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Addie nodded, then dug in for more ice cream.
***
The metal frame of the futon dug into her back causing even more discomfort when she woke the next morning. Even though her cousin had offered her the use of her old bedroom, Addie declined and slept on the futon she’d left in the spare bedroom. She’d always intended to replace it with a proper bed. Since until recently she’d
never had any guests the entire two years she lived here, she never had.
This morning, as the metal bars poked into her back, she wished she’d invested in that extra bed. Rubbing at her temples she closed her eyes again, the sunlight making her headache worse. The last time she’d had a headache this bad was the one time she’d tried giving up all caffeinated beverages. She’d lasted only two days before she grabbed a jumbo iced tea from a nearby fast food restaurant.
Addie groaned as her stomach rolled, and for a moment she feared the ice cream from the night before would make a repeat performance. That’s what I get for eating a whole container of ice cream. She swallowed down the bile rising in her throat. Never again.
A soft knock sounded on the door, followed by Chloe’s voice. “I’m leaving for work. I left some bacon and waffles on the counter for you. Will you be here when I get home?”
“I will,” Addie answered. “Possibly in the very same spot if this headache doesn’t go away.”
The door opened and Chloe poked her head inside. “There is some extra strength Excedrin in the bathroom. See you later.”
Addie waited until she could lift her head without the pounding making her dizzy. Still in the pj’s she’d borrowed from Chloe, she went downstairs. Perhaps a coffee would send the drummer in her head on his way.
The combined smell of bacon and waffles hit her head-on when she entered the kitchen. Her stomach, still upset from the previous night’s overindulgence, flipped sending Addie on a mad dash to the bathroom, which she made it to just in time.
Once confident her stomach held nothing else, she splashed cold water on her face. Vomiting was the least pleasant physical response in the world and something she rarely did. Patting her face dry, she looked into the mirror. While her tan from the summer had faded, she usually had more color than she did now. Making her appearance even worse were the purple smudges under her bloodshot eyes. Man, was it a good thing today was Saturday. She looked like hell. Had she looked this bad last night, too? If so, no wonder Chloe appeared worried when she opened the door.
There’s nothing you can do about it now. Addie turned off the light. Besides, she had other problems, all of them with the name Trent attached to them. How could he treat her this way? Sure, she’d read that he was a carefree playboy, but she’d never heard him called cruel. The way he’d manipulated their relationship bordered on cruelty in her mind. And if what he said was true and he did love her, how could she ever know for sure? Could she ever hear him say those words and not wonder if he had his reputation and political career in mind?
Addie skipped the bacon and waffles and made herself a hot cup of herbal tea. As much as she wanted a nice big hot coffee, she knew her stomach would never handle it. Addie washed some headache medicine down with her tea. Man, she hoped Trent had as crummy of a night as she had. When she walked out, she’d noticed the distraught expression on his face. “He was probably upset his plan backfired,” she muttered to herself as she grabbed her toast from the toaster.
Something soft and fuzzy rubbed against her leg and Addie slammed her knee into the table when she jerked it away. “Ouch.” Glancing under the table she spotted Hugh, her cousin’s black cat. A stray rescued from a local animal shelter, Hugh’s entire body was black except for one small patch of white around the eye. Not your typical cat, at least in terms of the ones she met before, Hugh loved human companionship much the way a dog did. “I forgot you were here.” She scratched the cat behind the ears. Hugh purred, then licked her hand before curling up into a ball on her feet.
Both Addie and the cat stayed in the kitchen. Addie sipping her tea and thinking about Trent, while Hugh kept her bare feet warm. “This isn’t solving anything, Hugh.” While she couldn’t solve her problems with Trent, she could solve one of her other problems, her lack of clothes. All of her stuff remained at his place. While at some point she’d have to get it, she wasn’t up for that today. Thankfully, she had a credit card and a nearby mall. After depositing her half-eaten dry toast in the trash, she headed upstairs.
***
He’d tried calling her five times while she shopped. When the fifth one came in the dressing room of Macy’s she switched off the ringer. Now back at home, or rather Chloe’s, she unpacked her shopping bags, her cell phone still switched to vibrate.
She owned more than enough clothes and as soon as she felt ready, she’d face Trent and get them. For now the clothes in the bags as well as what she borrowed from Chloe would hold her over. Once she hung up her clothes, she grabbed her phone. She couldn’t leave it on vibrate forever. What if her parents or one of her brothers called? She punched in her password. She’d missed six calls, five from Trent and one from her cousin. Her first instinct was to delete all the messages he’d left. Nothing he could say would change her mind. She needed time and space. Her curiosity got the better of her and rather than delete the messages she listened to each one.
On the first message he sounded remorseful as he apologized again and asked her to come back. By the fourth he sounded frustrated. There was no missing the desperation in his voice during the fifth message when he all but begged her to call him back.
All the messages pulled at her heart, turning her water works back on. Even knowing the truth about why he asked her on that first date, she wanted to believe he loved her like he claimed. But how could she believe that from someone who’d started their relationship because of a plan?
After deleting all the messages from Trent she played the last one from Chloe. Her message only asked about how she felt and told Addie to call if she needed anything. Deleting that message as well, she prepared herself some lunch. She’d considered buying something from the mall’s food court. When she’d walked into the area though, the smell of greasy burgers, pizza, and Chinese food sent her running for the bathroom. Now though, her stomach grumbled. A can of soup and a cheese sandwich sounded like just the thing.
Chapter 17
She’d never considered herself a chicken. Well, unless it came to thunderstorms, but that was a whole other story. Yet, by Thursday of the following week Addie still hadn’t worked up the courage to get her things from Trent’s apartment. Which left her with two options, either she sucked it up and went over there or hit the mall and racked up a higher credit card bill. In all honesty, she couldn’t decide which option was worse.
So far she’d not spoken with him once. He’d called every day since that dreadful Friday night, leaving her messages when she didn’t answer. He’d also stopped by on Monday night, but she’d been up in Worcester meeting with a new client so Chloe had dealt with him. After that unannounced visit she’d feared he’d show up at her office. After all, she did work a few floors below him now. Perhaps because he feared a public scene, he never showed up there. That hadn’t stopped him from sending her a dozen roses. Unlike the previous flowers he’d sent, these found their way into the trash, as did the handwritten note attached.
In the end, Addie managed to avoid both solutions. Around noon on Thursday, Chloe made an unexpected visit to her office. With her shift at the bakery over and her late afternoon class canceled for the day, she’d popped in and invited Addie for lunch.
“I’m not sure eating out is a good idea considering I need a whole new wardrobe. I should work on saving my money where I can.” Addie covered her mouth as she yawned again and wondered if another cup of coffee would help. So far today she’d had three cups of coffee and two hot teas, but she still had trouble keeping her eyes open. It had been that way since last week in fact. At first she’d chalked it up to Trent’s short business trip. After their falling out on Friday, she’d assumed it was the stress from that. Whatever the cause, she needed her body back to normal. Every morning she got up tired as if she’d not slept at all. The exhaustion only made her nausea worse.
“Do you want me to get your stuff from him?” Chloe asked.
She’d considered asking for Chloe’s help but dismissed the idea almost right away. “You’d do tha
t?”
