Carys froze with horror when Rafi hurried to Andi and lifted her into his arms.A moment later, he kissed her in a way that…other people were turning their heads away as the passionate kiss continued.And Andi, her best friend in the whole world, was kissing Rafi back!Rafi’s hands moved down Andi’s back and…and then he cupped her butt, bringing Andi’s hips into closer contact with his groin!
Carys knew that move!Carys had been the recipient of just such a move several times in the past!She’d loved it when Rafi had been so ravenous for her that he’d picked her up just like that!
But now…now…Carys stared in horror, feeling her body go numb.Andi…and Rafi?How…how was that possible?Her best friend and the man she loved?No, this couldn’t be happening!
But it was.Rafi was kissing her best friend and Andi was clearly enjoying it.Andi seemed to know Rafi.Intimately from the way her hands were diving into his hair.
What dimension of hell was this?How could her friend betray Carys in such a vile way?
However, Carys hadn’t ever told Andi who she’d been seeing.Andi had mentioned seeing a guy, but she’d been so secretive about her relationship.Carys had never considered the possibility that Andi was seeing the same man as Carys!
After several minutes of the intense make-out session, the couple stopped, but they didn’t pull apart.Andi looked so right, so comfortable in Rafi’s arms.Her best friend…well, former best friend…looked happy and in love.And Rafi seemed to be equally engaged.Andi leaned against Rafi, her fingers twirling in Rafi’s hair while his hands rested on the small of her back.
The two of them looked like a scene out of a romantic movie.Rafi was so tall and muscular while Andi was shorter, beautiful with her dark hair and warm smile.
They were in love, she suddenly realized.Rafi and Andi were obviously madly in love!
But just a few minutes ago, Carys would have sworn Rafi was in love with her.Just five minutes ago, Carys would have declared her feelings for Rafi with absolute confidence that he felt the same way.
Her confidence had clearly been misplaced, she thought and turned away from the happy couple.The happy couple that was currently shattering her heart.
Only moments ago, she’d felt a bubbling, happy sensation in her chest.Now she felt as if someone had placed a fifty pound weight on her shoulders.It was difficult to get her feet to cooperate.She struggled to walk as the heaviness permeated her very bones.This…this was a pain unlike any she’d experienced before.It was worse than the day her father had walked out of her childhood kitchen after calmly explaining that he was moving with his new wife to Arizona.It was similar to the day she’d had to bury her mother.
Those moments in her life hadn’t been her fault.This…trusting Rafi, believing that he was worthy of her trust…made everything so much worse.Because she knew better.Carys knew not to trust men because they always left.They wouldn’t stay around for the long haul, when things got tough or when other opportunities presented themselves.
Carys slowly walked back to her apartment, not bothering with the subway.She didn’t want to go into the bowels of the city.She worried she’d be smothered if she had to go underground.Not just in these feelings of anger and betrayal, but because of how stupid she felt.Stupid and gullible and…manipulated!
When Carys let herself into her apartment, there was a hint of a scent that she didn’t recognize.But instead of looking for the source of the aroma, she walked into her bedroom, laid down in her bed and pulled the covers over herself.
For a long time, she didn’t move.The tears didn’t come, but the image of Rafi walking toward her friend kept replaying in her head.Rafi pulling her best friend into his arms and kissing her.Rafi laughing at whatever Andi had said and Andi looking up at Rafi with a worshipful smile.
She hated Andi at this moment.Yeah, Carys knew that it wasn’t fair to blame her.Her best friend couldn’t have known what was going on with Carys.Andi had been so excited to tell Carys about the new guy she’d been dating.But Andi had kept the man’s name a secret, something about how they were working together.
Carys understood now, since they worked for the same company, but in different departments and different offices.Her company owned four different buildings around the Philadelphia area.She just hadn’t known that Rafi was traveling between all four of them.For some stupid reason, she’d assumed that he was mainly working out of the office she was located in.
Damn it, she’d made too many assumptions!She’d assumed Rafi was only interested in her.She’d assumed that he was working out of her office.She’d assumed that the trips he’d made around the world had been business related – not for visits to see his other girlfriend.She’d assumed that he cared for her.She’d assumed that…that…!
The tears finally came.They burned hot and salty over her cheeks, stinging her skin like acid.They started silently, but eventually, as the pain of Rafi’s betrayal, his lies, and his cheating ways hit her, the tears morphed into racking sobs that tore at her throat.She hugged a pillow against her chest, trying to stop the sobbing but unable to suppress her heartbreak.
At some point, she fell asleep.Carys wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but woke up when she heard an unexpected sound.Was that a knock on her door?Carys paused, listening hard.She wasn’t going to answer the door, but she wanted to know if the person would knock again.She didn’t have a plan, but if she did, it would be something along the lines of remaining very still so that the person didn’t realize that she was here.
But there was only silence.Just like in her heart.
Carys fell asleep again.It was Saturday and she didn’t care what was happening in the world because right now, her world had ended.She pulled the blanket tighter over her and let sleep take over.
At some point, she woke up in the middle of the night.Peeking out from the mound of blankets and pillows, she looked around.It felt as if…!Was someone in her apartment?
No!That was impossible!She must have imagined the sound of the door closing.
Still, she pushed the blankets off and padded barefoot into the kitchen.After crying so hard, she was thirsty.But when she looked in her kitchen cabinet, there were only five glasses on the shelf.Carys looked around.She didn’t bother putting anything in the dishwasher because she lived alone.Running the dishwasher for one person seemed unnecessary, so Carys preferred to hand wash her dishes.However, there were no glasses in the drying rack.Nor had she left the missing glass elsewhere in her apartment.The apartment consisted of a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.There was a small, stacked washer and dryer in the closet, but there wasn’t any other place where one might leave a glass.Since Carys had bought a set of six glasses when she’d moved into this apartment, and she hadn’t broken any, her only conclusion was that someone had to have been in her apartment.
She hesitated, looking around and listening hard.But there were no sounds.Nothing moved.The only sounds she heard were her breathing and her pounding heart.
But there was no movement.Carys remembered earlier that someone had knocked on her door and she’d kept quiet and still.Had someone else hidden themselves in her apartment, remaining perfectly still, while she slept?
A shiver of fear ripped through her and Carys looked around, trying to find a place to hide.But her apartment was so small and there weren’t many places to hide.Her living room was only large enough for a sofa and television.There was a small, low coffee table, but it wasn’t big enough to hide anyone.The coat closet was barely large enough for a few coats.Could someone be in her bathroom?
Carys crept to the bathroom, trying not to make any sound or move too fast.If someone was in her apartment, she didn’t want to startle them.The thought occurred to her that, if she did find someone in her place, what was her plan?Confront the culprit with…her frazzled hair?After spending the last twelve hours under the covers, it was a pretty good bet that her hair looked like she’d stuck her finger in a wall socket.
