  “I know. When you hear something for so long, it’s a hard habit to break. I’m working on it,” I admit.

  We walk up to our rooms together, and get ready for our inservice. “It’s going to be a long day.” I whine.

  “Yes, but you have something to look forward to at the end of the day,” Ella reminds me. We walk into the library together and sit in our normal seats.

  “No, you have something to look forward to. I really don’t care about getting some fancy over-priced dress,” I say.

  “Okay, I have a positive for you. While you are shopping with me, the boys will be moving the last of your things over to Andrew’s house. No more moving boxes for you,” Ella states.

  “You’re right. That is definitely a positive. I can’t even look at another box.”

  “Okay, during lunch we need to make a few last minute calls. After the inservice, we are going to go to the shoe store and look for shoes for Emerson, you, and me then we need to find ties for the boys.” She starts going down her check list. “Hey, have you talked to your parents yet?”

  “No, I’ve left two messages for both of them and left them Andrew’s number in case she couldn’t get me on my cell. I’m not surprised. I really didn’t expect them to care enough to come,” I say. Ella looks up at me sadly. “I’ll try again tonight, but I’m not holding my breath.”

  “I’m sorry honey,” Ella empathizes. I just shrugged. It’s not like I expected them to come. This is my day. I don’t want to have to worry about them anyway.”

  “That was painful.” Ella complains as we get into her car. Ask any teacher, and they will tell you that in-services are torture. We have some major shopping to do now.

  “Shoe store or Men’s Warehouse?” Ella asks as she pulls out of the school’s parking lot.

  “Let’s go with the shoe store. Men’s Warehouse is by that new pizza place. When we are done, we can bring the boys some pizza since they’ll be busy moving,” I say.

  “Should we feel guilty that we are out shopping while they do all the work?” Ella ask. We pause and look at each other. Laughing at the same time, “No!”

  We get to the shoe store, and Ella starts picking the highest heels she can find.

  “Ella, we are going to be walking on the beach. I really don’t want to wear shoes at all.”

  “We aren’t wearing shoes on the beach,” Ella explains. She sits down on the bench and pulls out three small boxes from her purse. “I bought these last week to wear.” She opens the boxes and inside are ice blue beaded necklaces.

  “Oh, Ella they’re beautiful, but what do necklaces have to do with shoes?” I ask. She shakes her head laughing at me while she leans down to pull off the heels she is wearing. She slips the beads onto her foot. It looks like the top part of a fancy flip flop.

  “They’re called Foot Lace. Like a necklace for your foot,” she says.

  “Oh, I love it. But if we are wearing these what are we at the shoe store for?” I ask.

  “We need shoes for the reception,” she reminds me.

  “Why can’t I just wear white flip flops.”

  “No, quit your bitching and try these on,” she says when she hands me a box of white peep toe pumps that have a lace overlay and a soft petal flower at the toe. I have to admit, they are gorgeous. I put them on and stand up to look at them in the mirror.

  “Wow.”

  “See, I told you. Look how hot your legs look in those,” Ella marvels.

  “Alright, I admit. They are amazing,” I relent while still staring at the shoes. “What are you getting?”

  She holds up a pair of ice blue patent leather pumps. They have to be at least four inches high. I’m thankful she didn’t pick something that high for me.

  “Cute and look,” I say as I put my shoe next to hers. “Leather and lace.” She winks at me and pats my butt.

  “Come on hot stuff. We need to find something for Emerson now.”

  We walk out of the store with heels for Ella and me and cute white flowery flip flops for Emerson. We drive over to the Men’s Warehouse to get ties for the boys. Then, we pick up the pizza.

  “Whose house are we going to?” Ella asks once we get the pizzas.

  “Hmmm. Good question. I’ll text them, you go to the RedBox and get a movie to watch while we eat.”

  Bailey: Pizzas on the way. Where are you?

  Andrew: Our house

  “They’re at Andrew’s,” I answer. As I twist to put my phone in my purse, I wince in pain.

  “Are you ok? That’s the third time I’ve seen you do that,” Ella asks, worrying.

  “I’m fine,” I answer trying to hide the pain from my face.

  “Bailey, have you called your doctor?” Ella asks.

  “No.” I knew I had to, I was hoping it would just go away.

  Almost like she was reading my mind Ella scold, “It is not just going to go away, Bailey. Call her right now.”

  When she doesn’t put the car in drive, I know she isn’t going anywhere until I call. Once I am on the line, she drives down the road to get a movie. When she gets back in the car, she just looks at me.

  “I have an appointment tomorrow during lunch,” I say.

  “Good girl,” she says patting my leg. “Let me know if you wa
nt me to go with you.”

  I just nod. I know what is going to happen at this appointment and I don’t want anyone with me. We drive in silence the rest of the way home. She is giving me time to process and I’m grateful. She went through this with me the last time.

  When we get home, I go to get out of the car, and Ella stops me by grabbing my arm.

  “Are you going to say something to Andrew?” she asks.

  “Not yet. I don’t want to worry him if I don’t need to,” I reply.

  Still holding my arm, she just stares at me. She isn’t happy with my answer.

  “I’ll tell him, I promise.” She nods just once, still not completely satisfied with my answer. Then she gets out of the car. She puts on a smile and goes into the house first.

  “Boys, pizza and beer’s here,” Ella yells out into the house.

  “About damn time. I’m starving.” Jake answers back taking the case of beer from her. “We’re all set up out back on the deck. Here, let me get that for you,” he says grabbing the pizza boxes out of her hands as well.

  Ella blushes. Yes, she blushes. I can’t believe my eyes.

  “Thanks,” she recovers and answers with a million dollar smile.

  Bailey follows Jake and Ella through the house and onto the deck where I am sitting rubbing my neck. Bailey walks up behind me and takes over.

  “Sore?” she asks really kneading the muscles in my shoulder.

  “Just a little but the pizza and beer will help,” I say.

  “Is there a lot left to do?” Ella asks as she hands out plates.

  “Just one more load to take from my apartment to the house but I’m going to do that tomorrow after work,” Jake explains.