Do You Believe In Destiny?

Chapter Twenty Three

A minute without Normani...an hour...a day...she felt every second of the time passing by at a snail's pace.

 Every breath was a struggle - the molecules in the air having taken on the qualities of glass, ripping through her lungs when she dared try to breathe. Eating was impossible. Moving was tedious. There seemed no point in speaking. If she hadn't had obligations, she wouldn't have bothered to get out of bed in the morning, at all.

Why she even bothered to get into bed to begin with...she was beyond exhausted, but the second she closed her eyes she was haunted by nightmares - the kind of horrors that would cause her to wake in a cold sweat, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Her brain didn't even need to twist or contort the past in order to tear her to pieces - it simply replayed the memory of the coffeehouse exactly happened - over and over and over again.

 The words she'd said. The hurt in Normani's eyes. The pain...

Thankfully, for her own sanity, there were things to be done - a whirlwind of last minute preparations to take part in. There were last minute alterations of the gown, during which her mother had been pleased to find that she'd met her weight target and then some. She wasn't surprised. Prestigious were stopping by the house at all hours of the day, expecting to be hosted for a cup of tea and conversation.

Throughout it all, she looked at her phone at the very least every other minute - wishing that it would do something, anything, but continue to remain silent.

But time moved forward - and there was nothing.

No phone call, no text message, no email.

She tried to pretend that there was nothing she could have done, but she knew that simply wasn't true.

She could have made it clear from the very beginning that nothing could ever happen. She could have not led Normani on. At the very least, she could have been the one to tell Normani some time ago, on her terms, that it had to end.

But she'd been so desperate to wring every possible second out of...feeling happy...that she'd waited too long.

If she was honest with herself, would she have even been able to say anything before the wedding? How long would she have waited? Until the night before? The morning of?

She was such a coward. She might not have said anything at all, had Alex not forced her hand.

Slipping into the hallway, away from whereher mother was entertaining some pretentious digitary from Europe, she pulled her phone out once again.

The entire day had been spent like this - never progressing any further than simply staring at the device before putting it away. But right now, her resolve was beginning to wear thin.

More than anything - she needed to hear Normani's voice.

Tapping the top of her phone, she finally hit the button to dial Normani's number and held the device up to her ear. When one of the maids happened to enter the hallway with her, she turned towards the wall as the call tried to connect.

Her breathing slowed in anticipation - nerves appearing in every cell of her body.

One ring.

A sharp stab of pain rushed through her when she heard the click of the call moving directly over to voicemail, knives running through her when the familiar cheerful message began to play.

"Hey, you've reached Normani, your personal Manila Cookie! I'm either busy or forgot to charge my phone again - whoops! Leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Bye!"