Page 51 of Dirty Money
“Do you really think you and he could go back to the way things were?” Aullie asked. “I mean if he does have someone, that is?”
Her eyes narrowed and she picked up her phone and pulled up a picture of Weston. “Look at this man. He’s striking. Surely, if he comes in here a lot, you’d recognize him and tell me if he comes in here with a woman.”
Weston’s handsome face filled the other woman’s phone screen and made Aullie want to crawl into a hole a die. “Nope, I’ve never seen him,” she lied.
She didn’t know what else to do. Tell the woman it was she who he loved?
“Are you sure? He comes in here often. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve texted him and he told me he was here with his friends, having drinks. As a matter of fact, the night after my husband’s funeral, I called him and he was right here in this bar. He met with me that night.”
So, she was the reason he’d left that first night!
Now, Aullie was growing furious with the man. From day one he’d known his ex-wife and mother of his dead son wanted him back and he still went forward with trying to make a relationship with her. He knew exactly what he was doing and he hid it all!
“If there is another woman, what will that mean to you?” Aullie asked.
“I’m not sure. I can’t say. You see, he’s not exactly acting like the same man. When I tried to kiss him, he stopped me, citing that he couldn’t fall back in love with me so fast. Not after all that has happened. I hurt him terribly when I blamed him and left him. And it may be a thing that stops us from getting back together. But I think, if there is another woman, then it can’t be too serious or he wouldn’t be telling me he would think about it.”
“You’re right. What he has must not be as stable as it might seem to be. I wonder if he’s told this other woman about you,” Aullie mused as she found her head going light.
“I don’t know. I don’t know much anymore. I just know I want him back and I want his baby again.”
Aullie nodded then said, “If you want to know what I’d do, I’d do nothing. I’d never want to go back to what I had before. I’d move on to another future. But that’s just me.” She felt a bit of guilt with her words. “Now, you might want to do the opposite. I’ve been told I don’t really have what it takes to be in a committed relationship. Something I was blind to but now I’m seeing a lot more clearly.”
“If I want him, I should do everything I can to get him. Is that what you’re saying?” Hayley asked.
With a nod, Aullie gave the woman the answer she wanted to hear. Aullie was no fool. She knew telling that woman to move on and forget about Weston would go through one ear and right out the other. So, she told her what she wanted to hear, “Go for it.”Then Aullie added, “But you may have a fight on your hands if there is another woman. A woman who may love him as much as you do if not more.”
“I know that,” Hayley said then took a sip of her drink. “But he has to have a deeper love for me than someone new, right?”
All Aullie could do was shrug. “I have no idea, Hayley. None.”
Aulora felt hollow and unsettled. In the matter of a few minutes her world had been nearly destroyed. Was she still breathing? Yes, but barely.
“Well, I think I have to try,” Hayley said then laid a twenty on the table. “Thanks for your help, Aullie. It’s greatly appreciated.”
“Sure thing, Hayley. I hope things go the best way possible for you. I really do hope that. And I’m sorry about your baby boy. That’s a heartache no one should have to go through.
It occurred to her that Weston shared that heartache and never saw fit to talk to her about such a personal thing. Maybe they weren’t nearly as close as she thought they were. And with his talk about having babies, she was sure he wanted that wound to heal with a new baby, much the same as Hayley did.
Would she be wrong in confronting Weston about the whole thing?
He was an injured party too. And he obviously didn’t have the strong feelings for her, she thought he did. He’d have told her about the baby and the ex-wife if that were the case.
Aullie found herself walking the woman to the door and when Hayley hugged her, she nearly broke down and told her everything. But she stopped herself from doing that.
“Good luck, Hayley.”
“Thanks. I’m going to need it,” Hayley replied then left the bar.
With a heavy heart, Aullie went to the bathroom where she promptly fell apart.
When his cell rang at fifteen after nine that night, he felt a chill run through him. It was Aulora and he was steps away from getting on the jet, Hayley waited for him on.
After looking at the screen for a while, he swiped it. “Hello, peach.”
“Hey,” came her sad voice.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her with concern.
