Page 30 of Forever After Never

“I’m not crying because I’m upset. I’m crying because I’m angry. She stole your happiness, and she’s stolen my happiness, too. I am so sad that all of this happened to you, but I am soangry that this is ruling your life ten years later. You say that you despise her, but she is still controlling your life. You do know that, don’t you?” He looks at me blankly.

“Let me rephrase. This may be brutal, but please tell me that you know that she hasn’t ruined your happiness. Please tell me that you know that you are doing that all by yourself now. You’re letting her win. I can’t and won’t try to prove to you that I am not her. I don’t compete with anyone, especially cheating little bitches.” He tries to speak, and I cut him off.

“Stop right now. Youaremaking me compete with your ex-wife. That is exactly what it is—a competition. A competition between you hating your ex-wife and your own happiness, and Nicole has won. I refuse to be a pawn in whatever twisted game of chess this is.” I cross my arms over my chest and shake my head in annoyance. “You’re driving me to meet your family, for fucks sake. But you can’t even be straight with me. This is unbelievably cruel. I can’t do it, Sawyer. I’m not going to let you keep me in your peripheral. I am falling for you, and you are breaking my heart. Was that your plan all along?” I swipe a tear away from my cheek.

“No. You don’t get to shut me down. You don’t get to make me out to be the bad guy when you didn’t want anything serious from me to begin with. That isn’t fair. This was just fun for both of us. Then it changed. My god, I hate that it changed. This wasn’t supposed to be difficult. This was supposed to be easy.” He shouts in frustration.

“When this weekend is over, I think it is best if we don’t see each other again. You’re right. This isn’t fair. On either of us. If we weren’t so far away, I’d ask you to turn back. Don’t forget, you infiltratedmylife, not the other way around. I hate that it changed too.” I whisper and turn my face to watch the countryside pass by as my anger flows out of my eyes and down my cheeks.

Sawyer opens his mouth to say something, and I snap.

“Don’t. There is nothing that you can say that won’t make this worse. Please. Keep driving. I don’t want to hear any more about your fucking pity party for one.” I refuse to speak to him for the rest of the drive, so I get my phone out and begin rage-texting Alice to keep myself busy.

An hour passes, and before I know it, the tyres of Sawyer’s truck are crunching on a gravel driveway. It is slightly after one pm as we are approaching Sawyer’s family home. It is beautiful. I have never seen another house like it. It looks as though there would be photos of this house splashed all over a centrefold of a lifestyle magazine.

This is going to be awkward. A house in the middle of nowhere with Sawyer’s family. I am severely outnumbered. What could possibly go wrong?

“Hey, Momma,” Sawyer says as he gets out of the truck. The gravel cracks under his feet as he walks around the side of the truck to embrace his Mum.

“Oh, Sawyer, what did you do this time? Why does this beautiful woman look as if she wants to kill you?” She stands in front of Sawyer with her hands on her hips, her nose wrinkled, and one eyebrow cocked.

“Well, you are certainly perceptive, Mrs. Green! It is so lovely to meet you. I am Autumn.”I like her already.

I let out a genuine laugh, and Sawyer is visibly pissed that his mother is already on my side, and she has absolutely no idea what is going on.

I am pulled into a huge hug by the warmest and most gentle lady. Sawyer’s mum smells of freshly cut flowers and nutmeg. She is probably around five feet tall, so naturally, it makes me feel like a giant. But she reaches up and puts her hands on my cheeks, pulling my head down a little, and looks into my eyes as if she were trying to read my life story.

“You’re a pretty one, aren’t you? My, oh my. Son. How on earth did you end up with someone this lovely?” She peers around the side of me to raise her eyebrows at Sawyer. I let out a soft but awkward laugh.

“My dear-” She directs her next sentence to me “-were you dropped on your head as a child? Was he the best you could do?! Or do you English girls not have very high standards?” I am belly-laughing now.

“Well, Mrs. Green! I think I am going to like you!” I say to her.

“I think I’m going to like you, too! Anyone who can handle my son gets an immediate head start! Please, come in. Everyone's waiting to meet you. Also, my name is Claudia. Mrs. Green makes me seem way older than I feel. It is so good to finally meet you. It is also so good to know that Sawyer is not a monk. We were beginning to believe that he was!” Although she is clearly joking, Sawyer’s Mum is a firecracker. She has done an incredible job of putting me at ease, and I already love her.

"You have such a beautiful home, Claudia."

"Thank-you. We built it ourselves." That would explain why I'd never seen anything like it. A true original.

Sawyer skulks into the house, grumbling away with his tail between his legs. If this were a cartoon, he’d have a cloud above his head with a thunderstorm brewing.

I slide my boots off and wiggle my toes in my socks on the polished floors. Claudia takes my hand and leads me through the house. There is an expanse of wood everywhere. The house is big and open and so warm. The further Claudia leads me into the house, the closer I get to the delicious smell of baked goods. It wraps around me like I am being embraced in a warm hug. I smell cake, and I hear people. If all else fails this weekend, I canalways suffocate myself in the chocolate cake that is sitting on the counter and put myself out of my misery. What a way to die.

“Come to the patio, Honey. Most of the family are here.” Honey – that’s what Edith calls me, and I get a sudden pang of guilt that I’ve taken so much time off work lately. Not that Edith cares. She actively encouraged it. Approaching the covered patio, I look down at my feet noting the socks. Like Claudia can read my mind she says "Here, slip your feet into these. They will keep your toes warm." then slides me a pair of too-big-for-me clogs. I slip my feet in and start feeling slightly intimidated to be in Sawyer’s family home, with his siblings and their partners here. Never have I seen a group of people who are so clearly related. Sawyer’s two brothers are here. A petite blonde woman is standing next to one of the brothers, who I assume is his wife. The other brother is by himself, next to an older man cradling a coffee. Wow, Sawyer’s dad is an absolute silver fox. They are an incredibly gorgeous family.

We are a group of seven, including Sawyer, Claudia, and me, and I feel incredibly outnumbered.

“Honey, let me introduce you to the Greens. This is Frank, my husband. To his left is Oliver, the middle child, and his wife, Lottie. This is their little girl, Poppy, and the loveable rogue on the right is Carter, my youngest son.” Everyone exchanges pleasant greetings with me. “Unfortunately, you won’t meet Lainey, Sawyer’s sister, because she’s working overseas. But this is most of the Green family, and last, but most certainly not least, is Callie. Callie, come here, girl! I hope you like dogs, Autumn!”

“Oh, Ilovedogs, Claudia. I have a beautiful boy myself, called Jed. He is staying with my neighbours this weekend.” Dog may have been a slight misrepresentation of Callie – she would be better described as a bear. A Newfoundland, to be exact. She isbeautiful. A huge brown fluff ball.

“Oh, my word. Look at you! Hi baby!” Callie walks up to me, completely ignoring Sawyer’s whistling as he tries to get her attention. Pathetic, I know, but I get the deepest level of satisfaction that his own family dog has ignored him and made a beeline straight for me.Take that, you grumpy asshole.

“Don’t worry, Callie. I ignore him, too. He’s a fool.” I shoot a satisfied smile to Sawyer and scratch the hairy bear behind the ears.

The family laughs while he looks fixedly at me with pure annoyance.

“Oh, I like this one, Son.” Frank chortles from behind his cup of coffee. “She’s going to keep you on your toes.”

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