I woke up and checked my phone. It was 9.30 am and there were no messages from Liam. Sitting in my bed, I stared at it fighting off the urge to contact him. He had made it clear that he wanted space. Slowly getting out of bed I reached for the door knob. I did not want to run into Jenna as I quickly grabbed some orange juice but my stupid door creaked. I did not want her to worry about me and one look at me, she would know what was going on in my mind. So I was trying to be discreet. It was not as if I could have gone unseen since Jenna was sitting at the island having cereal. Instantly she looked at me and said, 'Good morning. Want some breakfast?'
Grabbing the carton of orange juice from the refrigerator, I took a seat next to her. 'Got it right here.' I said shaking the juice carton.
'That? Really?' she asked pointing her spoon at the juice box.
'Mmm hmm,' I said taking a few sips from the box. Putting down the juice and apologetically looking at her I said, 'Sorry about yesterday.'
She shrugged as if to convey she didn't know what I was talking about.
'You and Nick met for the first time and I messed it up.'
'No, you didn't.' She stopped to take a look at me.
I knew she was worried about me so I turned around and said, 'I'm okay you need not worry. Liam...Well Liam needs some time and space to think about us. So I am giving him that.'
'Okay,' she said in an understanding tone.
'I am going back into my room and just taking a nap okay?' I said walking back to my room. I sat down on my bed. Pulling my laptop on to my lap I began typing again. I had to get the story done. It was the root of all my problems...I had two men in my life, I was distracted, everything I wrote came true... and besides I had nothing else to do. I had to get rid of one of them (not rid like murder rid. I am not a psychopath. But rid like dump) in my story and hopefully it will simplify my life.
After a lot of thinking about how I wanted the story to end and getting a little writing done, I pushed aside my laptop. I just let myself fall back on my bed and stared at the ceiling for sometime. Reaching for my phone, checked for messages from Liam. There was nothing on it so I went back to staring at the ceiling. I was thankful that Jenna gave me space while still being there for me. Soon I was jumbling my thoughts and my eyelids began dropping. Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.
Pangs of hunger woke me up. Walking out of my room, I reached directly for the refrigerator hoping to find something. I was still busy looking when a voice came from behind me, 'You hungry?'
'Oh god!' I said startling and turning around to see Aiden near the counter.
'Sorry, didn't mean to startle you.'
'I just didn't expect you.' I said closing the refrigerator.
'I have got some Chinese food in the living room if you are hungry.' He said pointing out boxes laid out on the center table.
'I'm famished,' I said walking past him and grabbing a box of chow mein. 'Where is Jenna?' I asked as I sat down.
'Nick and Jenna are out to grab lunch. She was worried about you so I said I would stay here with you.'
'So you were assigned baby sitting duty.' I was mumbling between mouthfuls.
He half opened his mouth to say something but instantly shut it and had a tiny smile break out instead.
'What are you smiling about? You wanted to say something, so just say it.'
'I wanted to say I'm not on baby sitting duty but on babe sitting duty.' He laughed out loud as he sat down beside me.
'Ha ha very funny,' I said mock laughing. I realised I had not asked him if he ate. 'Hey did you eat?' I asked pausing my chow down.
'Yes I did just after Jenna and Nick left.'
'Um.... Does Jenna know that was a set up?'
'Yes she pieced it all together.'
'She is not mad, is she?' I asked glancing at him.
'No she is not.'
'That's good.... But why did she come out looking for me yesterday?'
'She said that she saw Liam storm off from the party and knew something was not right. So she and Nick followed you guys out.'
I thoughtfully looked down at my box and then said, 'Thank you for picking me up yesterday.'
'No problem.' His eyes had never left me. And after half my stomach was filled I realised it.
'So... want to talk about the elephant in the room?' I was referring to what happened between me and Liam.
'If you are okay to do so...or I can tiptoe around it.' Smiling he handed me a can of soda as he picked one for himself.
A thoughtful pause later I said, 'Liam is taking some time off from me. He said he needs some time. I...It's my fault actually.'
'You cannot blame yourself Eva. May be he needs some time to ...'
'No Aiden. It's completely my fault. I was distracted and I should have given him more time. If he gives me a chance to explain, I want to apologise and make it right. But I don't know if he will ever talk to me. I mean I don't blame him.' I let out a sigh as I ran my hand through my hair.
Aiden reached out and put an arm around me. 'It was comforting but then something bothered me and I blurted out, 'Can I ask you something?' And before he could answer, I continued, 'When we were together, was I giving you time and attention. I mean did it ever feel like I was building up a wall?'
Aiden removed his hand from around me and looked away for a moment before his eyes were back on me. 'Yes. Initially, I thought you were not interested because you kept running away from me. But then I finally got to go out with you. It took me a really long time to realise that you were cautious....afraid of getting hurt.'
I was always afraid of opening up, afraid that I would end up hurt. I was not aware that I had done that with Aiden. For a second our eyes were locked when my phone ring brought me back. I had left my phone in the room so I ran to answer it somewhere really hoping it was Liam. But it was not. I joined back Aiden in a few minutes.
'Not Liam I assume?' he said looking at my face.
'No. It was the charity that I volunteer at. They need some volunteers for tomorrow.' I looked at him and asked, 'Would you be interested to help out for a couple of hours?'
'Yeah sure.' he said taking a sip.
Before I could go back to asking him what type of a girlfriend I had been, the door opened and Jenna and Nick entered.
Jenna's face lit up as she saw me. She threw her purse on to the nearest chair and sat down.
'What did you have?' she asked looking at the empty box.
'Chow mein.' Aiden answered before I did.
'Want something to drink?' she asked Nick and when he nodded, walked over to the kitchen.
Nick watched her walk away and sat leaning on the arms the chair next to me where Jenna had been sitting.
'Thanks for setting this up both of you,' he said in a low voice with a grin. It was obvious from the joy he was exuberating that things were going well with him and Jenna.
'I'm glad for the both of you.' I said giving his hand a gentle tap. 'And I am not the one that set it up so all the accolades go to Aiden.' I said turning around. 'Also thank you for helping me out yesterday and today.'
I still did want to know from Aiden what I could have done to be a better girlfriend but now was not the time. It was time to take my mind off relationships and enjoy being with people who cared for me.
Emma was home getting ready for work at a turtle's pace. There was nothing interesting waiting for her at work- a pissed off boss, gossipy co-workers, suspicious teammates looking at her like she was a criminal and to top it off, no work since she had been benched.
She squatted down on her bed in a huff. A day had passed since Emma had rushed out of the party. Aiden had called her several times but she did not want to talk to him....yet. First she wanted to call Liam and clarify that she was not the source of the leak. She believed Aiden. There were no lies in his eyes the day before. There was love, affection, appreciation.... A soft moan escaped her lips breaking her thoughts. She closed her eyes for a moment to clear her thoughts. She did not want to think about Aiden and his love and affection. Opening her eyes and thinking about Liam, she pulled back her hair in a pony. Gathering her phone and laptop she left to work.
Being benched, Emma was taken off every single project. Her network access had been limited and each of her team members were being questioned. She sat at her desk staring at the blank screen. But then every passerby gave her a sympathetic look. Since she had put up a fight for her proposal, it had attracted a lot of attention and now it was biting her back. Bored and in order to avoid constant stares from others, she began browsing aimlessly. Browsing, looking around at others working, tapping on her desk, walking around the office... nothing seemed to speed up time. When she looked at her watch it was just 10. She had barely been in the office for over an hour. From the water cooler she saw another team mate being escorted for questioning. As she stood staring at her team mate and a team of lawyers disappear into a room, her manager walked up-to her.
'You will be questioned tomorrow.' He grabbed some water and continued. 'I have known you for sometime now so I really hope you had nothing to do with this,' he said with a frown as he rubbed his brow and walked away.
As confident as she was that she or Aiden were not the source of the leak, the atmosphere in the office was toxic. She decided to go out and grab some coffee.
She walked as slowly as possible to the coffee shop close to her office. On the way she decided to call Liam. She had to convince him that she was innocent. But he did not answer.
When she reached the coffee shop, there were a few people in the queue ahead of her so she looked at the menu displayed deciding between macchiato or a cappucino. From the corner of her eye she thought she saw someone staring at her. She looked around to the nearest table. There was Aiden with his back towards her and in front of him sat...was she seeing right....Veronica, Aiden's first girlfriend.
It was not Aiden who had noticed her but it was Veronica. She was staring at her...a very piercing stare. As soon as she noticed Emma look at her, she stood up and taking out her finger ring flung it on the table and walked over to Emma.
Aiden had not noticed Emma until then. As soon as Veronica reached Emma, Aiden turned around. Confused at what was happening, Emma exchanged glances with Aiden.
'I hope you are happy,' Veronica said angrily storming towards her.
'Ver!' called out Aiden loudly.
'Wait...wait Veronica.I..I'm not sure what you are talking about.' Emma said following Veronica out the door.
'Didn't Aiden tell you?' She looked at Emma angrily continuing to walk fast.
Emma shook her head. She was not sure what Veronica was talking about.
'Aiden and I were engaged. We were dealing with some issues but now I know what issues Aiden was having. We were to be married yesterday but Aiden called it off. ' Giving Emma a stern look, she turned around the corner.
Emma was shocked. She saw Aiden come out of the coffee house towards her but she quickly crossed the street before the light turned. Aiden was stuck at the other end and she continued to walk away. Reaching her office she disappeared into the building. Aiden would not be able to follow her without an id card.
Climbing the stairs she stopped between the floors. She did not know what she was doing. Until a few minutes ago she was drawn towards Aiden. She had trusted him completely. For a moment, a flash of something familiar had warmed her heart. But now she realised that Aiden had lied to her and she was the reason their relationship had ended. But how could she be responsible if she never knew Aiden was engaged. He had told her that he was just getting out of a relationship but nothing about being engaged. If he had lied to her about his relationship, what else had he lied about? She sat down on the steps leaning against the railings. It felt as if a boulder was placed on her chest. She knew what she had to do - she had to go and confess about the leak.