“You are, and I’m sorry I was insensitive before. I just want you to be happy.”
&nbs
p; “Me too. But it seems to be a foreign concept to me lately.”
“You will be again. I don’t care if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming. We’ll get you there.”
“Thanks, Lys.” I look down the hallway and give her a smile. “Now go get laid.”
The next time I open my eyes, light is streaming through the tiny window in the corner. We are high enough, that the buildings aren’t completely blocking the sun, allowing me a view of blue skies. The tightness in my neck is even worse and I can already feel my skin screaming for not taking my makeup off the night before. My eyes feel dry and weak, so I blink them several more times trying to create moisture when I hear his voice, quiet and sensual floating all around me.
“You stayed.” I pull my head away from my fist that it had been resting against for most of the night and meet Bennett’s gaze. I see the guilt in his eyes, as if he was the direct cause of my discomfort. “That chair does not look comfortable.”
I flex my hand that feels numb and the tingles shoot up my arm as I shake it out slowly. “It’s okay. How did you sleep?”
A small smile finds his lips. “Do you ever complain about anything?” He shakes his head. “I still remember that awful fucking hotel we had to get last minute when we were driving to Connecticut to go skiing.”
I remember it too. The snow was coming down so bad, that the roads were undrivable, so Bennett and I pulled into a small hotel that looked like a setting from a horror movie. It was small, it didn’t smell particularly welcoming, and it looked even worse. I wasn’t pleased, but we had a bottle of whiskey and each other so I was perfectly content in that tiny hotel room. I scrubbed the bathroom from top to bottom, and we spent the night fucking in the shower because nothing about the bed screamed get naked here.
Again, the trip down memory lane comes at me hard and fast and my heart thumps in my chest as I recall the happier times. I had spent much of the six months recalling all of the bad times, disallowing myself from remembering anything happy or good because I didn’t want to think I’d potentially made a mistake. “I—” I start, my heart has completely taken over, shutting my brain off momentarily. I’m prepared to engage in his memory, recalling how he’d walked a mile in the snow the next morning to find us coffee that wasn’t complete trash before I even woke up. That’s why I never complained, because he always made things so easy for me. He never wanted me to experience discomfort. The words are on the tip of my tongue when the door swings open.
“Bennett!” The tone is shrill and it’s not only ear-splitting, but I feel like the split in my heart further deepens as I see her moving through the door quick as lightning. “Oh my God, Bennett.” She rushes to his bedside and puts her hands on his chest and it’s like a bad car wreck I can’t pull my gaze from. Her blonde hair is curled and styled perfectly, but her face is completely void of makeup giving her a fresh faced glow. She still looks flawless. Did she actually wake up like that? Bitch.
Thoughts of how perfect they look together flood my brain and my insecurities begin to take form, loud and aggressively. They look better together than we ever did. They looked like Barbie and Ken.
Perfect. Gorgeous. All American.
I wipe under my eyes and smooth my dark curls back, hoping that I don’t look too crazy having just woken up not too long ago.
Of course, I would run into my husband’s girlfriend while I’m unshowered and looking like God knows what.
The movement must catch her attention because she turns towards me. To her credit, when her eyes find mine, she pulls away from him like he’s on fire and swallows hard.
I stand, preparing to give them some privacy, even though I know it’s the last thing Bennett wants, when his voice floods the room. “Who the fuck are you? And who do you think you are barging into my room like that?” His eyes pull away from her to me. “Sit,” he growls, though beneath the command, I can hear the plea. Don’t go, please.
“Bennett…” she starts. “I know that you’re struggling with your memory, your mom called…” she says nervously, her hands completely dropping as she fidgets.
“I told her to inform you not to come. So, either she neglected to tell you that, in which case I’m sorry that you wasted your time, or she did tell you and you chose to ignore it, in which case I am not at all sorry for what I’m about to say to you. Get the fuck out.” Her mouth drops open before she sinks her teeth into her lower lip. Her teeth are just as perfect as mine, and I briefly wonder if her lip biting does the same thing to Bennett as mine does.
“Bennett…” I start. And I’m not sure what I’m trying to say. It’s somewhere between, let me go, and tell her to go.
“Livi, don’t start. Maybe you’ve come to terms with this, but I have not and all I see is one of the reasons we’re not together.”
Tears swim in her blue eyes as she takes a step back and her gaze finds mine, for what, I’m not sure. Help? Sympathy? She can’t possibly be asking me for that. I look away, and I notice her shoulders deflate in my periphery.
“You and Olivia aren’t together, Bennett.”
“I’m well aware of that, not that it’s any of your fucking business what goes on between me and my wife.”
I hear a sigh leave her lips as her cheeks turn pink. “I thought seeing me would…”
“Help? Well, your hypothesis backfired. All you’ve done is successfully piss me off.” I turn my gaze back to them. I’ve known Bennett for a long time, so I can see how irritated he is. She, on the other hand, has known him for less than a year, which means she’s probably not getting the hint.
She runs a hand through her hair and cocks her head to the side making me wonder if this is how she gets her way with my husband. “Why are you being like this…? This isn’t you.”
“I’m being like this because you thought you could show up here and ambush me, when I’m sure my mother at the very least informed you that Olivia was here.”
“She…didn’t.” She shakes her head nervously before her eyes flit to mine again.