Aspen
Brian and I are alone in the hallway outside my hospital room. He glares down at me, arms folded. “Well....”
My heart thunders in my chest. “I planned to tell you,” I say. “I never meant for you to find out about us like that—”
“Us?” he repeats. “So you two are a thing?” Brian flexes his jaw and shifts his feet. He’s furious.
I drop my eyes and nod. “We’re….”
I’m not sure what to say. What are Sebastian and I exactly? Long lost friends? Exes? Or does my decision to leave with him make us something new? Something current.
“The word you’re looking for is cheating,” he says. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”
My faces flushes and my stomach knots. I feel the urge to give in, to tell him he’s right, that I’m sorry. It’s what I always do, what I’m comfortable with. But I have to be true to myself. This will hurt him, but it’s what’s best for both of us in the long run. I've never felt about Brian what I do for Sebastian. “You have every right to upset. This isn’t fair to you—”
“Not fair?” he shouts. “We’re supposed to get married in two days and I come here and find you kissing some other guy. We're long past not fair, Aspen.”
“Brian, please. Let me finish.”
He shakes his head. “I honestly don’t wanna hear it, Aspen. Just answer me this—Did you sleep with him?”
“No!” I say, getting angry. “If you’d just let me explain….”
He puts his hands around my shoulders and gives me a shake. “Are we still getting married?”
I’m forming my lips to shout at him but those words keep me silent. “I…I don’t know.”
“Well let me make it easy for you.” He grabs hold of my wrist.
“What are you doing?”
He yanks my engagement ring off my finger and throws it down hall. It clinks as it skirts across the tile floor.
“Have a nice friggin’ life,” he barks and turns around. He takes a few steps and then stops. “Screw that.” He whirls around and comes back to me; he slides both his hands around my face, keeping me still, and kisses me hard, passionately.
I have to catch my breath as the kiss ends.
“I won’t give you up that easy,” he says to me.
I don’t even have time to reply before Brian pushes open my hospital room door. My heart skips a beat. Sebastian’s just on the other side, and I see him look up. Brian gives him a shove and he stumbles sideways into the wall. Sebastian balls his fist and swings and I see Brian’s head snap backwards. More fists fly.
Oh God.
I shout for help and rush into the room. The two of them are on the floor now, wrestling to get the upper hand. They knock over the little table next to the bed and Sebastian ends up on top of Brian.
I throw myself over Sebastian’s shoulders and pull backwards. “Stop!” I shout. I feel Sebastian powerful muscles tense in my arms and I know that he’s more than of hitting Brian again if he wanted to.
But he doesn’t. He lets me pull him away and I put myself between them. They both stare at one another, shoulders heaving from the effort.
“She’s my fiancée,” Brian says. “You’ve got no right to come here and mess things up for us.”
