“I don’t know where that girl gets her energy.” Amber said nodding her head towards Sophie as she took a large drink of water.
Chelle sank back into the cushiony paradise of the couches they were seated on as she took a long pull on her own bottle of water, “She’s been like that since we were kids. She was always go, go, go.”
“Chelle?” A woman said behind where they were seated.
Amber looked up before Chelle had a chance to turn around, “Hey, Megan.”
Chelle turned around and smiled, “Hi.”
Megan was a few years older than Chelle. Although she vaguely knew who the other woman was, Chelle didn’t think they had ever actually spoken before. Megan had always reminded Chelle of a Barbie. In high school, she had been a cheerleader, popular, blonde…perfect.
“Are you seeing Riley?” Megan’s voice was shaky. She wasn’t smiling.
Chelle was completely caught off guard. She didn’t exactly know what to say, so she went with the truth, “I haven’t seen him since we got back to Harper’s Crossing.”
“OKAY,” Megan’s voice started getting louder as her indignation grew and she seemed to be teetering closer to the edge of losing control, “then would you please explain to me why - after we have been together for three months - he spends a couple of days with you, and now all of a sudden he doesn’t want to see me anymore?”
“What?” Chelle stood in shock, not believing what she was hearing.
“Riley and I have been together for months and now he’s not even returning my calls,” she yelled.
Amber quickly moved and stood protectively in front of Chelle. She spoke calmly but firmly, “Megan, you need to calm down, sweetie.”
“No, I don’t,” she wailed as she tried to step around Amber. Her eyes burned with fury as she jabbed her finger accusingly at Chelle, “Just because you don’t know how to keep a man doesn’t mean you get to steal other people’s.”
“Megan, stop,” Amber commanded.
“It’s fine, Amber,” Chelle moved so that she was standing closer to Megan and the entire bar didn’t overhear their conversation. Luckily, the music was so loud and the place was so packed that no one had seemed to notice the drama so far.
Chelle looked into her eyes and saw real pain there. She knew that she hadn’t done anything to intentionally cause it, but she still felt bad for her. “Look Megan,” she said softly, “I don’t know anything about what’s going on with you and Riley. I haven’t heard from him since he dropped me off the other day. I swear.”
Megan’s shoulders slumped and her lower lip trembled, “I…I just…I love him.”
Chelle wanted to tell her that she could relate, but she didn’t think that would go over so well.
Tears fell down Megan’s cheeks, “I thought it was going to work this time.”
This time?
Chelle had never known that Megan and Riley were a couple. But, then again, no one knew about her and Riley being a ‘couple’, either....but still.
Chelle knew what the deal was because she had seen so many girls strung out over Eddie. The truth was, though, if she hadn’t been privy to those ‘relationships’ and heard how her brother would talk about those girls, she would probably have been just as naive as Megan. She most likely would have thought that she and Riley had something special. She might have been the one making a scene in a bar.
Well, no probably not. That wasn’t really her style. Still, she was glad she had seen up close and personal what the aftermath of loving Riley Sloan could do to a person if she wasn't vigilant. And Megan said they had been talking for months!
Riley had told Chelle he wasn’t seeing anyone.
Hmmmm....
It doesn’t matter, she told herself, whatever Riley and I had is over now.
And so was this night. Chelle had had just about all of the ‘Girl’s Night Out’ fun she could stand. Even her empty bed was better than this.
Chapter Twenty-three
Riley hadn’t seen Chelle in four days. Well...technically four days, eighteen hours, and about forty-five minutes. He had just heard Sophie tell his cousin Becca that Chelle would be bringing peanut butter fudge to the BBQ, so he knew that at some point this afternoon the, last-time-I-saw-Chelle, clock that had been constantly running in his mind would be reset back to zero.
Every day that he had spent without seeing her felt like a marathon. He had tried tricking his mind. He couldn't face waking up and accepting the reality that he was going to face an entire day without hearing her voice, touching her, hearing her laugh, seeing her smile. So instead, he broke his day up into hours. He would tell himself he couldn’t call her for an hour. Then once that hour passed he would add another hour.