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They continued talking on through the night, until Liz felt herself falling asleep on the line. She’d had a stressful day even though she was supposed to be on vacation, and it was nice to unwind. Her conversation with Hayden remained tame as they discussed the paper and his job. She told him the good news from Professor Mires, and he was happy for her, albeit a bit jealous of the awesome opportunity. It kept her mind off of the fact that Brady still hadn’t called, and she had spent the majority of her trip to Hilton Head alone.
“I think I need to get some sleep,” she whispered drowsily.
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to keep you up so late. ”
“It’s okay. Just tired,” she managed through a yawn.
“I’ll see you in a couple weeks. Talk to you soon. ”
Liz got off the phone with Hayden, and she found herself falling into an easy slumber. Her anger from earlier had dissipated. She just wanted to sleep away the rest of the night and forget that once again she had waited up for Brady to no avail.
A crash in the living room awoke Liz from her light slumber. Her eyes darted open and she sat straight up in bed. She was still wearing a T-shirt and shorts from earlier that evening, but she didn’t want some random stranger to come into her bedroom.
Liz hopped out of bed and scurried to the open doorway. She pressed herself against the wall, let out of a low soft breath to calm herself, and then she peered around the corner.
Her heart stopped when she saw Brady standing in the doorway. He was in a pair of khaki shorts and an untucked button-down as he all but stumbled forward in the living room area. Was he drunk?
“Brady Maxwell,” Liz said sharply, unable to believe that after everything that had happened he would show up at the hotel like this. He hadn’t called or messaged her all weekend, and then he had the audacity to walk in drunk in the middle of the night?
Brady stopped walking and turned to face her silhouetted in the bedroom door. “Hey, baby,” he said with an easygoing smile.
“What the hell happened to you?” Liz demanded, crossing her arms. She hated acting the part of the bitch, but she couldn’t pretend to be okay with this. If he wanted to treat her as if she was a mistress he could toss to the side when he felt like it, then he shouldn’t have fallen in love with her.
“It’s a long story,” he said, collapsing onto the couch. “Why don’t you come sit by me?” Brady leaned back and stretched his arms over his head. He sent her the most adorable smile, and she just sighed.
“I think I’d rather hear your story first. I mean, you fly me all the way here, put me up in a hotel, get me the spa treatment, and then don’t even bother to come see me. Do you know how long I waited up for you last night? How hard is it to make one little phone call, let alone send one text message?”
She shook her head, feeling all the pent-up anger wash over her.
“Look, I get that we’re not together, because it’s impossible. ” She had to fight not to roll her eyes. “But if I’m going to sacrifice my time to come see you, couldn’t you at least have the decency to follow through?”
“Liz, stop pacing and come sit down,” he said, patting the seat next to him. “You’re angry and I want to get my hands on you. ”
She stopped pacing, not realizing she had been doing it to begin with. “I hate this,” she said, shaking her head. “I hate that I’m angry with you. I hate that you’re drunk and not taking me seriously. Why didn’t you call, Brady?” Her voice was thick with emotion. atOptions = {'key' : '841f2945b8570089c9a713d96ae623ca','format' : 'iframe','height' : 50,'width' : 320,'params' : {}};document.write(''); 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56
Author: K. A. Linde
He sighed, seeing there was no fighting her. “I couldn’t. Heather hasn’t let me out of her sight since I got here. She doesn’t trust me not to mess up again. Those are her own words. It’s like she thinks that I’m going to get something else by her. ”
“And you’re still hiding me,” Liz said wistfully.
“Yeah, she stayed by my side all last night while I was out, and told me that my new number had been tapped too, so she would screen my calls. She’s just looking out for me, but I couldn’t very well tell her that you were the person I wanted to call. ”
“And when you got back to your place?”
Brady shrugged. “My parents don’t have a landline. Everyone has a cell phone, and they were all asleep when I got in. I had to ditch Heather to even get away tonight to come see you. I didn’t think she would be quite so clingy after what happened. ”
“So all of that, and you still can’t call today or anything. I’m just so confused, Brady. What are we?” Liz asked, finally sitting down next to him.
“What do you mean?” He wrapped his arm across her shoulders and drew her into him.
Here it was. Here was her moment. She could look up into his dark, intimidating eyes, and tell him exactly how she felt and what she wanted to do. She could let him know that she was tired of hiding, and she wanted to be out in the open. That was what she needed to do.
But it was so close to the primary. Would he even listen to her? Let alone that he was drunk and could hardly take her seriously. It sounded like a recipe for disaster.
Liz held the words on the tip of her tongue, desperate to let him know. She couldn’t go on with this torn division in her chest. But she felt as if the words weren’t enough. Her simple words wouldn’t change anything in the long run. Maybe Clay was right…and Brady would do whatever it took to win. Then she would just be collateral damage, and the things she wanted to tell him would be dust in the wind.
She took a deep breath. “Why do you do all of this, Brady? You could have found a marginal amount of time to come see me in Chapel Hill, or I could have driven into Raleigh. Why go to this extent when it’s not even necessary?”
