Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 19701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 99(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
10
Emerald
He’s gone. I can’t believe it. One minute things were fine and the next he was like an angry bear with his paw caught in a trap. He said he’d be back but how can I believe him? It’s not like he had anything holding him here.
I was a mess the first few days after his departure. We’d spent that last night together doing what we do best, until the early hours of the morning. Then he’d put me on the back of his bike and took me home.
Where he’d dragged me inside for one last round as he put it. The kiss we’d shared before he left gave me hope that maybe he’d miss me, but I wasn’t holding my breath. Something had changed, something that had sent him running.
Was it the thought of me getting pregnant that had scared him? I guess I can see how that might be. Though for me, with my prospects of marital bliss pretty much down the drain, a child of my own might be more than welcome.
I hadn’t given it much thought, and I certainly wasn’t plotting this when I jumped into bed with him, but now that I think about it the thought’s not as terrifying as it ought to be.
I tried not to let my hurt show, but figured if it did everyone would blame the breakup with Dale. I was still operating under the belief that no one knew of our secret rendezvous while he was here, so no harm done. Except to my heart.
Wouldn’t you know it? I’d gone and fallen in love with the big jerk. How do I know? Because I miss him more than I did the man I was supposed to marry.
In the three days he’s been gone I’ve almost burned the bar down once, messed up I don’t know how many drink orders and walked into walls when I was daydreaming.
I hadn’t heard from him, and even though he’d given me his number before he left, I didn’t feel right calling him. It got so bad that by day four I found myself looking him up on the Internet.
I maybe shouldn’t have done that. I learned a hell of a lot more than I wanted to. Like how much he was worth, and what a player he is. How many women were after him. I learned enough to know that I didn’t stand a chance.
How had I deceived myself into thinking that someone that looked like him, and did the things he did in bed could ever be satisfied with a small town girl like me? And why is it only now that I realize my feelings for him?
How was I to know that I would fall in love with someone that fast? That after suffering heartache and humiliation it would take me just a few short weeks to risk my heart again? How was I to know that life would play this trick on me?
Cecil and Josiah were watching me extra hard these days and I noticed they seemed to have some kind of secret scheme going on between them. I picked up on the fact when I caught them passing a certain look between each other one time too many.
When I asked what it was about they both played it off which only raised my suspicions father. But since they weren’t in the mood to talk, there was no point in pushing so I left it alone.
Day five I got the surprise of my life. Dale walked into the bar near closing time all smiles. You could’ve heard a pin drop in the place, even the music on the jukebox seemed to have been droned out.
“Hello Em, how are you?” I waited for the feeling of panic and heartache to set in but it never came. It was odd to look at him and feel nothing but the fading warmth from a relationship gone by.
“Hello Dale, what brings you here?” Last I heard he was being drafted for some team which had been his dream. There was also the daughter of some hotshot businessman that he’d met in college, so why?
“I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing? Is there somewhere we can go and talk?” I looked around at everyone who was busy listening in and nodded towards the office in the back.
I wasn’t sure what he could possibly have to say, but I’m not the sort to turn him away even though he deserved it. He followed me to the back with all eyes on us.
TRAVIS
I saw the number with her area code come up on my phone but knew it wasn’t her number because I’d memorized the shit and was waiting impatiently for her call.
It had only been four days but it felt like a lifetime. Each time I wanted to break down and call her first, I had to talk myself out of it. I needed this time apart to prove to myself whether or not this thing was more than a passing fling.