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“Shelly,” Cal called out.
When his hand touched my arm, I yanked it away and said, “Don’t touch me.”
He held up his hands as if in surrender and said, “Please … Don’t go. Don’t do this.”
“I didn’t do anything, you did. I can’t stay,” I sobbed. “I can’t stand to look at you.”
I turned my back on the hurt look on his face and slammed the door on my way out.
I got into my little Ford pickup and peeled out in the driveway in my haste to get as far away from Cal as possible. As I drove on autopilot, the enormity of the situation weighed heavily on my mind.
The only man I’d ever loved, who I’d always trusted implicitly, had just made a mockery of everything I’d thought and felt over the last six years of our relationship.
I was in shock.
I’d always believed that Cal and I would be together forever … That we’d have children and grow old together.
That he would never hurt me.
Well, he hadn’t just hurt me. He’d crushed me. He’d crushed us.
I pulled up to the home I’d grown up in and had barely turned off the car before I was catapulting out of it. I ran up the steps and put my key in the door. I flung it open, sobbing and crying, and looked around frantically.
My dad came out of the kitchen, his face covered in surprise as he looked at me. I was still in my anniversary outfit and must have looked half out of my mind.
I was.
“Shell Bell, what’s going on? Are you hurt?”
“Oh, Daddy,” I cried as I rushed into his arms and held on tightly.
He patted my back and murmured that everything would be okay. And although I knew that this was one thing my father wouldn’t be able to fix for me, I allowed myself to be soothed by his words.
Chapter 5 – Cal
I dropped to my knees after she walked out the door. I’m not sure how long I stayed there, staring at the closed door, willing it to open again and to have Shelly walk back in. It never did.
When I got up and walked around the dining room, followed by the kitchen, my stomach clenched at the effort she’d put into the evening. I could feel the love and happiness that had gone into the planning and execution of our anniversary celebration, and it killed me that I’d ruined all of it.
I walked back to our bedroom and sat on the bed. As I stared at Shelly’s open drawers, I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Scott.
“’Lo,” he said after one ring.
“She left,” I said simply.
“I’m on my way,” Scott said. I could hear his keys jingling as he hung up the phone.
Scott had been my best friend since the moment we both rode up on our Huffy bikes on the first day of sixth grade. We could count on each other in good times and bad, and he was the only person other than Shelly that I could go to when I needed to talk.
I thought about the look on her face when she realized what I was about to confess. I never wanted to put that look on her face, and I was torn apart that I had.
The first time I saw Shelly, my initial thoughts were not of marriage. I was sixteen years old, and she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. Her green eyes made her entire face light up, her long brown hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, and her body was to die for. I wanted her. Badly. It was that simple.
“Dibs,” I’d called out to Scott and TJ when I saw her. They’d both followed my gaze and TJ’d replied, “Shit … She’s fine.”
I don’t know where I’d gotten the courage, but I walked right up to her and started talking. I’d asked her out for that weekend, and she’d said yes. We’d been together ever since, and I’d never wanted anyone else. This was why I found it unfathomable, that no matter how wasted I was, I would’ve cheated on her. I just couldn’t believe it.
“Cal,” Scott yelled from somewhere in the house.
