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Seven came and still no Ryder. While Brad and Jenna jumped on stage to welcome the crowd and get them hyped up, I pulled out my phone and checked my email. Sure enough, there was one from Ryder.
Sorry this is last minute, but something has come up and I need to attend to it. I’ll catch you later.
I shoved my phone back into my purse.
“Everything okay?” Aspen whispered.
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I should have expected to be disappointed.”
Aspen grinned wickedly. “I can order another cockroach.”
“I’ll let you know.”
~*~
I arrived home just after midnight. After the show at the club, we all decided to do a late dinner together to celebrate yet another Jenna and Brad sports night comedy victory. That, and it meant baby snuggles for me. Jenna and Brad picked up Elliot from Brad’s dad’s house before they met us for dinner. They couldn’t stand to be away from him for too long. I couldn’t blame them.
While Elliot was not the man I hoped to be snuggling for the evening, he was a great substitute. Though as cute and cuddly as he was, he didn’t take my mind off Ryder. We discussed Ryder at length. The women were for naming a cockroach on his behalf, but the men said we women were reading too much into it. Brad and Sawyer sympathized with starting a new business, as they had each done it. Regardless, it was disheartening.
Not as disheartening, though, as when I walked into the mostly dark house. The only light came from the large flat screen in the family room. A movie I didn’t recognize played on it, but a distinct sound I hadn’t heard in a long while was louder than the surround sound. Bobby Jay’s snoring was unmistakable. It sounded like an opossum had gotten stuck in a garbage disposal. What was he doing here? I’d asked him if he wanted to come to the comedy club tonight, too. I suggested he bring his mystery lady, but he said he and his girl had plans already.
I tiptoed into the family room and discovered I was right, Bobby Jay was there sound asleep sitting up on the large leather couch with his big mouth hanging open.
Not only was I right, but I was dead wrong. Wrong to ever have any hope of Ryder and I getting back together. He slept on the couch too, right between Marlowe and Macey. A girl for each shoulder. They all looked cozy—boy, girl, boy, girl—under the afghans that normally hung on the back of the couch. I guess something had come up, all right. Why didn’t he just tell me he had a date? With which Carrington twin I had no idea; they both looked like a candidate with how contently they slept on him.
I ran from the room and held in the sobs that wanted to erupt from my chest until I made it to my bedroom. Once behind the safety of its door, a cry so gut wrenching escaped me that it had me sliding down the door until my head fell into my knees. There I cried a river down my bare legs.
An ache worse than the one I felt after getting those godforsaken pictures filled me. I had my answer. It wasn’t what I wished or hoped for, but there it was handed to me in a cruel manner. Maybe this was his revenge. One cowardly act for another.
I eventually cried myself to sleep there. I woke up on the floor to a damp spot on the carpet. The morning light was barely filtering in through the blinds. I sat up and felt like that time my cousin Arlene had given me the whiskey and cigarette. My head pounded, but it was clear, and I knew what I had to do after I showered. My body needed the warm water after a night of sleeping on the floor and crying.
I let the water wash over me, wishing all the hurt could wash down the drain, but it was ever present. Nevertheless, I was determined to finally move on from Carroll Ryder Prescott. I was going to start by giving back his ring and searching for a new place to live. I had no intention of seeing him gallivant around with Macey or Marlowe.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to see Bobby Jay again. He had to have known. All that talk about us being family was just a lie. Maybe I could talk Mr. Jacobsen into renting me the yellow house this summer. We could do a rent-to-own situation. And maybe Macey and Marlowe could find new employment at Prescott Technologies because the first person to say Ryder’s name at the boutique was getting fired.
I got ready for church, because if ever I needed Jesus, today was the day. I put into practice the code of all Southern women: I did my hair and makeup and threw on some high heels. Meanwhile, I was dying inside. Opening my nightstand drawer and reaching for his ring almost made the makeup all for naught, but I held back the tears. I had shed my share throughout the night and for the past year. I threw the ring box in my purse, resisting the urge to look at the vintage byzantine ring one more time. It wasn’t mine anymore. And I didn’t care how early it was, I was giving it back first thing this morning. I could no longer carry the emotional weight of it.
