Page 88 of Every Move You Make

“No. Come on, let’s get a drink and catch up.”

“I’m here with someone. Now move,” I warn as Steven continuously pounds at the door. Suddenly I’m all too aware of being locked in a bathroom with my ex as my family makes a scene outside. My thoughts race with what Isaiah could be thinking if he knew what was going on. This is a bad look. I have to get out of here now.

My last drop of southern gentleman evaporates and is replaced with blind rage. “Travis, get the fuck outta my way or I’ll make you!”

Before I’m done speaking, he’s gluing himself to the wall. With a huff, I unlock it and Steven comes barrelling in with my cousins and Isaiah behind them.

“No,” my cousin Luke barks as he forms a family blockade at the doorway. “You’ve done enough damage!”

“I just wanna talk to him!”

I grab Isaiah’s hand, who I’m glad looks confused more than anything, and a gap opens for us to leave.

But Travis says something that stops me in my tracks. “I—I want my ring back,” he stammers, like he’s grasping at straws just to talk to me.

“Your ring?” I laugh humorlessly, turning to face him once again and holding Isaiah’s hand behind my back. “We were never engaged! Why? So you can sell it for the money sinceyou can’t keep a job? What? Did cash flow dry up when that little video you made of us stopped going viral?”

“You bought it for me, Dell,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Well, have fun lookin’ for it at the bottom of the Kentucky River,” my cousin sneers. “I watched him throw it in.”

“What? That was mine!”

“Shoulda thought about that when you cheated on me.” I quickly turn on my heel and place my hand on Isaiah’s lower back. “C’mon, baby. We’re gettin’ outta here.”

“Baby?” Travis booms, but we ditch him through the crowd of my family who's holding him back.

I’m vibrating when we get to the truck and Isaiah puts me in the passenger’s seat. I know I tried to put on an unaffected front, but Travis can get under my skin faster than a fox in a henhouse.

There are no words spoken or sounds from the radio. Isaiah drives quietly while I’m caught up in visions of my crumbling life from seven years ago, when Travis not only broke my heart, but changed the trajectory of my life. The sun has just begun to set when we turn into my family’s property through the gates. When the truck comes to a stop, Isaiah turns to me and holds my hand. “What do you need right now?”

I need to clear my head and drop this mental weight.

“I need to swim,” I say despondently.

“Okay,” he whispers, and gives my hand one more squeeze before turning off the truck and taking me inside. When he tries to take the stairs to our room, I ignore it and pull him toward the back terrace.

“Oh,” he says as I strip everything off, leaving my clothes in a trail heading for the pool. As soon as I’m close enough, my chin trembles and my breath shakes before I dive in. Cool water closes in on me—the pressure holding me like a weighted blanket. The rough walls of the pool grate againstmy fingertips when I get to the end and resurface. I exhale Travis, flip to my back and float there, inhaling the soothing country air I’ve missed—the aromas of bee balm and yuccas from our gardens faintly wafting over the scent of salt water.

It’s then that I feel him next to me and finally open my eyes again. “Hey,” I say softly, reaching for him. He’s simply floating alongside me, waiting, watching. He pulls me by the elbow, and I slowly crash against his naked body. This time, it’s my turn to koala him.

“It’s okay,” he says softly in the shell of my ear. “It’s okay.” Isaiah holds me like a child because that’s exactly what I feel like right now. My emotions are too big and too loud. They’re consuming me like a swarm of locusts or a flesh-eating bacteria. Why does this happen every time I see him? I’m the one who broke up with him! He’s the one who broke my heart and tried his hand at revenge, yet I’m the one torn to shreds. I just want to get to a point when seeing him doesn’t hurt so bad.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Don’t apologize. Do you wanna talk about it?”

I sigh, but keep my face buried in him. “So that’s Travis.”

“I gathered.”

“My ex-boyfriend-almost-fiance who cheated on me at my cousin’s wedding amongst other places and uploaded revenge porn of me.”

“Dell,” he sighs, rubbing my back gently.

“It’s fine. I’m really over it. But it’s like, every time I see him the hurt comes back. I think I’d visit home more if I knew I wouldn’t run into him.”

“Do you want me to kill him?”

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