Piece by Piece

Two

CADE POV

"How's your girl?" Justin asked as we were getting changed after in the gym locker room. He helps me with training and I do the same for him so we can each meet our goals.  The guy is a beast when it comes to dead lifts so it's been great to see a difference in my form over the last year working together.

I laughed and shook my head, slipping on jeans while rolling my eyes at his teasing. "Margot is great. She's not my girl, though. We're just friends."

He scoffed, "Cade. Bro. You talk to her more than I talk to my wife. The two of you are constantly messaging every day back and forth. What do you even talk about?"

After considering his question I shrugged, "I mean, everything? We both want to travel so she just sent me a photo from a travel Instagrammer couple that's living in a van for a year. They're camping at sites all over the country and doing vlogs plus posting incredible photos. A fox fell asleep on the guy's tire so he had to wait for it to move before leaving the camp site."

"Is it all just surface level stuff or... like, does she know..."

"She knows enough," I confirmed, cutting off his line of questioning since other trainers are nearby. "And I know enough about her past for now, too. Margot has been through a lot but I know I can trust her. It just hasn't felt right to dig deeper yet."

Justin was quiet but studied me then said, "You should tell her. Maybe she would go to a meeting with you."

"I haven't even met her in person yet, man. We live less than a mile from one another and go to a lot of the same places but it just hasn't happened."

"Why don't you ask her to meet?"

His question was logical. It's the same thing my sister, Blake, asked when I caught up with her the other day. It's been about a year and a half since everything ended with my ex and that was a disaster. Going to rehab was the right choice, especially since Jocelyn disrespected my boundaries constantly when I was trying to get sober for months before that time.

More than that was the violence from Jocelyn every single time I did not do as she commanded.  It was easy to brush off bruises and cuts thanks to how training can be brutal but Blake saw through it each and every time.

I am responsible for my actions. That means I need to be responsible for people I invited into my life and did not step away from when I realized things were bad.  Therapy and going to AA meetings helps, but more than that having someone like Margot in my corner has given me a newfound appreciation for how far I've come.

I don't want to mess this up.

"Honestly, I'm scared." My admission was quiet but Justin nodded.

"I can't blame you, but Margot is not the same as Jocelyn. She cares about you more after a couple weeks messaging than your ex ever did in like 5 years. Maybe think about it, even for something casual like grabbing a burger."

He headed out and I sat on the bench by my locker, staring at my phone.

Fear.

That's what is holding me back.

This girl that somehow burrowed into my life seems too good to be true. If I met her in person, that could shatter the illusions I've been hanging onto... or prove they were right all along.

I opened Instagram and saw a new message from Margot. Just the notification made me smile. She's become a closer friend since we started talking on New Years Eve than most people I've known for years. Our conversations are all over the map, from random comments about our work day to photos of burnt pancakes that I ruined this morning, as well as brushing over some of our pasts.