"The way things went down. I know it's all my fault."
I could barely believe what I was hearing. Of course, it was her fault.
"What happened?" I asked, placing the spoon down on the table.
She looked at me through tears as she stirred her coffee. She had more to say, I knew it. "I don't know. I guess I choked. About a month before our wedding, I met someone, and he brought something out in me that I couldn't fight. I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't really even think much of it at first, but then something changed."
"So, you just ran off? Just threw away everything that we had?"
"I figured it may not hurt as much that way."
I chuckled to myself. "Laura, just don't." I shook my head, taking a drink of the coffee I barely even wanted to drink now.
"He was different from you. He was adventurous and wanted to have fun, he wanted to see the world...and he wasn't you," she mumbled.
"Of course, he wasn't me," I said. "And where is the wonderful man now?"
"He left me about three months ago. We had gotten engaged, and then he came home one night and told me he had met some other girl one night in a bar we had been in. I tried to keep him, but he took off with her." She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.
I glared at her, at the terrible display of emotion she was trying to trick me with. I cleared my throat and sat back in my chair. "So now you know how it feels. Doesn’t feel so good, does it?" I spat, my angry, vindictive side coming out.
She pulled her chair closer to me and put her hands on my knees. "I made a mistake, Drew. I didn't realize how lucky I was to have you...until you were gone."
"Laura..."
"No, Drew, please just hear me out. I want us to have another chance. I want you back." She didn't give me time to even digest her words. Instead, she just leaned in and kissed me.
Chapter 24
Alexa
I grabbedmy camera from my bag and headed out the front door and down the road, the sound of snow crunching under my feet. I couldn’t stop thinking about last night. After we'd had sex, we’d laid in Drew's bed, his arms wrapped tightly around me, and talked about anything and everything. Occasionally, Drew would whisper into my ear, and then we would kiss for a bit, and then continue talking. We then made love again for the second time, and afterward he’d laid behind me, wrapping his body together with mine, and I had dozed off in his arms. It had been perfect.
Off in the distance, two kids playing in the snow under the streetlights caught my attention, and I stopped to take a couple of pictures. A few more steps down the road, and I snagged a photograph of a young couple sitting on a park bench, his arms wrapped tightly around her. All the answers I had been searching for had seemed to fall into place for me last night, and today I knew, because all day today I had felt so at ease. I felt as if I were floating, as if a sense of peace had fallen around me and was protecting me from the cold, like a warm blanket. In those few hours with Drew last night, I knew for sure he was the one. I smiled to myself at the thought.
I continued my way downtown, stopping along the way to take pictures of anything I thought was worthy of one. The snow had started to fall halfway into town, big, large, wet flakes, and I pulled my hood up over my head while I continued my walk. I rounded the corner, and the little cafe that Drew and I had been in earlier in the week came into view. The memory of the hot chocolate I had there popped into my mind, and I decided I would head over and order one, text Drew, and wait for him there.
I was just about to the door when I looked through the front window and stopped in my tracks. I took a deep breath, fighting the large, aching lump in my throat as I tried hard to process what it was I saw in front of me. As Drew's words from last night floated into my mind, I watched him kissing Laura in the front window of our little cafe.
I felt my camera begin to slip through my fingers as I stood there watching as my heart broke. My camera hit the ground with athud, not even the sound able to pull my gaze away from what was before me.
Tears burned in my eyes seeing him with her. A car horn blared, tearing my attention away from my shattered dream. I bent and picked up my camera, brushing it off and spinning around so they were out of my sight, and I began the long, lonely walk back home.
The tears continued to pour down my face, leaving cold trails of wet as the wind whipped around me. Then it was as if someone had thrown a switch, and I suddenly couldn't understand why I was crying. It wasn't as if we were in a relationship or anything. We had never talked about anything permanent, but every time that thought ran through my mind, my chest ached with an emptiness I couldn't understand. It was as if someone were taking a large knife and plunging it repeatedly into a fresh wound.
When my parents’ house finally came into view, I practically ran up the hill. I had never been so glad to see home as I was right now. I ran up the front steps and through the front door, kicking my boots off and dropping my jacket to the floor before running upstairs and into my bedroom. I dropped to my bed and cried until the tears no longer fell, and a suddenly a wave of panic washed over me.
I had to get out of here.
I jumped up off the bed and pulled my duffle bags out from the closet and began packing my things. I was frantically shoving half a drawer of clothing into one when I heard the front door open. The sound of Ann Marie and my mother’s laugh carried up the stairs. I continued to shove handfuls of clothing into my bag and began ripping apart the remainder of the drawers, mindlessly shoving things inside. I was so engrossed in packing that I didn't hear my bedroom door open.
"Lexi." I heard a soft voice behind me, but I ignored it and continued packing. "Lexi, honey, what’s wrong?"
I stopped mid-shove and looked down at the mess of my duffle bag when I felt my mother's hands on my upper arms. In an instant, everything came pouring out of me, sobs shaking my body so hard that I had no choice but to drop everything.
"Oh, Lexi. It's all right, sweetie." My mom quickly shut the door behind her and pulled me in for one of her comforting hugs. "Lexi, sweetheart, what happened?"
"What hasn't happened?" I cried.