“No Derek, she’s right,” I said quickly, trying to ease the tension in the room. “I’m sorry, Cam. I didn’t do it to hurt your feelings. That wasn’t my intention.”
Cam’s tight shoulders seemed to relax, slightly.
She sighed and nodded.
“Apology accepted,” she said, as she stood up. “I have a shoot in thirty minutes, so I’ll catch you both later.”
She walked out of the room without so much as a backwards glance.
The front door slammed loudly and Derek and I both seemed to blow out a breath.
I knew she was lying about the photo shoot.
Cam modeled on the side to pay for college and the bills, but never on a Saturday morning. Cam always went shopping on Saturday mornings. It was her version of church and she was completely devoted. And she always made me go with her, obviously, I wasn’t invited today.
I turned to Derek.
“Have you any idea what that was about?” I asked, more confused by Cam’s abruptness towards Derek than towards me.
I deserved it, but what the heck had Derek done? Those two were the most affectionate couple I knew.
“This is the way she’s been acting with weeks.” Derek sighed, shaking his head. “I better go after her,” he muttered, patting my shoulder, before rushing out after Cam.
“Wait,” I called out when I noticed Derek’s keys on the table, but the sound of the front door slamming, confirmed he hadn’t heard me.
I took Cam’s cup and busied myself with washing the breakfast dishes.
I glanced at the clock on the wall over the stove. It was only nine thirty in the morning and the weekend was off to a crummy start.
Filling the sink with water, I washed the dishes, as I pondered over the realization that Cam and Derek were having problems.
Neither had mentioned anything when they visited.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen much of Derek lately, and Cam had been kind of standoffish the last few days.
Was she mad with him, or had I done something else, besides piss her off over Mike? What the hell had happened while I was gone?
I jumped at the sound of the doorbell ringing.
Drying my hands on a towel, I rushed down the hall and opened it, expecting it to be Derek, coming back for his keys.
It was Rachel.
Her groomed eyebrows shot up in surprise, her face twisted into a scowl.
I guessed she was as surprised to see me as I was to see her, here, in Kyle’s house, again.
And what the hell was she wearing?
I could see her boobs through the skin tight fabric of the white dress she had on.
“I’m here for Kyle,” she sneered, brushing past me, confident and stunning as usual.
“He’s not here.”
I closed the door behind her, standing as tall and fierce as I could. My short frame was dwarfed by Rachel.
She towered over me in her neck-breaking thigh-high boots.
“I figured that, hick. I said I was here for him, not asking if he was here. I already know where he is.”
Derek had said Kyle was out walking Bruno, and I burned to ask Rachel how she knew that, but pride was impaling me, screaming at my common sense to shut the hell up and not give her the satisfaction.
“Suit yourself, Rachel,” I muttered, stamping down on the pain in my heart from my bitter realization that Kyle was still in contact with Rachel.
I moved past her to the kitchen. She followed me, way too close for comfort.
“Packing a little extra weight there, Lee?”
Forcing myself to ignore her derisive tone, I cut her one of my bored stares. She was not going to draw me into an argument. Not now, not ever again.
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
My voice sounded light and carefree, even though I was anything but. This bun Kyle had put in my oven, was definitely supersized.
Rachel glowered at me; a look of pure revulsion encompassed her dainty features.
She flicked her long red hair behind her shoulder.
“I know what you did. He told me,” she spat.
I had a fair idea who she meant by ‘he,’ but I forced myself to shrug casually.
“I do a lot of things, Rachel, I’m sure you don’t know all of those. That would be creepy.” I was sort of proud of myself. The girl I’d been a month ago would never have said a word to Rachel.
Good thing I wasn’t that girl anymore. I’d grown a spine and sprouted some nerve to go with it.
“I know you trapped him, but it won’t work,” she said nastily, leaning way too close to my face.
She pointed a perfectly manicured finger towards my stomach. “That mistake, isn’t going to help you keep Kyle forever. Hell, it hasn’t helped you keep him at all. Guess who he was with last night?”
My breath caught in my lungs.
Rachel seemed to know exactly what to say to press my buttons. And it hurt, oh god, did it hurt. Her words cut deep.