“Thank you, Travis. You didn’t have to stay here with me, but I appreciate it more than I can tell you,” I finally say.
“I’d never leave you, Andi,” he whispers.
“I’m sure you have other things you need to do,” I say as I start to move away from him.
His arms tighten around me and hold me securely in place. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Everything and everyone else can wait. You come first, Andi.”
“You’re too good to me, Travis.”
“Tell me what happened,” he urges.
Somehow, I get the whole story out as he just listens and takes it all in. The only time I feel him tense is when I tell him about the other pictures that Luke didn’t believe me about from my involuntary mental hospital stay. “He didn’t give you a chance to explain then?” he asks, his voice strained with anger.
“No. That’s why I couldn’t believe he did it again last night. Then I saw the pictures of him and Syndi together over the last several weeks, including Valentine’s Day.”
“Wait. You weren’t with him Valentine’s Day?” Travis asks.
“No. I was at home in Atlanta and he was in Vegas with Syndi. He told me I couldn’t come out there because he had an interview and then Joe and Mack were sending him somewhere secret. I should’ve known better than that, but I just never thought he’d lie to me like that,” I admit. “I’m an idiot.”
“You trusted him. That doesn’t make you an idiot. That makeshima fucking idiot for betraying you and giving you up,” Travis clarifies.
“Maybe.”
“There’s no maybe to it. He’s crazy, baby. He’s let you go twice now. He shouldn’t get a third strike to do this to you again,” Travis declares heatedly.
“I told him I’m mailing his ring back to him,” I say. “I guess I should send this with it.” Holding up the heart pendant that was part of the Christmas gift I gave him, the squeezing in my chest becomes like a vise. This is really happening.
I can’t believe it’s really over.
Travis’s phone alerts him of another text. “That’s the seventeenth text you’ve received since you walked in here. Someone obviously needs you, Travis.”
“One second,” he says as he fishes his phone out of his pocket. Holding his phone so that I can clearly see it, he turns it off and puts it on the nightstand beside the bed. “There. No more interruptions.”
Shaking my head, I bury my face in his chest as I chuckle. “You’re the crazy one around here. You have work to do, fans to see, and people to talk to. My problems will still be here after the show tonight. Go take care of your business, and I’ll take care of mine.”
Sighing heavily, he says, “I don’t like leaving you in this depressed state.”
“The problem with that is this depression won’t pass in just a few hours. It’ll take time, and we both still have a job to do in the meantime. I’ll put on a brave face for the show tonight and when I have to go out in public. Don’t even give me a second thought.”
As he stands, he mutters something under his breath that shocks me to my core.
I could’ve sworn he just said, “I haven’t gotten past the first thought yet.”
