Brave Enough To Love Again

Chapter 29

Eden

"Guess who I bumped into last night?"

"Who?"

"Vic the dick!"

My eyes widened in horror, I quickly opened the door and pulled her inside my apartment.

"What did he say? Did you tell him where I live?" I said in a loud voice.

"What? Of course not! He asked about you and how you are doing," she said while holding both of my hands and caressing my palms with her thumbs to calm me down. I was leaning against my locked front door and the tension that had built up within milliseconds began to dissipate and I let out a sigh of relief with my eyes closed.

"I told him you're doing great and that you've never been better," she continued and I looked into her gentle orbs while she talked, "He said that he was happy to hear it. However, before we said our goodbyes, he asked me very tentatively if he could have your new number." Again my eyes widened in horror, but before I could say anything Megan appeased me by saying, "Of course, I didn't give him your number. I'm not an idiot. I don't know everything that happened between you two, but enough to know that you wouldn't want that. Instead, I offered to tell you that he would like to talk to you."

I moved away from the door and made my way towards the living room with Megan right behind me. "Well, I don't want to talk to him, so...," my voice trailed off, "He can wait forever, for all I care." After leaving my bag on the couch I moved closer to the window to look outside but not really seeing anything. Why would Vic come back into my life now? Now that I am happy with Keane.

Megan sat down on the couch and watched me; I felt it rather than saw it. I knew she was dying to know what happened between Vic and me, and I was sure she was trying to find the right words to form a sentence in her head that very moment that I stood there staring into nothingness.

"Ems," she began with the softest voice she had ever used in my presence, "I love you. You know that, right?" She waited for a reaction and I only nodded my head without looking at her still gazing out of the window. "We've known each other since kindergarten and you're more like a sister to me rather than a best friend. You know that, right?" she asked again and I confirmed her statement with just a simple gesture of my head.

"We always told each other everything growing up, and I mean everything," she paused and cleared her throat. I looked around to her, she had a serious and sad expression on her face that tugged at my heart strings. Seeing Megan like that was a rare sight, as she was hardly ever like that. She was a cheerful person through and through, so I left my spot and sat down on the couch in front of her.

"Why?" she asked with her eyes looking at me with disappointment and hurt in them, " Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you just shut me out about this?" Her voice cracked. I guessed that she decided against the forceful interrogation method and chose the soft-tug-at-my-heartstrings technique for the very first time regarding this particular topic, and it worked like a charm.

"Bobbie, don't!" I held her hands and squeezed them reassuringly, "I was ashamed, I didn't want you to know what a coward I had been for years." The words came out with my head bowed down, looking at our tightly clasped hands.

"What do you mean?" she asked while she put a finger under my chin to make me look her in the eyes.

"You know that Vic was my first love," I began, and suddenly the words came pouring out like a faucet that had finally been turned on, "I loved him so much, my feelings verged on utter folly and willful blindness. All that he did and said was right for me. I lost myself, my identity in that relationship. His every word, his every wish was my command. He was never at fault. I served him like a slave, I did everything for him, because I loved him."