Keaton grunts with each word, and I know it’s because that bitch is laying her hands on him.
“You'd better let me go,” I snarl. “I don’t like violence, but I’m about to rock her world for daring to hit you.”
Keaton tightens his hold, refusing to let me knock some sense into her. “She can’t hurt me, baby,” he soothes.
Keaton spins us in circles, keeping Rianna at bay, and the absurdity of it all hits me. I can’t help but laugh, the sound bubbling up uncontrollably. Soon Keaton’s laughing too, and we’re both doubled over, tears streaming down our faces.
A crowd has gathered to watch the spectacle. I’ve never been one to worry about what others think about me. I’m just glad we have witnesses to Rianna’s bullshit.
“What are you laughing at?” Rianna screeches.
I step away from Keaton as he loosens his hold. I wipe the tears from my eyes, then give Rianna my attention. “Honestly? You. If only you knew how ridiculous you look right now, you’d be laughing, too. You’re here trying to fight with me over a manwho doesn’t want you. Rianna, if you have to fight for a spot in someone’s life, especially when they don’t want you to, then they’re not your one. I’m sorry that you don’t love yourself. That you’ve built yourself into such a toxic person. Your outside is beautiful, girl, but your inside is ugly as hell.” I glance at Keaton to find him watching me with love beaming from his eyes. His look encourages me to speak my peace. “I forgive you, Rianna. Not for you. Not for Keaton. I forgive you for myself. I want to live the rest of my life in peace, and to do that, I need to let it all go. My wish for you is that one day you fall deeply in love.” She starts to smile, surprised at my words, but it’s wiped clean when I speak again. “And then when you do, I hope he cheats on you. Because I believe the only way you’ll ever be able to understand the pain you, as a woman, helped cause me. When that happens, I hope it makes you take a long look inside yourself.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, a weight I never knew I carried slides off my shoulders. I close my eyes and smile, savoring the sudden lightness. Turns out, I needed this more than I realized.
“Police are here,” Keaton whispers.
Rianna hears him, though, because her head swings towards them. “No, no, no.”
She takes off running, and I watch with wide eyes as they dive after her. The officer gets a hold of her before she’s able to get out the door, but Rianna resists. So much so that they both end up working to contain her.
Keaton wraps his arms around me from behind, and I lean into him as we watch. “Where’s your head at?”
“It’s hard right now because memories are trying to pull me under, and I’m fighting hard to keep them out,” I tell him honestly.
This confrontation was unexpectedly healing, mending wounds I didn’t know were still open. But it’s also left me raw, teetering on the edge of being triggered.
Rianna is screaming obscenities at the cops, begging them to let her go, that I’m the bad guy. Unfortunately for her, dispatch had already informed the cops of what to expect.
“What do you need from me?” Keaton asks.
Turning in his arms so I can look at him, I lift my hand to cup his cheek. “Just be here. Work through whatever emotions come up for you with me. Be my person. My safe space. But most of all, know that none of this changes anything between us.”
“Whatever you need, I’ll give.”
“I know you will. This man that you’ve become…you’re beautiful. You may not see it, but there’s a lightness to you now. A willingness to be open and be vulnerable. Every day you wake up choosing love. You don’t falter when I need your strength. You don’t get frustrated when I get triggered. You’re just there. You’re my safe space when I need to fall. You’re my warmth and my home. We’re always going to have scars from your infidelity. That’s just the reality of it. But we’re more than just our scars, Keaton. We’re love and laughter. Tears and sadness. We’re a million different emotions, but at the end of the day, we’re just us. Charlie Henderson and Keaton Carr. Best friends. Lovers. We’re two very flawed people so deeply in love with one another.”
A tear drops from Keaton’s watery eyes, and I wipe it away with my thumb. I grab his hand in mine and bring it to the middle of my chest to where my heart pounds.
“This has been yours since I was a little girl. That’s never changed, despite the way you broke it. It’s the man you are now that’s helped stitch it back together. I love you, Keaton.”
Keaton sucks in a sharp breath as if those words hit him deeply, and the tears he’d been fighting off spill over. “I love you. God, I love you so fucking much.”
The raspiness of his voice slides over my skin.
I move into his arms, craving the safety of his embrace as we wait for the police. For a few precious minutes, we just exist together, our mended hearts beating in perfect time.
When the police come, Keaton refuses to release me, so we speak to them tangled together. We give them the numbers to our attorneys so that they can get the information they need from them. They let us know that she’s being arrested for warrants and resisting arrest. Keaton informs them he wants to press charges for her putting her hands on him, so they take his statement for that. They take witness statements and listen to the recording on my phone before letting us know our attorneys can fill us in on the other cases.
By the time we leave the store, exhaustion drags at my bones. All I want is to crawl under the covers and disappear. Once the groceries are put away, I tug Keaton’s hand and lead him straight to my room.
“What are you doing, butterfly?”
“I need to shut the world out, but I want to do that with you. Will you hide under the covers with me, Keaton? Will you hold me tight while we work together to slay my demon?”
Keaton lifts me into his arms bridal style and marches me to the bed. I laugh as he tosses me onto the mattress and falls down on top of me. He fists the comforter in his hand and pulls it over us until we’re hiding under the weight of it. Muffled from the world, we stare into each other’s eyes. I let him see the memories I’m fighting in mine, and he shows me the way he’s going to battle them in his.
He covers my face in kisses, making me laugh until my worries melt away. It’s the best feeling in the world.
