Heart Pulled to Pieces

17-Somebody's Heartbreak

“Andi, you gotta get up.” I felt Rob kiss my forehead, but it lacked something. It's a quick peck with little affection and it caused my eyes to shoot open. The bedroom door was open a crack, the yellow glow from the kitchen shining in. Rob was dressed, holding a coffee cup in his hand.

“What time is it?” I asked as I pushed myself up, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

“It’s six.” He replied, taking a sip of what smelled like coffee.

“How long have you been up?” I asked as I put my feet on the cold floor and moved to the closet.

“Just about fifteen minutes.” He said, adding, “I didn’t sleep well.”

“Too many nights in a row here?” I asked him as I gathered clothes for a shower. He shrugged.

“I’ve just had a lot on my mind recently.” He answered. He’d been distant the last couple of weeks, and I had asked him on numerous occasions if it had anything to do with Steve, Nikki, or anything else. He would say it was nothing, but it didn’t feel that way.

“Anything you want to talk to me about?” I asked, pausing in the door before I went for a shower.

“No.” He replied, smiling. “It’s nothing.”

I had to take his word for it.

I must have stood with the water running over me for a long while, contemplating what may be going on with Rob, because I jumped at the knock on the door. "Andi?" Beth said, the door closing behind her.

“What’s up?” I asked as I grabbed my shampoo bottle.

“I want to make sure you’re okay.” Beth put down the toilet lid, and I saw her silhouette sit. “You and he haven’t been the same.”

“I know. I don’t know why, do you? Has he said anything to Gaylen?” I said, trying to hide my anxiety.

“No,” Beth replied with a disappointed tone. “I wish he would, though.”

“Beth,” I popped my head out the curtain, brushing the soap from my forehead before it fell in my eyes. “He’s not with me in public, you know? He doesn’t even put his arm around me anymore. He’s working more at the bar, or at least that’s what he says. I went to see him play last Tuesday and when he finished he told me I couldn’t go to his place and he wouldn’t be coming here. Beth, he’s screwing someone else isn’t he?” I ducked my head behind the curtain and rinsed my hair.

“I don’t think he is," Beth said. “I think he cares about you,” I snorted. “And respects you,” she raises her voice a little, "too much to do that to you. Maybe he’s just got a lot on his mind. Maybe he really is just working late at the bar, maybe it’s because of the holidays.”

“Has he ever radically changed his attitude the second the holiday season came around?” I asked after I shut off the water. I reached out to grab my fluffy black towel.

“Well,” I could hear how bad she wanted to lie. “No, he hasn’t.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” I asked her as I stepped out of the shower. I turned my back to her and started dressing.

“Wait it out? You could always just tell him how you feel, maybe it will smarten him up?”

“Yeah, and make myself the blubbering idiot so he will stay with me?” I rolled my eyes, and after getting on my jeans and bra, I turned around, pulling on my sweater. “As much as being straightforward would be good, something tells me that’s not going to make him keep me.”

“Well, I don’t know babes,” Beth turned and faced me, shrugging. “Maybe you and he have just….”

“Don’t say it.” I said, pointing my finger at her sharply. “If I’m lucky, he’ll wait 'til January so I don’t have to be dumped twice in the same year.”