Torn (16 page)

I had caught a glimpse of the time and found that I was running right on schedule. I needed pick up my
pace if I was going to grab some coffee; Ava was going to need a cup also after having taken an extra day
off. I grabbed my phone and dialed her up to see what her poison was going to be this morning.

“Hey! I was just going to call you!” She sounded too perky for a Monday morning. “I am at the coffee
shop and am about to get us some coffee, what can I get for you?”

“Ava, you read MY mind! I was actually going to head there as well and ask what I could get you! Great
minds! Since you are already there, I will take a blonde roast with enough room for cream. I have some
creamer at the office, so you don’t have to do it there. Thank you very much!”

“No problem! I will see you there in a few.” Ava said right before she hung up. I could tell she was next
in line to order.

 

I decided my next call was to Caleb to see where we were meeting up tonight. Part of me just wanted
him to tell me to go straight to his hotel room. I wanted, no, I needed to feel his touch.

 

“Good morning beautiful.” Was there something going around that everyone was in a great mood this
morning?

 

“Hi.” I wasn’t meaning to, but realized that ‘hi’ sounded rather sultry. “Are we still on for tonight?”

 

“Of course! I was thinking that we could meet for dinner and then go from there, what do you think?”

“Well… I was kind of thinking, since you are moving soon and all… maybe enjoy the luxuries of the hotel
room? I know that you get to experience them daily, but…” I couldn’t believe I was inviting myself up to
his room.

“I don’t mind that idea at all! I just didn’t want to seem like I can’t wait to be inside you so soon! I
thought I would float the idea of taking you out and then trying to get you back to my room, but shit, if
you want to come here and just be here, I am more than fine with that idea!” He was chuckling.

“Well, that is exactly what I want to do. I will get off work around 5 or 5:30, just depending on how many
emails I have to return since I missed Friday.” I bummed myself out thinking about how many emails
awaited my return to the office.

“I’ll order some dinner for us and have it up here by 6, how is that?”

 

“Perfect. I’ll call you when I am on my way over.” I paused for a moment. “And Caleb?”

“Yeah?” He asked quietly.
“I’m really excited for this evening.” I almost said in a whisper, but not sure why since I was the only one
in the car.

“Me too, Ryleigh.” He sounded so sexual saying my name.

The drive into work was rather smooth for a Monday on the highway. It was going to be a good day; at
least that was what I kept telling myself the whole drive. I just had to make it through the day and then I
could enjoy a hot and steamy night with a just as hot and steamy man.

Ava was waiting in my office with my coffee when I arrived. She looked like she was glowing.

“Well, I give you one day off and you come back towork a whole new woman! What happened to you
this weekend?” I said winking to her as I grabbed my coffee. “Walk and talk I need to go to the break
room to get my creamer.” I motioned with my head to follow me.

“A few girls I went to college with, they called me up on Friday night and asked me to go out. I was
looking forward to a weekend where I just stayed inmy pajamas, but I ended up going anyway and that
was the best decision ever!” Ava squealed. “I met this guy!”

“Details! Don’t hold out on me!” I stopped pouring my creamer and faced her.

“Ryleigh, he’s just incredible! He and I hit it off and just made me melt!” You could tell she was still on
cloud nine. “We spent every day together. I thought that guys had that rule about calling someone right
away, but he didn’t play that stupid game and called me Saturday afternoon to meet for dinner.”

“That is awesome Ava! I am very happy for you. Truly. So what is this dream man’s name?” I asked as we
headed back to my office. I looked down at my phone and noticed I had six voicemails waiting for me.

 

“Brantley. He is so hot too! Black hair, greenish blue eyes, dimples.” Ava let out a sigh. “He has some
tattoos that just drove me wild! Ryleigh, he is just so polite and I am just so in like right now!”

I laughed at her; I haven’t seen her like this in a while. She had a bad breakup right as she took on this
job and I felt horrible because she has just had a couple dates here and there. This guy really must have
swept her off her feet.

“Well, I will have to meet this amazing man!” I said taking a seat at my desk.

 

“He is actually meeting me for lunch! I will have him poke his head in and say hey.”

“Sounds good. I have so much to do today; I don’t think I am even going to be leaving my desk for
lunch.” I said turning on my computer. This was going to be a very long day, especially if I wanted to get
out of here on time.

“I will bring you back something. I better get backto my desk too if I am even going to be able to see
him for lunch. And, Ryleigh?” Ava said as she poked her head back into my office.

“What’s up?” I asked looking up from my desk.
“Thanks for always listening. I’ve always had some sort of gossip or drama and you always take a second
to actually listen.” With that she was headed back to her desk. She really was someone I was really glad
that I had working for me, other women in the office always seemed to be catty.

I sat at my desk for the next few hours just working on returning emails and phone calls. I had made a
note to myself to figure out why none of the calls were forwarded to my phone over the weekend. I was
a person who understood basic programs on the computer and could land accounting deals, when it
came to advanced technology I looked like an idiot.

I had received a file on our latest project and thought that this would be closed by the end of the week. I
found that I was really confident in my job; However, in my marriage, my whatever was going on with
Caleb, I found that I was less confident in. I needed to figure out what was going on, I needed to let
Caleb know.

I was typing out a proposal for the project when my cell phone began to buzz. I looked down at the
caller ID and saw it was Courtney.

 

“Hey lady, what are you up to?” I asked trying to multitask, but found that I started to type what I was
saying.

 

“How did things go yesterday?” She asked hesitantly.

“Court, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We are going to try and work things out, but I just don’t
know if I feel that fire and passion for him anymore.” I felt my stomach drop as I said the actual words, I
had been thinking for the last week.

“Wow. If you don’t feel it, why stick around?” Courtney said bluntly.

 

“Ya know, I don’t know, Court, I really don’t know. I just need some time to figure it out and me ending
things right away is something I am not ready to do.”

“Okay.” She paused, obviously not wanting to discuss this any further, which was fine by me, I wasn’t
sure I wanted to talk about it anymore. “Well, I actually called for another reason, you ready?” She said
getting a bit more excited.

“Yes! What’s up?” I asked anxiously.

 

“Jason and I have made a decision; we are going to get married first. We talked about this yesterday and
we’re going to do something small and quiet.” She took a pause. “In Vegas!”

 

“That’s nowhere near small and quiet, Court!” I laughed.

“No, but it will be fun and quick. We both sat downand actually talked about the wedding we both
wanted and we both actually didn’t want anything big, fancy or expensive. We just wanted to have some
fun and be in a place that is filled with fun!”
“I am totally in! I love Vegas!” I shrieked. A weekend in a town full of fun, where you could get drunk by
the pool and spend the night in a club and your mind totally leaves everything behind.

“Well you better because you are my maid of honor! I’m just bummed that I won’t be able to drink while
I am there! Oh well, I can live vicariously through you and feed you all my drinks on top the ones you will
already have!” She laughed and then she suddenly stopped. “So who are you going to bring?” I couldn’t
tell if she was serious or being a smartass.

“Court, I would be bringing Liam of course. Why?” My smile had fallen.

“Ryleigh, because right now I’m so livid with Liam and his little shenanigans and I don’t know if I can
spend a weekend with him around during what is supposed to be a good time. I’m just being honest
right now with you.”

“Well, I can’t bring Caleb! There will be all sorts of pictures and so I can come home and show Liam my
fun time in Vegas for our friend’s wedding and this one is of me and Caleb, a guy that I am fucking, and
this one is of me and the newlyweds while Caleb is kissing my cheek. Yeah, that will go over really well.”
I sighed. “So. When is the big day?”

“We want to do it in the next two weeks. Now, before you say that I am rushing it, I don’t want to look
super huge in my wedding pictures so that is why we are going to do it sooner than later. I am already
looking like I am getting a pooch and people start showing around 3 months.” Courtney said as she
started crunching on something.

“What are you eating?” I asked playfully.

 

“Shut up, I am eating cucumber! I can’t get enough of the stuff and I hate it! So, we were thinking the
first weekend of June. Can you get the weekend off?”

 

“Of course I can. So you said two weeks away? I will look at flights now and then I’ll confirm with you.
Where are you guys staying?” I started to search for flights right then.

“We are going to book a room out at the Aria. I have never been to that one and Jason was set up there
during a conference and said he wouldn’t go to another one. He loved it!” I could hear Jason in the
background talking but couldn’t make out what he said. “Jason says that Liam is welcome but to know
that if he screws up in the next couple weeks that this offer is off the table and does not want to see his
face.” Court said crunching.

“Deal. I’m going to see if he can go, first, then Iwill book the flights. He is on the plane to New York now,
so I’ll talk to him when he lands. It should be about 5 our time. I am so excited for this!” Just then I heard
a tap at my door and saw Ava with a big toothy grin. “Hey Court, I need to go. I will call you this
evening.”

“Awesome! Talk to you later.” Court took one more crunch in my ear and hung up.

 

“Come in. What’s up Ava?” I asked smiling back at her.
“I am not interrupting am I?” She asked before coming in.

 

“Of course not, just making plans to head to Vegas, what’s up?” I pushed myself away from my desk to
stand up.

 

“Ryleigh, this is Brantley.” She said pulling a tall man into my office. He was just as gorgeous as Ava had
described. “Brantley, this is my awesome boss, Ryleigh.”

 

“Wow, Brantley, it is very nice to meet you. Ava told me about a wonderful weekend she had because of
you.” I said as I shook his hand.

“Ava is an amazing woman. I don’t usually pick up women in a bar but she just stood out above
everyone else. I couldn’t just let her get away.” He said in his deep voice. That made her smile bigger
than I have ever seen, it even warmed my heart.

“Well you two have a great lunch! Brantley it was so nice to meet you.” I didn’t want to sound like I
wanted this to rush, but I had to finish up my proposal so I could get everything else that was on my
desk done so I could be with Caleb.

“I think we are just hitting Chili’s, can I bring you back anything?” Ava asked grabbing Brantley’s arm.

 

“That would be great, just their Chipotle Chicken Crispers with a side of ranch dressing would be great.
Thank you Ava.” I could feel my stomach growl talking about food.

 

They both walked out of my office with their hands all over each other. It was cute and sick at the same
time. I laughed as I sat back down.

I managed to work on my proposal in the time that Ava was gone. It was so nice to get my head out of
the clouds, the home life and everything else that was going on. My work seemed to be my sanity today.
My phone had buzzed a text message.

Has anyone told you that you are beautiful today? If not they should be fired ;)

 

It was Caleb. Just a simple text message that made my day just feel so good.

 

I just fired the entire department. LOL! What are you doing?

 

Just as I set my phone down, Ava came in my office with a white take out box. She still had the same grin
on her face, I think that it was permanently placed there and I hope that it stayed that way.

 

“Thank you so much, Ava! My stomach has been growling so loud, I thought that animal control was
going to be called for a suspicious animal wandering around!” I joked.

“Well dig in, I need to go say goodbye to Brantleyand then I have a few more emails to take care of for
Mr. Rogers.” She laughed. “I always laugh about his name. Anyway, he sent an email asking that I make
sure your schedule is open for next week so he can view the proposal that he sent you on Friday. Would
it be okay if I scheduled it for next Tuesday? You have a conference call on Monday morning and I don’t
want to cramp your schedule.”

“That would be perfect. Can you just Cc me on the email so I can mark it down as a reminder? Thanks
again for lunch. I will get some cash this evening and pay you back tomorrow, if that’s okay?” I quickly
started digging into the fries.

“Don’t worry about it. This was on me.” Ava quickly left my office to say her goodbyes to Brantley. My
phone buzzed as I took a bite of my chicken. My fingers were covered in the sauce but managed to hit
the message with my knuckle.

Just finished up my paperwork on my house. Have time for lunch?

 

I quickly licked my fingers and wiped them off with a napkin. I was enjoying my office lunch time but I
wanted to see him so bad.

 

Really busy today, eating lunch at my desk. Sorry.

 

It was not even a moment later.