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“School, work, and more work,” she said attempting to get out of the conversation, the same one she’d avoided with her family and Tyler the majority of the last two weeks.
“Well then, shall we walk and talk?” Angela asked not really giving her an option of saying no as she slid her arm through her own and began to lead her out of the café.
“And what exactly are we talking about?” Justine asked after five minutes of silence. “Considering you’re getting married next weekend I’d think you’d have tons to talk about or at least do.”
“Yeah well I don’t know if the wedding’s going to happen.”
“Why’s that?” Justine questioned praying she didn’t know about her and Tyler. If the woman had seen the security footage, she’d likely wonder why Tyler was always coming into the hotel late at night.
“Tyler and I…”
“What?” she said when Angela stopped.
“I get your families don’t get along and that you and Tyler have always had this weird…I don’t know, way of relating to each other because of it I guess…”
“I’m not interested in continuing the family feud, I’m really not Angela.”
“Okay then if I tell you something you won’t use it to hurt him, right?” Angela asked and she nodded needing to know what Angela thought could possibly hurt Tyler. “My ex-husband called me last night.”
“Because?”
“He found out through someone we were friends with that Tyler and I are getting married, and he asked why.”
“And what did you tell your ex?” she asked, waiting for the answer with bated breath.
“That I was sick of being the pitied party and I wanted what he didn’t want to give me,” Angela replied with a light laugh.“He asked if I was serious, and I said yes…then he said there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to have another man’s child before hanging up.”
“You and Tyler are thinking of having kids?” she asked nearly choking on her coffee at the idea of another woman having his baby. It sent a wave of pain deep through the very heart of her that wasn’t sane.
“No…Tyler and I aren’t, the marriage was to be in-name only. No, Tyler isn’t gay,” Angela added when her eyebrows rose in surprise. “He said he’d never love anyone the way he loved his first, but his mother is pushing him to get married because she’s desperate for grandchildren. You should have seen the way she would parade women in front of him before we started ‘dating’. It was pure madness considering how conservative she is.”
“Why did you agree to the arrangement?”
“Because I still love Daniel, and I was sick and tired of everyone in town looking at ‘poor pitiful Angela’ or else every guy who was single—and some who weren’t—expecting me to hop straight into bed with them.”
“And the way your conversation with him ended last night has you questioning the choice to marry Tyler?” Justine asked as pressure lifted from her chest.
“Yes—I don’t want Daniel thinking I’m sleeping with Tyler, trying to get pregnant. I just wanted to make him hurt the way he did me when he said I was just a pretty thing on his arm he could easily replace before we split.”
“What would you say to him if he were here in front of you?” Justine asked seeing the man stalking purposely towards them. He looked vaguely familiar, but she’d only seen Daniel once in a mostly blurry photograph and couldn’t be certain it was him after ten years.
“I have no clue…I guess I’d ask him who he thinks he is telling me that I’d never have anyone’s child. He didn’t want them or me in the end…”
“Says who?” Daniel questioned and Angela flipped around in shock.
“What are you doing here?” Angela asked and Justine glanced away as he pulled her up against him, kissing Angela much the way Tyler had kissed her that first night.
“We need to talk,” Daniel told Angela and Justine let out a light smile.
“Let me know what happens,” Justine said giving Angela’s hand a squeeze as she left.
Late that afternoon she heard a knock on her door, and she opened it to find Angela standing there, her hair no longer in a neat twist but bouncing around her shoulders in abandon. “I take it your talk went well?”
“I really hate asking you this, but can you give this to Tyler?” Angela asked holding out a note. “He’ll be at the reunion tonight and I can’t face him. I…Daniel and I…”
“Are leaving town together—again?” she guessed, and Angela nodded.
“We talked some and I have to at least see if we can get back what we had,” Angela said unable to hide her smile any longer. “I just can’t face Tyler and this town, especially our class. My mother will likely murder me for doing this, but I can’t help it. Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d do anything to be with them?”
