“ICAN’T BELIEVE I WASTEDsix months of my life with...him.” Rayne wiped the tissue under her wet eyes as she sat at her desk. The picture she’d had taken of her and Eddie had been sitting on her desk this whole time. Now it sat at the bottom of the garbage can.
Dusti hugged her before sitting back in the chair next to Rayne’s. “Is that why you’re upset? Because Eddie isn’t the man you thought he was?”
Rayne nodded. “I’m such an idiot for believing that he was the one who’d make me happy.” She inhaled shakily. “Oh, Dusti. You should have seen the way Calvin glared at him. He was so brave. So heroic. But Eddie just kept on pushing.” She licked her dry lips. “And then when Calvin looked at me like it was all my fault...” More tears slid down her cheeks. “It broke my heart. I couldn’t look him in the eyes, or even talk to him.”
“No. Calvin isn’t like that.” Dusti patted Rayne’s arm. “If you explain everything, he’ll understand.” She smiled. “Woman, that man loves you. Anyone who has seen him watching you knows how he feels. I’m sure he doesn’t blame you for Eddie’s drunken outburst. Nobody does.”
Rayne pointed to herself. “I do.” She took another unsteady breath. “I told him to wait for me. I told him we couldn’t see each other romantically during the year I was married to Calvin. And then what do I do? I start to have feelings for Calvin and push my memories of Eddie out the door.” She wiped her eyes again. “I’m the one who drove Eddie to do this.”
“So now, here’s the real question you need to ask yourself.” Dusti gave her a no-nonsense stare. “Do you want Eddie back? Or do you want to continue with your happy life being married to a wonderful man?”
Rayne’s chest tightened and she closed her eyes. More tears fell down her face. She’d already made that decision when she’d gone out to dinner with Calvin last night. But that didn’t make her feel any less guilty right now.
A knock came upon the door. Rayne sat up and quickly wiped her eyes. Lacey opened the door and peeked inside.
“Hey. I have a special delivery for you.” She pushed the door opened further and walked in holding a crystal vase with tons of yellow roses with red tips.
When Lacey set them on Rayne’s desk, she pulled the card sticking out from the top and opened it up.
90 flowers – one flower for each day we’ve been married. I wouldn’t trade the memories for all the money in the world.
More tears filled her eyes as she clutched the card to her bosom. The yellow rose with red tips meant – falling in love. Her heart burst with happiness. He loved her! As she pondered her feelings, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she loved him, too.
“Oh,” Rayne gasped and jumped to her feet, looking at her friends. “There’s no way I can tell Calvin that I’m in love with him if my face is red and puffy.”
Dusti gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes teared with happiness.
Lacey rushed to Rayne’s side and hooked their arms together. “No, you can’t. I’ve got my makeup bag. Let’s go make you pretty.”
Thankfully, the shop wasn’t busy this morning, because both Dusti and Lacey helped make Rayne presentable for her date. Her assistants also made her laugh. The guilt she’d felt not more than forty minutes ago had disappeared. She now felt ready to meet Calvin for lunch.
The closer she got to her car, the faster her heart hammered. Even her palms were moist. She decided to bring one of the flowers and give it to Calvin. Hopefully, he’d understand what she wanted to say. If not, then she’d tell him.
Giddily, she practically skipped toward her car, feeling like a schoolgirl with her first crush. Sadly, she couldn’t remember feeling this kind of elation when she had been with Eddie. And for sure, butterflies had never danced in her tummy.
As she reached her car, she noticed something was on her windshield. At first, she thought it was one of those advertisement flyers that companies struggling for attention put on everyone’s windshields, but as she glanced at the cars around her, none of them had one.
Then she realized it wasn’t a flyer, but a 6x10 envelope with her name written across the top. Curious, she carefully lifted it off the windshield and felt through the manila envelope to try and guess the shape of what was inside. She shook it, and thankfully, no white powdery substance came out.
She opened the small package and peered inside. It looked to be several pictures. She pulled them out and glanced at them. Her blood turned to ice as she saw that her husband was in every single one of these photos – and he was intimately embracing a woman.Rona?
Rayne chuckled, even though her throat was still tight with emotion. Maybe this had happened before she’d met Calvin. After all, the woman had been stalking him.
But then one of the pictures was blown up to show the calendar on the wall behind Calvin. It was today’s date!
Her stomach rolled as bile rose to her mouth. What was going on?
Calvin had better have some answers for this one. And they’d better be believable.
