Committed (10 page)

I
went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.
I
downed the whole thing while I was still standing there
with the door open.
I
was definitely dehydrated. As
I
kicked the door closed and thought about making some
breakfast, I remembered Zoe.
First of all
I never
called her last night. She didn’t call
me
either, so I
assumed that meant she’d had a lot of fun.
I
hoped she
wasn’t mad at me, but I was sure she would understand when I told her what
happened. She was present for a few of
my
big ones in
high school, so she knew that sometimes they just take control of me. Thank God
they were few and far between. If
I
had to go through
that every day I’d be a basket case.

Zoe and
I
were also
supposed to have breakfast. Some new French Bakery had just opened up down the
street from the school and she’d been dying to try it.
I
looked at the clock, it was eight-thirty.
I
had
planned on her picking me up at nine.

I
picked up my phone and texted her, “Are we still on for breakfast?”

She texted right back, “Yeah, if
you’re not going to blow me off again.”
I
knew she wasn’t too mad because she included a smiley
face.

“I’m sorry.
Had a panic attack.”

“Oh shit! Why? Did Braxton do something?”

I
laughed out loud. “No. Braxton is amazing.
I
’ll tell
you when I see you. What time will you be here?”

“Nine?”

“Pushing it a little.”

“I’m hungry!”

I
laughed again. “Okay, I’ll hurry.”

I
went into my room and gathered my clothes and things for the shower. It was the
first glance
I
’d gotten of myself since the previous
night.
I
was kind of a scary sight. Braxton really
must’ve loved
me
if I looked that bad sitting on the
floor and he didn’t run screaming from the apartment.

I
shook my head and sighed when I pushed open the bathroom door. Braxton got
undressed for bed in the bathroom the night before and the T-shirt and jeans
he’d been wearing were still lying right where he had dropped them.
I
got undressed and dropped mine on top of his.
I
decided that I would just put them all in the hamper when
I was done. Men…

I
knew Zoe was going to be there soon and give me a hard time about not being
ready yet, but I needed to shave my legs. Plus, the water felt good on
my
muscles that were still tense from the night before.
Sometimes when
I
had a panic attack I felt almost like
I worked out the night before.
I
guess it was just
from holding all my muscles tight for so long.

I
stayed in the shower too long but by the time I turned off the water and
started drying off I knew it had been worth it.
I
felt
like a new woman.
I
dried my face and hair a little
before I stepped out to get another towel for my body. When
I
did, I realized that there wasn’t another towel hanging on the rack by the
sink.
I
would probably blame Braxton for that too and
smiled thinking about it.

I
wrapped the towel I had around my head and stepped over to the linen closet to
grab a towel.
Ow
! Shoot! What the hell was that?
I
looked down and saw that I had stepped on my T-shirt and
Braxton’s jeans. There must have been something underneath them.
I
bent to pick them up and realized that it wasn’t
underneath them; it was something hard in the pocket of his jeans.

I
thought about just leaving it alone. But…
I
was going
to throw them in the hamper and I didn’t want whatever it was to get ruined.
I
decided that it wasn’t snooping if he left them lying
right in the middle of the bathroom floor.
I
stuck my
hand in the pocket and when I did, a little box fell out and hit the floor.
I
stood there staring at it for a long time.
It was a white velvet box like the ones engagement rings come in.
I
finally wrapped the towel around me and sat my
nearly naked butt down on the rug. Why would Braxton be carrying around an
engagement ring?

Maybe it was not a ring. Maybe it was his sister’s
birthday and he got her some earrings or something. Maybe he got
me
a pair of earrings or something. They sell other small
things at the jewelry store besides rings. There was no way we were anywhere
near the point of even thinking about marriage.
I
had
to be right about the gift for Callie, or for me, I thought with a smile.
I
was smug in my belief of that, right until I flipped open
the box.

The inside of the box was white velvet too and
it was surrounded by the prettiest white gold ring with a solitary
diamond on top that I had ever seen
. The diamond sparkled under the
fluorescent light of the bathroom. It really was gorgeous.
I
didn’t know much about diamonds, but this one was cut in an odd shape, kind of
like an octagon. It wasn’t huge, but it was definitely not tiny either. It was
one carat or two…
I
had no idea.
I
did know that it was good sized and whatever the carat, this must have set him
back a few thousand dollars at least, maybe more. So why was he carrying it
around in the pocket of his jeans? Why did he have it in the first place? Maybe
he was holding it for a friend. Surely he wasn’t thinking about proposing, was
he?

There was a knock on the bathroom door suddenly. It
startled
me
and I jumped.
I
suddenly felt like a criminal sitting there naked, with a diamond ring in my
hand.
I
was also afraid that I was about to find out
what the ring was for and I wasn’t sure that I was ready for that.

“Yeah?”
I
yelled.

“Hey, beautiful.
You’ve been in there a really long time, are you okay?” Sure,
I
was fine. Just sitting on the floor naked looking at the
gorgeous diamond ring you had in your pocket.

Trying to keep
my
voice
even I said, “Yeah, I’m fine, just getting out of the shower.”

“Can I come in?”

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