For Cameron.
For Grace.
For his career.
I made the right choice.
“Paisley?” Willow knocks on my bedroom door just as I’m coming out of my bathroom. I open the door, and she gives me a sad smile. “Come on, coffee and toast are waiting for you.” I let her link her arm with mine and lead me to the couch. I sit, and she hands me a cup of coffee and a small plate with two pieces of buttered toast.
I’m midsip when there’s a loud banging on the door. “Paisley,” Cameron calls out. “Baby, open the door,” he pleads.
His voice sounds broken. Lost.
“I know you’re in there. Please, open the door.” He bangs again, and I don’t even bother to hide the tears that fall. “I love you, Paisley. I’m going to fix this. This is not the end for us,” he calls through the door. “I love you,” he says again, his voice cracking.
“You okay?” Willow asks once he’s gone.
“No.” There is no point in lying to my best friend. I know she can see right through me. “I don’t know how to do this, Wil. I don’t know how to be me without him.”
“Maybe you should talk to him. Try the long-distance thing.”
“I can’t do that to Grace. You should have seen her when she was talking about how he was staying close to home. They are all that each other has. I can’t be the reason he gets traded.”
“What if they trade him anyway?”
“They won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m going to quit my job.”
“What? You love your job.”
“I do. I love it, and I love the Blaze. But I can’t go to work every day and see him. I can get a job with one of the bigger high schools or the football team. I’m going to ask Drew to help me. He owes me that.”
“You’ll ask him to help you find a new job, but you won’t ask him not to trade Cameron?”
“You should have heard him, Wil. His mind was made up, and my dad, it’s almost as if he encouraged it. He knew what this would do to me. Do to us. They both did, but that didn’t come up in their conversation. It’s business, not personal,” I say with disgust.
“Tell me what you need.”
“Cameron.”
“Oh, sweetie.” She sighs.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I know it’s him. I shouldn’t look; I’m just torturing myself. He sent me a few texts last night, and I have yet to read them. I may as well get it over with. Let the knife in my heart twist a little deeper.
Cameron: Can we talk about this?
Cameron: Paisley.
Cameron: I’m going to fix this.
Cameron: I can’t lose you.
Cameron: You are the love of my life.
Cameron: I can’t sleep without you next to me.