Rhythm (19 page)

“Mom?” I hesitate.

“Oh, Rip. I wanted to talk with you the
moment I knew, but Grant’s been adamant of not calling you or else
he’s gonna do something we wouldn’t like. Can you believe that?
He’s blackmailing us. He’s like a different man now, Rip.”

I absorb what Sam is saying. Why would he do
that?

“Look, I have no idea what’s going on with
you two, so while he’s out of earshot, fill me in. Will you?”

“Mom, sorry to break it to you, but I myself
am oblivious about what’s going on. He just said he wanted a
divorce and then left me hanging. I asked if there’s someone else,
but he got offended that I’m not sure if it meant yes or no. I
think it’s likely no, because . . . I don’t know, but more likely
yes, because who would ask for a divorce out of nowhere?”

“You think so? I’m not sure about that,
though. He adores you so much that the idea of having a third party
is very much unlikely,” she says it with a hint of doubt that I
catch before it disappears.

“I don’t know, Mom.” I let out a heavy
breath.

“Wait, he’s leaving,” Sam whispers.

Sam : Where are you going,
honey?

Grant : I’ll eat
breakfast.

Sam : You can eat here. I’ve
prepared something.

Grant : Thank you, Mom, but I’m
meeting someone. (A pause) Someone from the office.

Yeah, right. Office your face, Grant.

Sam : Okay, then. Be
safe.

“You heard that?”

“Clearly, Mom. Thank you so much.”

“Go, Rip. Take care of yourself, okay? I love
you.”

“I love you, too, Mom.”

“Well?” Mama asks.

“Apparently, he’s having a breakfast with
someone from the office, which I doubt. He just left so I think
I’ll have a good shot in seeing him today, and hopefully, to have
the much awaited talk.”

“Okay, sweetie. You be safe. Love you.” She
hugs me and kisses me on the forehead.

“Love you, too. And Mama?”

“Yes, honey?”

“Thank you.”

Rhythm

I knew it. A man will never ask for time,
space, or divorce if he doesn’t have someone else on the side.
Never. He will never tell you he doesn’t love you anymore if the
love he has for you has no other recipient. Of course, it always
has.

And I don’t think there’s such a thing as
‘falling out of love’. You don’t fall out of love. You
decide
to stop loving that person and love another in place
of him or her. Love is not a feeling, I believe. It is a decision.
It is a choice.

Now that
they
are in front of me,
everything makes a whole lot of sense.

Riley and Grant are eating their breakfast
happily in a restaurant near our home.

Someone from the office, really, Grant?

This explains everything. Because why would
Riley be in Pennsylvania? She’s based in Michigan, and I don’t
think she has business here other than to wreck my family.

Discreet is a word they haven’t encountered
yet, I think. Haven’t they thought that someone—like me—will see
them together? The nerve.

As I stare daggers at them, I will them to
look at me.

Grant’s the first to catch a glimpse of the
intruder and when Riley sees his expression, she looks at me. Grant
says something to her, but Riley shakes her head and stands up. I
read Grant’s mouth saying, “Thank you,” to Riley.

Riley approaches me with an expression I
can’t quite place. Pity? Triumph? I don’t know.

“Hey,” she says.

Hey? That’s how you approach the wife of the
man you’re flirting with? Really now?

“I know what you’re thinking, Rhythm, but
it’s not what it looks like it. I’m here in Pennsylvania because I
married someone from here.” She lifts her left hand to show me her
ring finger with a diamond ring—engagement ring, it seems—and a
wedding ring. “I just bumped into Grant a few days back and agreed
to catch up with him some other time. Today is that time. I learned
about what happened, and . . .” she hesitates and lets out a deep
breath. “I guess I’m not in the position to tell you this, but when
all is said and done, may you find it in your heart to forgive
him.”

What is she talking about?
It seems
that she knows something that I do not know. So it’s like this now?
Grant opens up with her ex-girlfriend but not with his wife?

She feels awkward when I don’t respond.
“Okay, I think I gotta go.” She hugs me. “I’m sorry for everything,
Rhythm—for Ben and Grant. You don’t deserve any of that.” Then she
leaves me more confused than ever.

After a while, I notice a man and a little
girl, about two years old, who looks like Riley approach them.
Little Riley. The man kisses Riley and she introduces him to
Grant.

Her husband and her baby—she has a
family.

Grant makes no sign that he will approach me
any time soon, so I take it as what it seems. He still doesn’t want
to talk with me.

I’m getting tired of this drama. I don’t know
what’s gotten into him to complicate our love story, but I don’t
think I will know any time soon. Not unless he talks about it, and
hopefully, it’s soon.

---

“L, I’m confused with what Riley told me. I’m
repeating it over and over in my head, but it just doesn’t make any
sense,” I vent.

“Don’t overanalyze, Rip. Maybe she realized
how much of a beef she was so she apologized.”

I feel all the air in me leave when I saw
Riley and Grant together. But when I saw that she has already a
family of her own, some of the air went back, some didn’t. I still
have a feeling that Grant has another woman in his life.

Know something called
woman’s
instinct
? I have that. I so have that.

I don’t want to go CSI on him, though. I want
him to tell me everything. I want him to be honest with me. I want
to talk with him about every issue he has and what causes his
decision. I want to know what’s really the problem and maybe fix
it.

I’m not going to chase him like I’m a crazy
wife. I want him to decide for himself that he’s ready to talk with
me. I think I overdid my efforts. Eighty plus something missed
calls per day? Who does that?

So for now I’ll go on silent mode and
wait.

---

“Just a minute.”

Someone’s been knocking on the door for about
two minutes. I’m in the bathroom, so I don’t hear it right
away.

I open the door and almost close it.

Ben.

“Hi, Rhy.”

“Hi. What . . . are you doing here?”

That’s right, Rhythm. Keep up with being
rude to him.

“I just heard what happened, and I just want
to check on you.”

“I’m good,” I answer as short as I can to
give him the hint that I don’t want to talk with him. Grant might
see him and think that I’m already moving on. I don’t want him to
think that.

“Rhy, I just want to . . .”

“Mommy!” Alexa shouts. She doesn’t like it
waking up without me or Grant beside her.

“Okay, come in. Please have a seat. I’ll just
get Alexa,” I stammer.

When I reach her room she quickly hugs me.
“Mommy, I have a bad dream,” Alexa cries.

“Tell me about it. I’ll make it go away.” I
carry her and go to the living room where Ben is.

“There’s a spidey in my bed then it becomes
bigger and bigger that it’s starting to eat everything it sees.
Then the spidey becomes Will. Mommy, I don’t want Will to be a
spidey.” She’s still sobbing.

I suppress a laugh at the fact that Alexa’s
not afraid of the spider eating her, but with Will being a
spider.

Ben stands as he sees us.

I mouth, “Just a moment,” at his way.

He nods and watches me.

“Sweetie, Will is not a spidey, and he will
never be. Besides, it’s just a dream.” I kiss her. “What did I tell
about dreams in your sleep?”

“That they are not real . . .” she hesitates.
“But Mommy, it felt real.”

“Honey, this is real.” I kiss her again.
“Spidey Will is a dream. Don’t think about it, okay?”

She nods.

“You want breakfast or hug?”

“Hug,” she says without thinking about the
choices.

“Hug it is, then.”

I hug her tight that she can hardly breathe.
Then I kiss her neck and stomach to tickle her.

That’s our routine every morning, which Grant
initiated. If they say breakfast, then they are most likely in the
mood. If hug, they’re not, so Grant and I will give them the
tightest hug and tickle them until they laugh hard.

“Enough, Mommy,” Alexa says while
laughing.

“Okay. Breakfast? Or you’ll wait for
Will?”

“I’ll wait for Will,” she says.

“You go play first, honey. Mommy has a
visitor.”

“Is it Daddy?” she asks, not noticing
Ben.

My heart breaks into a million pieces and
will myself to pick everything up.

“No, but he’s a cousin of Daddy.”

She glances at Ben then goes to the playroom.
She’s uneasy with men if it’s not her Daddy or Granddads.

“Sorry, it took me a while.”

“It’s okay,” Ben smiles. “You’re a great mom,
I can see. And your daughter’s beautiful just like you.”

I blush.

“You want coffee?” I change the subject,
avoiding his eyes.

“No, thank you,” he pauses then goes straight
to the point. “Rhy, I know it’s early for me to propose something
like this, but if you need someone to help you raise your kids, I’m
a willing volunteer.”

“Ben . . .”

“And if you’ve finally moved past Grant, I’m
just here.”

“Ben . . .”

He wiggles his eyebrows then cackles. “Come
on, Rhy. I’m kidding. I am married and have two kids, just like
you—but not twins and they’re both boys. Seeing your daughter makes
me want to have a girl.”

My eyes bulge. “You pranking me?”

“I just want to take away that lines forming
in your forehead.”

I laugh. For the first time since Grant
dropped the big news, I genuinely laugh.

“That’s better.” He smirks.

“Tell me more about your family.”

“I met my wife when I was twenty-three. She’s
the first girlfriend I have after I’ve finally moved on with you,
and I feel so much love for her more than I do for you. Sorry, but
that’s true, so I asked her to marry me just after three months of
being together. Long story short, we have two boys who are more
handsome than their dad, sad to say.”

“Wow. That’s great, Ben.”

“You bet.”

“Mommy, where’s Alexa?” Will approaches us
with a better mood than his sister.

“Good morning, baby. She’s playing. She says
she’ll have her breakfast with you, and she had hug for this
morning. How about you?”

“Breakfast,” he says, excited.

“Okay, call your twin sister. I’ll prepare
your breakfast.”

As I prepare their breakfast, Ben and I
continue with our catching up, and I continue laughing.

Wow, it goods to laugh once in a while.

I make a mental note to do this more
often.

Grant

What in the world is Ben doing in my
home?

He may have heard the news and in a blink of
an eye, he’s here to steal Rhy from me.

Wait. He’s married.

Yeah, I remember him telling me he’s getting
married, but I wasn’t able to attend.

I breathe a sigh of relief then I hear the
most beautiful sound—Rhy’s laugh, my favorite sound.

How I miss hearing her laugh.

I will trade anything to hear that laugh
again . . . to get my family back.

I know now that I’m not ready to give them
up. I admit, I’ve been an idiot to think that leaving them is the
best. Why did I even consider it as an option?

I will have them back, but now is not the
best time, I guess. Since Ben’s having the time of his life.

I’ll be back and redeem what’s mine.

My family.

Rhythm

“Okay, go on,” I encourage Grant to
continue.

It’s been almost five months since Grant
asked for a divorce. Although we haven’t reached the point of
dealing with the paperwork yet, I don’t think he’ll change his
mind.

He called me yesterday to ask if I’m still up
for an explanation. I said sure, of course. So here we are, in our
home, to end the million questions I have in mind.

“I felt that you were abandoning your duties
as a wife and a mom,” he says it with confidence and at the same
time uncertainty in his voice.

“Why would you feel that?”

“Remember when Alexa and Will are only a
month old? We both agreed that you would be a full-time wife and
mom, and that you would homeschool them. We both agreed that one of
us should be hands-on in taking care of them. You volunteered.
Remember?”

I do. And I know what he’s pointing at.

After attending the signing event of Colleen
Hoover, I became pumped up to follow my dream of becoming a writer.
Before, I just know that I wanted to author a book, but after
reading billions of contemporary romance novels, it occurred to me
what my purpose is, what I am called to do. Colleen was awesome
enough that she gave me advice and helped me self-publish my very
first novel. And the rest, as they say, was history.

“But then I got an offer with my dream
publisher, I grabbed the opportunity to do the traditional
publishing, and that’s when you felt I abandoned our family.”

He nods. “Of course, I want to support you in
your dreams, but, Rhy . . . you were barely home. You’re always on
a tour and when you’re home, you still have work to do. You’re
always on your writing cave.” He lets me absorb everything. “It
basically started from there and things got messed up.”

“But why ask me for a divorce? Surely, we
could have talked about it. We could have fixed it. We still could,
couldn’t we?”