Page 85 of Henley

“It’s fine. I’m glad I know.” I stepped away from him. “Thanks again for moving all this. You guys did a great job.”

“You’re welcome,” he said softly, and I heard him start to walk away, but he stopped, and his voice was soft when he spoke again. “I’m sorry.”

I kept my back to him so he wouldn’t see the tears streaming down my face. “Thanks, Roman,” I called out to him.

His reply was the steady sound of his boots on the hardwood floor as he walked away. Once the door was closed, and I heard the box truck that he’d borrowed from someone and another truck leave, I sank to the kitchen floor and began to sob.

It must have been fifteen minutes before I finally got off the floor, found something to wipe my nose with, and grabbed my jacket, purse, and keys. I needed to get back to Pat and Dave’s house and collect my things.

I hadn’t planned on leaving so quickly, but knowing what I did now, I couldn’t stay there. How long had Lee been seeing her? What was going on with them? The pictures were ingrained in my mind, and as much as I didn’t want to think about them, that was all I could do.

I had just pulled into the driveway of his parents’ house when my phone began to ring, and I saw it was him. I ignored it and quickly parked, leaving my phone in the car so I wouldn’t be tempted to lose my mind on him. I couldn’t talk to him when I was this raw.

When I let myself into the house, it was dark, and I remembered that Pat and Dave had plans tonight. I rushed up to the bedroom and threw everything that I had unpacked into my suitcases haphazardly. I didn’t care how wrinkled things were; I just needed to be gone before his parents arrived home.

Luckily, I got it all into my car after six trips up and down the stairs, and I paused in the kitchen. My gaze slipped around the room, and the tears started again as I remembered the fun that I’d had in here—the feeling of love and family. I found a piece of paper and wrote a quick note about being so excited to be in my own place, I went over early. I thanked them again and told Pat I would talk to her soon.

There was no way I was going to be able to avoid her, not with being committed to helping with the party, but by then, maybe I would have been able to tell Lee what I really thought of him.

Susan! How could he be involved with Susan? The tears started again as I drove down the driveway to the road. In the rearview mirror, all my hopes and dreams began to disappear into the darkness.

It wasn’t until I was at the new house that I picked up my phone and saw another phone call and two text messages. I read them, anger flaring up inside of me when he told me he loved me and couldn’t wait to christen my new place.

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen,” I growled as I climbed out of my car and began to haul my suitcases inside.

After it was all in, I was hot and exhausted. I dragged my suitcases into my bedroom and found my toiletries. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any towels, but I did have my bathrobe so that would have to do. I took a long shower, falling apart again under the steady stream of warm water. When I was done, I wrapped myself in my robe, climbed onto my bed, pulled a jacket over my body, and promptly fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt numb. Almost as if someone I cared about had died. I guess in a way, something had died, but it was only my dreams. I knew that eventually I would get over it.

I stared at the spot that my coffee pot would eventually go and wished that I had it now. My cellphone was on the counter, and I glanced at it to see three more phone calls and six more messages from Lee. I didn’t bother to listen to them or read the messages and deleted them all.

After getting dressed, I sent my brother a text message thanking him again and telling him to send me the pictures. A few minutes later, they arrived on my phone, and I stared at them for a long time before saving them to my phone. I started typing a message to Lee and paused, not sure what to say. Finally, I settled on:Susan, OMG! Of all people – SUSAN!!!! Don’t even bother trying to explain. We are so over. Please do not contact me again.I attached the two pictures to the message and sent it.

I switched over to his contact information as soon as I saw that the pictures had been delivered, and I blocked his contact information. Now he wouldn’t be able to reply.

Feeling a bit vindicated but still very brokenhearted, I headed out to the local superstore to get towels and a few other things that I would need until I got the rest of my things.

What had I thought when I had let myself fall in love with him? Did I believe that it was somehow going to be different? That he would be different than other men? I hated to admit it, but my brother had been right; Lee was a dog.

I collected the items I would need at the store to tide me over and grabbed a cup of coffee to go from a local donut shop, along with a couple of my favorite donuts to feed my sorrow. I was still early for work, but I didn’t mind. I would prefer to lose my mind in events and not dwell on my own sorry state of life.

Every time my phone chimed or rang, I looked at it suspiciously, and if it was a number that I did not recognize, I let it go to voicemail. Around four that afternoon, I received a text from Pat. I winced when I saw her name, but as I looked over what she had written, I realized it was nothing sinister and was instead a warm message saying they were sorry they missed me last night and hoped that I enjoyed the first night in my new home. I wrote her back that I did and thanked her again for her hospitality.

After that, there was an event emergency with a significant menu issue, and I spent the next three hours trying to get it fixed. I went home, put the new sheets on my bed, spread out the new blanket I’d bought, and crawled in. I was asleep before I knew it.

* * *

The next week flew by,and I had yet to speak with Lee. For a couple days, I wondered if he would show up on my doorstep, but thankfully he didn’t. I was also sad that he hadn’t and wished that there had been another explanation for what I saw in the pictures. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be one, and I had to resign myself with the fact that it really was over.

On the night of the Valentine’s party, I was both excited and extremely nervous. I looked forward to meeting a lot of the community, but I knew that I would come face-to-face with Pat and Dave Young. There was a good chance that Brad, Hunt, and Riley would be there too, and I had to believe that they knew Lee and I had broken up. The last I knew, Lee had been scheduled to work tonight, so I didn’t expect him to be there. Thank God for small miracles.

I’d spoken with Pat the other day, and while she was pleasant enough, I felt a disconnect with her that had not been there before. Maybe tonight I would apologize to them for what had happened and tell them that I was really sorry that it hadn’t worked out with their son. It was the truth. The fact that I would never be a part of that fantastic family was almost as troubling as the way I found out about Lee’s indiscretions.

At the party, I was so busy at first making sure that things were as they were supposed to be that I didn’t see half the guests arrive. Pat did find me right away and surprised me with a huge hug. I fought back the urge to cry as I held her.

When she pulled back, she looked me in the eye. “It turned out wonderfully, Roxanne, thank you.”

“It did.”

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