The Unexpected Series (Unexpected #1-3) (74 page)

“I don’t want to go,” is all he says essentially starting round three of this fight.

“No,” I counter, shaking my head. “You said you don’t want me to go.”

“That too.” He shrugs before continuing in a more heated tone. “You were pushing to go. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Then I turn my phone off to get some space and find out the next day some guy, who you have never mentioned to me before, is giving you rides and fixing your car. How can you expect me not to take a break from you, Hadley?”

Anger rises in me. I’m pissed. He disappears all week without as much as a phone call. “If you would have picked up when I called I could have told you about him. Then this week from hell could have been avoided!”

“Would you though, Hadley? Would you have told me about him? You didn’t tell me you saw him in the bar a few months ago?” His voice grows colder. “This guy fucks you up for years and you allow him back in your life, not to mention hide him from me, your boyfriend who NEVER hurts you?”

I lower my gaze to my fingers. “Until now,” I whisper.

“Excuse me?”

“Until now you’ve never hurt me.” I look up stronger than a moment ago. “This week was nothing but me getting hurt.”

The cushions move as he stands up. “I’m not doing this anymore tonight, Hadley. You’re not the only one who was mind fucked this week.”

He slips on the jacket he took off and walks to the door.

I pull my knees to my chest. “You’re getting what you want, Braden.”

His hand halts on the doorknob before turning towards me. “What’s that?” he asks cocking his head to the side, confused.

I look up, finding the face of a man who I don’t recognize anymore. This is not the Braden I met over two years ago. Not the Braden who has been riding this up and down coaster with me the past few months. This is a man I don’t like. Someone I don’t know. “Your break. I’m giving you your break.”

“What the fuck ever, Hadley. Fine.” He throws the door open and slams it shut with his exit.

Tears flow freely down my face, my body racking with sobs.

I cry for the next hour going over every minute of the day and realize I still don’t have any answers. Then a thought runs through my mind.

I never told him it was a bar I saw Ryder a few months ago.

I
t’s Saturday night and I need a girl’s night. Not a “let’s go out to a bar and let random assholes hit on you kind of night” but a “get in your pajamas and drink wine with friends” kind of night.

So after shooting off texts three hours ago, Noelle and Erin are here and Emie is on her way. Wine bottles line the kitchen counters and we’re about four bottles in.

“Noelle!” Erin yells. “I do not want to hear about my brother’s penis. Like ever!”

I laugh as I watch the back and forth banter between the two of them.

“Well,” Noelle says raising her glass. “You said let’s make a toast and I couldn’t help but praise the fucking beautiful cock that lies between your brother’s legs. I’m sorry.” She shrugs. “I’m thankful every damn day he lays it in me.”

“Don’t you mean on you?” I ask trying to keep my laugh at bay.

“No.” She shakes her head looking at me like I’m stupid. “Why would I want it on me? I’d rather it be in me.”

My laugh gets out of control and Erin goes to get more wine. Noelle eyes me. “What are you laughing about Chuckles? Doesn’t Braden have a nice dick?”

I almost spit my drink out.

Noelle can talk for hours on how amazing Trent is in bed. Erin will let a few things out here and there about Walker but as far as I’m concerned there is nothing spectacular about my sex life. Now that Braden and I are on a break there won’t be in the near future either. I’m normally not the type of girl to talk about my sex life but the five glasses of wine I’ve had apparently unfilter me.

“Yea, it was okay.” I raise a shoulder as I circle a finger around the rim of my glass.

Erin walks back into the room. “Was?” she asks as she sits down next to me, most likely thankful that the subject is off of her brother. “As in not anymore?”

Taking a deep breath and then letting it back out I look over at the falling snow outside my patio door. “Yes, was. We’re on a break.”

Noelle starts clapping her hands like a damn seal. “Finally!”

“Noe!” Erin chastises. “Can’t you see that Hadley is hurting?”

“She’s not hurting,” she argues. “She’s fucking free!”

I know that Noelle never liked Braden. She said there was something about him that she just couldn’t put into words which is saying a lot because Noelle is never short on them. But her saying I’m free strikes a chord. Am I really free?

No. I haven’t been for a long time. My feeling of freedom was lost a long time ago. When I left Ryder and high school to go to CHS and I put myself into my art. No longer was I the carefree Hadley that jumped off piers into Lake Michigan or who wanted to skydive and bungee jump. I lost all that the day Ryder, the one person who I felt really understood me, spewed his disgust towards me to his friend.

I lost my drive. I lost my will to be carefree. I lost myself somewhere and I desperately want to get it back.

A knock at the door pulls me from my thoughts and I jump up to answer it. Emie walks in waving two bottles of wine.

“From Napa,” she states going to work on opening them in the kitchen.

She just returned from a weeklong trip with some sorority sisters in Napa Valley. I’ve barely spoken to her since she left. She has no idea what I went through the past seven days. Even though she is my best friend, she sometimes makes it uncomfortable to talk to her about Braden.

Noelle greedily holds her glass up as Emie fills it. “What did I miss?” Emie asks looking over at us.

“Oh, not much.” Noelle eyes me after getting her fill. “Just Hadley and Braden broke up and now she can go ride Ryder.”

Both Noelle and Erin laugh but Emie just stares at me looking for confirmation.

I nod. “The break thing is true but not the riding Ryder thing.” I wave my heavy hand around feeling the effects of the alcohol.

“Well, good,” Emie says. “I wouldn’t think that is such a great idea.”

“Are you kidding?” Erin chimes in. “Why wouldn’t it be? From what I saw he is sexy and from what I heard Braden did to her this week she needs to find a new man. I don’t know if he is cheating on her but I can tell you from experience it’s best to just move on.”

“What happened this week?” Emie asks taking a seat across from me and putting her feet up on the coffee table much to Noelle’s dismay.

“Braden ignored her all week. Apparently he somehow found out that Hadley was seeing Ryder and checked out on her,” Noelle tells her.

Emie’s eyes go wide. “You were seeing Ryder? Hadley?” she says with disapproval.

The wine falls smoothly down my throat. “I wasn’t seeing him. He helped me out with my car when Braden wasn’t answering my calls. Somehow Braden found out and ignored me all week.” I shake my head. “We were supposed to meet last night but he didn’t show up until two hours later and we got into a fight. It would have been worse if he knew I had been taking shots with Ryder at the bar while I was waiting for his ass.”

My hand slaps over my mouth. I hadn’t told Noe or Erin that. I wasn’t planning on it. I just keep sticking my foot in my mouth.

“The plot thickens,” Erin comments then laughs.

“What kind of shots?” Noelle asks. “Like protein shots.”

Emie spits out her wine across the floor. Noelle jumps up, runs to the kitchen and grabs a rag and some carpet cleaner. This causes Emie, Erin and me to erupt in a fit of laughter. It’s not even her house and she is freaking out over the wine on the floor.

“Noelle,” I laugh her name out. “Don’t worry about the carpet.”

She looks up from her spot on the floor. “Don’t worry about the carpet?” she asks astonished. “Oh, honey, I keep all my carpets clean. All of them.” She winks. “Don’t you know a man loves a clean carpet?”

“Noelle stop!” Erin groans.

I laugh again, letting the wine talk for me. “He doesn’t have to worry about a clean carpet, just about buffing my hardwood floor.”

I’m even shocked by my admittance of having it all bare down there. All of them start whooping and hollering and I reach over to grab my phone to order us all Chinese, while Noe finishes up her cleaning. However, I am distracted by a text I missed. I can feel myself blush when I find it’s from Ryder.

––––––––

Ryder: What are you up to?

I
smile and while the girls continue to giggle and chat, I respond.

Me: Hanging out with some friends.

Ryder: I’m a friend. Can I come hang out?

Another smile presents itself on my face, and I put the phone down before my tipsy side tells them to leave and tell Ryder to come over. I don’t know what a break with Braden means but I do know that it shouldn’t involve me asking Ryder to come over. Even though he isn’t here just the thought of our almost kiss makes me want to finish what we started.

I excuse myself to the bathroom. When I’m done I grab my credit card from my purse so I can pay for our food and walk back into the living room catching Noelle throwing my phone back onto the couch where I had it.

“What did you do?” I ask her but look over at Emie who is more interested in her own phone than the two bitches messing with mine. She has barely said a word since she got here which is not like her.

I wonder what that is about. It seems like anytime Ryder’s name comes up she goes all mute on me.

“Nothing that you shouldn’t have done,” Erin says crossing her leg over the other.

I pick it up finding my texts with Ryder still open but it has significantly more than when I left.

“You texted him back?” I screech at the two of them looking at the messages that occurred while I was in the bathroom.

Me: You can come anytime.

Ryder: Really?

Me: As long as it’s with me.

Ryder: Which one of Hadley’s friends is this?

Me: The kind that wants her to get laid.

I’m horrified as the texts seem to be getting worse.

Me: She told me she wants to do some protein shots with you.

Ryder: Haha. I’m sure she did.

Me: She did. She said now that Braden is out of the picture she would love to wrap her mouth around your dick. Protein does a body good.

Ryder: Braden’s out of the picture???

And that’s where I must have caught them with my phone. I stare down at it wondering what the hell I say to him now. I opt for ignoring his question.

Me: I’m sorry about that. I should never leave my phone unattended around them.

Ryder: It’s ok. They proved informative. Is it true?

He won’t relent, and I’m not sure how to respond so I don’t. The rest of the night seems off. I’m pissed that Noelle sent out those texts and told Ryder something I didn’t really want him to know and Emie has been extremely quiet. She gives one word answers and anytime the other two joke about Ryder she doesn’t even comment at all. When the wine is gone, the food is eaten, and the cabs arrived and picked them up, I slump down into the couch and grab my phone again seeing a text from an hour earlier.

Ryder: Just a yes or no, Hadley? Did you two break up?

I know he won’t stop asking until he gets his answer. I always remember Ryder as a push and shove kind of guy. Never stopping until he succeeds at what it is he wants to succeed at.

Me: No, no break up. Just a break.

When he doesn’t respond I decide to jump in the shower. The hot temperature, combined with the copious amounts of fermented grapes, cleanses the stress of the past two days. I stay in there for a while not wanting to step out into the emptiness of my apartment. When the water runs cold, I get out and put on a pair of yoga pants and tank top. I pull back the sheets and stop before climbing in when I hear a knock at the door. A glance at the clock tells me it’s past midnight.

I reach for the bat next to my bed and walk quietly towards the door. Looking through the peephole my stomach flutters with excitement over seeing Ryder’s face. I shouldn’t be this thrilled to see a man that I love to hate and hate to love.

I swing the door open, bat still in hand, and watch as he takes me in. His eyes leave a blazing trail from my bare feet to my hardened nipples and then land on my own dilated pupils.

“Do you think an intruder would knock on the door, Hadley?” he asks looking at the bat in my hand.

I turn around and drop the bat onto my sofa. “Just be glad I didn’t grab my gun.”

He chuckles as he walks into the apartment and closes the door. I don’t know why I’m letting him in but I can’t stop myself.

“You know how to shoot?” he asks surprised.

I have to cross my arms over my braless chest before I turn around. “Braden taught me.”

He nods in understanding before taking a step further in and looking at the painting in my dining room. If only he knew that the color of the water reminded me of his eyes.

After what feels like an eternity I finally ask, “What are you doing here?”

A dark look crosses his features as he stops closer to me. His proximity causes me to drop my hands. “I still remember, Hadley.”