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“Change your number,” Brooke demanded.
“What?”
Sweeping her hand out in front of her and in my direction, Brooke clarified, “Either do that, or block his number. He’s not going to stop reaching out to you unless you make it impossible for him. You’ll deal with regular calls and texts from him for far too long. And eventually, hopefully, it’ll dwindle like it did for Rhea.” Brooke shifted her attention to me. “Tristan only calls you once every few weeks now, right?”
“Generally,” I declared. “Sometimes, it’s more frequently. I guess it just depends.”
I didn’t want to tell them he’d called twice over the last two weeks.
I hadn’t changed my number because I didn’t think it was fair. I was too stubborn to allow Tristan to have that kind of power over me.
But there was no question I didn’t like that he refused to leave me alone completely.
Following a beat of silence, I added, “It’s going to take you time, Em. I’ve been there. Brooke has, too. Granted, the specifics of the situations were slightly different for us, but the bottom line is that you were hurt by someone you trusted, and healing from that doesn’t happen overnight.”
She nodded her understanding. “I know. It just sucks being alone again. I can’t believe I thought he could be the one.”
“Better to be alone than with a liar who could step out on his family,” Brooke pointed out.
“Exactly,” I agreed. “And look at me now. Even with the regular calls from Tristan over the last nine months, I’m happier than I was when I was with him. I don’t even think about him until I see his name pop up on the screen, and in that instance, all I’m thinking about is how glad I am that I dodged that bullet.”
Emily offered a small smile in return. “I can’t wait for the day my emotions match the shift in my perspective. Because I can honestly say I’m glad I dodged the bullet, too. But at the same time, I’m in a place where I don’t feel happier just yet. I know it’ll come.”
“Maybe you and I will meet great guys tonight, and it’ll happen sooner than you think,” Brooke suggested. “I would add Rhea to the mix, but I get the feeling she’s got some pretty big news to share with us about Wyatt.”
There was such an overwhelming sense of positivity and hope in her tone, and even if I believed my news would completely crush it, I didn’t think it would be possible to bring Brooke’s mood down. Unless something truly traumatizing happened, she was always a beacon of light.
With their expectant eyes on me, I decided it was time to let it out. “I saw Wyatt Westwood nearly every single day for the last two weeks.”
Both of their jaws dropped as they stared at me in disbelief. “Are you serious?”
I nodded.
“How? What happened?”
I didn’t hesitate to fill them in. “I went running on Monday morning, and he was there.”
“Was he following you?”
Laughing, I said, “That’s exactly what I asked him. But he insisted it wasn’t the case, that he goes running there all the time. I still didn’t believe him, so he told me to challenge him to a run. If he wasn’t a runner, he would have trouble keeping up.”
My friends were exhilarated by this news. Leaning forward, Brooke’s enthusiasm for more became evident. “And? Did he?”
“I’m convinced he could have zipped by me if he really wanted to,” I muttered.
“But he didn’t?” Emily asked hopefully.
I shook my head.
“Okay, so he saw you there Monday, and the two of you ran together,” Brooke declared. “Did you make a plan to do the same thing all week with him?”
“Not exactly.” When the confusion washed over their expressions, I said, “He asked me about my knees.”
If I thought that was going to explain anything, I would have been wrong. My friends looked even more perplexed. So, I inhaled deeply and blew out that breath before I launched in to tell them everything that had happened throughout the first week. I shared how he’d urged me to try running on the hiking trails, the way he purposely slowed down when I thought I was going to die running them for the first time, and how we’d alternated running both along the bike path and the hiking trails throughout the remainder of the week.
Of course, I made it clear that beyond the day I planned to meet him there for that first run on the hiking trail, nothing had been planned on my end. I wasn’t going to give up my morning runs just to avoid seeing him, and Wyatt continued to be there every morning when I arrived. Admittedly, I laughed about it when I shared that part, because I found it funny. He realized if I arrived before him, there wasn’t a chance I’d sit around waiting for him to show up.
Brooke and Emily were gripped by my story, hanging on to every word I shared, completely spellbound.
