Chapter 35

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Hunter grabbed his keys from where they lay on the kitchen counter and his baseball cap from where it hung on the corner of the chair. He heard a rumble of thunder and was starting to think that that night's game could get rained out.

Pulling up the weather app on his phone he went to open the door to leave for the stadium when the doorbell rang.

"Belle?" He looked at her and then out in the hallway to see if she was alone. "Are you ok?"

"You did this to me." Her words were slurred, and her face was a blotchy mess. Tears streamed down her face as she continued to accuse him. "I've lost the best thing that has ever happened to me. You broke me. I hate you." She raised her hand as if she were going to hit him but then overwhelmed with the tears, she broke down and started to slowly slide down onto the floor. Hunter reached out to catch her and she fell into his arms sobbing.

"Hey. It's ok." He tried to soothe her. Helping her into his apartment he led her over to his couch where he held her as she cried, neither of them saying a word.

When she finally was able to compose herself and the crying was just sniffling Hunter released her.

"How'd you get here?" He asked.

Belle held up her keys.

"You drove? How much have you had to drink?"

"Don't worry about it!" Belle snapped.

"I will worry about it. Regardless of how you feel about me I love you. I don't want to see you get hurt. And I certainly don't want to see you drinking like this."

"You didn't care before."

"I've always cared. I screwed up. But I never didn't care."

"Well Chris and I are over. He's just like you - a cheat."

"Wait- Chris cheated on you?" Hunter frowned.

Belle shrugged. "Probably."

"Probably isn't the same as definitely."

"I don't know. I do know I don't trust him. Or any man. And that's because of you. You've cost me Chris." She started to cry again.

Hunter sighed, "Have you talked to him?"

"No and I'm not going to. I hate him. And I hate you."

Her words were still heavily slurred, and Hunter didn't want to upset her any more then she already was, so he sat silently next to her as she cried holding on tightly to a throw pillow from the couch. After about 10 minutes of silence Hunter realized she had fallen asleep.

He let her sleep for about 10 more minutes before gently waking her and helping her walk to his truck where he then took her home. Using her key he got her inside and helped her get comfortable on the couch. Killen greeted Hunter happily before jumping on the couch with Belle and snuggling up against her, happy she was home. Belle was right back to sleep before Hunter could even leave. He sent Allie a text explaining what had happened.




Chris didn't see Belle's car parked out front, but he decided to knock on the door anyway. He had told Allie he would leave her alone for the night, but he couldn't just go home. He wanted to see her and explain. He was about to knock on the door when the door opened and Hunter came out.

"What the hell man?" Chris clenched his jaw and tightened his hands into fists.

"Whoa – dude not what it looks like." Hunter held his hands up.

"Well what is it exactly?"

"She's drunk. She drove to my house. I just drove her back home. Her car is at my house. I'm leaving her keys here. Allie is going to come over and spend the night with her."

"Why did she drive to your house?" Chris was almost scared to know the answer.

"She's mad at me. For what I did to her....and for causing her not to trust you."

"Oh." Chris looked away.

"I know you know what I did to her. But I love her. She doesn't love me anymore, she loves you. But she's not ok. She's going to need you even though she's going to push you away."

"Why are you telling me this?" Chris asked.

"Because I do really love her. And I want her to be ok. And I want her to be happy. She said she thinks you cheated on her. I don't think you did. But I don't know you." Hunter shrugged, "But take it from the guy who had her and lost her, don't screw it up and fight like hell to keep her."

Hunter slid past Chris leaving him standing in the doorway alone.



Allie went to Belle's house that night to spend the night. The next morning Belle woke up with a foggy memory and a killer hangover. Everything that happened the day before, from Chris and the broken picture frame to her driving to Hunters drunk came rushing back to her memory.

"Ohhhhh." She moaned covering her face with her hands.

"Hey." Allie walked out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hand. "Want some coffee?"

Belle nodded accepting the coffee cup from Allie's out stretched hand, "I feel like crap."

"I guess you do." Allie sat down in the chair opposite the couch Belle was sprawled out on. "You want to talk about yesterday?"

Belle exhaled. "Well I don't remember most of it." Belle took a sip of coffee. "I started drinking Friday night and I don't remember stopping."

"Why? What caused you to start drinking?" Allie asked even though she already knew.

"Pictures of Chris in Atlanta. I let my imagination get the better of me. I don't trust him.....I have no reason not to. But I can't seem to let him in. My anxiety runs my life." A single tear trickled down her cheek.

"It doesn't have to." Allie reminded her softly. "You can go back on your medication. You can go and talk to someone. You can control this."

Belle nodded trying to hold back the tears that so badly wanted to surface. "I don't think I can see Chris anymore."

"What? Talk to him. Belle he didn't cheat, he'd never hurt you."

"It's not good for me. Look at me Allie! I'm a mess. Chris deserves better than me. I need to fix myself. I can't give that burden to Chris." Her shoulders shook as the tears rolled down her face.

"I don't think he would say that's a burden. He's worried sick about you."

"He deserves better." Belle repeated. "I'm going to break it off with him. He doesn't need an unstable screwup like me bringing him down."

"Belle – stop. He loves you. Talk to him."

Belle shook her head, "I made up my mind. It's best for both of us." The tears came down harder. "I have to let him go."

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