Page 78 of Enticed

I watch her lip tremble before she musters up the courage to speak. “I think… I think my marriage might be over,” she throws her face in her hands and all three of us steal glances at each other while she cries. Honestly, we all knew something was going on between her and John from little comments she’s made over the past few months. But I didn’t think it was leading to divorce.

“Seriously Amy? Did John ask for a divorce?” Perry questions.

She shakes her head. “No. Neither of us did, but something is going on. I think.. I think he might be having an affair.”

“What!” Perry shouts and Liv flinches before glancing over at the baby. “Sorry,” Perry grimaces. “What makes you think that?”

“He’s married more to his job right now than he is to me.” Amy goes on to explain how he’s been working late a lot more than usual and comes home claiming to be too tired to have sex. They barely spend time together and when they do, his face is buried in his phone. All of us offer suggestions and just listen while Amy vents, but comes no closer to a conclusion on the state of her marriage.

My heart aches for my friend because no one deserves to feel second best by someone that they love.

Oh, shit! That’s exactly what I did to Cooper—make him feel less important than my friends and their opinions! I didn’t steal focus from him and put it towards my job, but I did make him feel like less of a priority in my life for sure.

Wow… talk about an eye opening thought.

“Okay, there’s one more matter to discuss.” Liv addresses us once we finished with dinner and then cut some brownies for dessert. “Clara, what are you going to do now to get my brother back?” She asks as I take a giant bite of the brownie in my hand. I finish chewing before I answer.

“Honestly, I’m not sure where to start. I have quite the mess to clean up.”

“Yeah, you do. Cooper was beyond pissed when I talked to him at the hospital,” Perry says.

“You talked to him?”

“Uh, huh. I tried to explain what I thought happened and why you said what you did, but he was so angry, he kind of shut the conversation down.”

I drop my eyes to my hands where the rest of my brownie rests as my appetite dissipates again. “I’ve never done this, girls. How do I show him how sorry I am? How do I convince him that we can be together—that my fear was just that, but now I’ve seen the light?”

“Well, I think love is all about the little things you do for one another,” Liv speaks just as Evelyn cries from her swing.

“Oh, please let me get her.” Amy jumps up off the couch and lifts the baby from the contraption. “Baby cuddles make everything better,” she coos as she bounces Evelyn in her arms and sways around the room.

“I agree, Liv,” Perry continues. “Clara, think about all the things that you guys did together or shared that would mean something to him and maybe surprise him,” she widens her eyes with a gleam of excitement.

“I like that,” Liv adds. “But you also need to think about why he’s mad in the first place and fix that. I would offer more advice, but you’ve kind of hidden your entire relationship from us, so I don’t have much to go off of,” she lifts an eyebrow at me and I sink further into the couch.

“Yeah, I know, okay? I’m sorry. But I’m sure that he is who I want, Liv. I need to think about this… come up with a plan,” I ponder while I watch Amy dance around with the baby.

“Yes. And then let us know what we can do to help,” Perry smiles at me before I look to Liv who’s also nodding away.

“Absolutely. I’m in too. I feel responsible, Clara. Please let us help,” Amy looks up at me, and for the first time in months, I don’t feel so alone.

It’s crazy how in times of darkness, we can push away the people closest to us when they are really the ones we should lean on. I pushed away my friends, I pushed away Cooper, and I let my own fear control my mind and life.

Well, I’m done. It’s time to own up to my mistakes and show the man that I love that I can’t live without him. Hell, if he hadn’t saved my life, I wouldn’t be living at all. And until we got together, I realized I wasn’t truly living anyway.

Life without love is not meaningless, but a lot less meaningful.

“Okay girls, let’s start plotting…”

Chapter 28

Cooper

“Apparently hitting things is your solution to this problem then?”

Cash comes up beside me as I wail on the punching bag. It’s six in the morning and we both have to report for duty at nine, so we decided to get in an early gym session.

“What problem? I’m just getting my cardio in,” I say passive aggressively as my knuckles crunch in my gloves with each strike I connect to the leather.

---