Unconditional

I scoff, my final attempts to brush her off. “No, what?”

“Maddie…tell me…” she swallows. “Has Cal…been inappropriate with you?”

“No, of course not,” I tell her immediately. My heart hurts at her verbiage. How could she think he’d ever hurt me?

“Fine, let me rephrase that…” She takes a sip of her drink and bites her bottom lip. “Have you crossed a line…with him?” I don’t say anything as I wonder how to respond to that when she slaps her hand on the table. “Dammit, Maddie. Answer me.” My eyes well up with tears at the harshness of her tone and her eyes immediately soften. “Sorry…I shouldn’t have…” She gets up and moves around the table to sit next to me on my side of the booth grabbing my hands and holding them in hers. “I love you so much, Maddie. I always have. I always thought you…you were the daughter I was supposed to have.” A tear falls down her cheek and my heart thumps against my ribcage thinking about the baby she lost. “Let me protect you. Let me help.”

“There’s nothing to protect me from, Aria. I swear, I’m fine.”

“You haven’t answered my question. Sweetheart, if Cal has touched you or…anything…” she swallows. “It’s rape.”

“It is not!” The knee jerk reaction to hearing that word is all the confirmation Aria needs because she bursts into tears.

“Oh my God, Maddie!”

“Oh my God.” I put my face in my hands. How the hell did we get here? Oh my God, Cal is going to lose it.

“You can’t…you can’t fucking live with him! I’m going to kill him.” She’s pulling out her credit card and waving our waiter over when I shake my head.

“Aria, no! Listen to me, it’s not what you’re thinking!”

“Oh, so he hasn’t touched you sexually?”

Lie. And make it convincing Maddie. At least till you get home and you and Cal can figure something out. “No! I just…I want to.” I bite my bottom lip, the tears in my eyes have now moved down my face. “You’re right, it’s a crush. But it’s harmless and I’m working through it, I swear. He would never touch me, Aria.”

I think my explanation works, but she shakes her head as she gives the waiter her card. “You’re moving out.”

“What? Aria…”

“I remember being eighteen and feeling like I was in love. You need space to get over this, Maddie.” She puts a hand over her chest. “God, you scared the hell out of me. I thought…” She pinches the bridge of her nose and runs a hand through her hair. “I love Cal, but you’re my number one priority. I’d nail him to the wall for fucking touching you.” My blood runs cold hearing her words. I wasn’t sure how I expected her to take it. I thought maybe she’d be accepting, or support me, support us. I hadn’t anticipated this reaction. “I know you’re not crazy about the idea, but it’s for the best Mads, you’ll thank me one day, I promise.”

“OH MY GOD CAL, ANSWER the fucking phone!” I bang my hand against the steering wheel as I end the call through my Bluetooth. The tears well in my eyes and they dart to the rearview mirror as I look for Aria’s car. My grip on the steering wheel is so tight, I feel like they’re burning as I wring my hands around it. I let out a deep breath as I lessen the grip and lean my head back against the headrest. I’m convinced Aria is going to follow me home to wait for Cal, disallowing me from explaining the situation in anything but a calm and rational tone.

I am neither calm nor rational at the moment.

I am borderline hysterical.

I’ve spent practically every day of the past ten years with Cal, and every day of the past week with Cal in bed, and I’m not keen on the idea of changing either trend. I bite my bottom lip as I press his contact again and a sound of exasperation leaves my lips when I get his voicemail again.

What if this was important?

He knows you’d call the station.

I huff a sigh of irritation as I continue to fly down the back road. It has one lane with trees on both sides for miles. I’m not far from home when I see my dashboard light up signaling a call.

“Oh my God, where have you been?” I know that’s not the way to start a phone call with Cal as it’ll put him on edge immediately. I always know to be calm in the first few minutes, so that Cal won’t set the world on fire in attempts to find me.

“What’s wrong? Why do I have five missed calls from you? Where are you?” His voice is just between nervousness and anger and filled with anxiety. Somewhere between “is something wrong?” and “there better be something wrong with the way you’ve got me worried.”

I let out a breath, trying to calm the adrenaline rushing through my veins. Don’t freak out because then he’ll freak out. “I’m fine. When will you be home? I have to talk to you.”

“I have a lot going on today, Maddie. I don’t have time—”

“Make time.” I grit through my teeth. “This is important.”

“I can’t get home right now. I have to meet with Aria in a few minutes and—”

“Do not meet with Aria,” I tell him and he’s silent on the other end.