Page 120 of Seven Year Itch
“Congratulations.” I wince as I force the smile that I know I should have for my good friend right now. This is a big moment, but my heart just can’t fake it. “You can stop at the store to pick them up anytime.”
“Can you just run them up the mountain next time you come up?”
My pulse quickens as I set the shirt down and hold the phone in my hand. “Um... I won’t be coming up the mountain anytime soon.”
“What? Why?”
I clear my throat and blow out a long breath. “Calder and I aren’t speaking at the moment.”
“Oh please,” she laughs.
Silence stretches across the phone.
“Wait. Are you serious?” Her voice turns grave. “I will be right there.”
“Trista, you don’t—”
The line cuts off, and I drop my elbows onto my checkout counter and cover my face with my hands, hating that I have to do this. I have to tell my friends... again... that something didn’t work out with a guy.
When I told everyone about me and Randal splitting up, no one seemed surprised. I suppose the countless stories and cry-fests I had throughout the last few years of our marriage prepared them for the news. In fact, when I told Cozy, the first words out of her mouth wereThank God.
It’s amazing how many people hold their opinions back on your love life when you’re married.
Even go as far as not tell a soon-to-be bride that her fiancé was cheating on her. Fuck. Was he? Did he do that all throughout our marriage?
I’m sorry for not telling you what I saw, but you have to take some accountability for choosing that ass fuck to begin with. That’s on you. You wanted to call that wedding off and you didn’t. That is something you have to live with... not me.
He was right about that at least. Randal was a facade. If I really look at our early days, there were red flags that I ignored. The fact that we would stay out late on the weeknights all the time, and he never cared that I had to get up early the next day to open my store. The fact that he spoke endlessly about his job and never asked a thing about mine. The fact that he didn’t attend a lot of the things involving my friends and family because he always had other stuff to do. He even blamed his coworkers for why he’d smell like women’s perfume.
So many red flags I just turned a blind eye to.
All because I was excited to be married? Gosh, how humiliating. How desperate. Cozy was marrying Max, and I wanted to join my best friend in the next steps of our lives together. I was ready for the happily-ever-after. What a joke.
Maybe there’s red flags I chose to ignore with Calder too. His surly moods that came out of nowhere, the way he argued with meabout everything he disagreed with. How he managed to lie to me for the entirety of our relationship.
Red fucking flags.
There’s a knock at my store door, and my head pops up to see both Trista and Cozy standing there, concern etched all over their faces.
“Oh God, tell me you didn’t tell her,” I groan, as I let them in and lock the door again since it’s still not time to open.
“Why didn’tyoutell me?” Cozy snaps, propping her hands on her hips as she hits me with a pointed look.
I sigh and lead them back toward my point-of-sale counter. I’ve got about twenty minutes before I need to turn my Open sign, so we better get this annoying girl-power pep talk over with.
I slouch over the counter and shrug. “There’s nothing to tell. I told you guys when we started this thing that it was casual.”
“That is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.” Cozy’s eyes narrow. “No one at that award ceremony thought that you two were casual. Not even Luke, and he’s super jaded these days.”
My brows raise. “He was just my plus-one for the thing. It’s not that deep. You guys were all there too. It was a group thing.”
“Only because Calder rallied us all up to come. That was his idea, not yours.”
“I didn’t ask him to do that.”
“No, he did it because he cares about you.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that he’s been lying to me for the past seven years!” I exclaim, a wave of emotion swelling in my body over that fact. How pathetic he must have thought I was all those years, being with someone who he thought cheated on me. “Calder knew Randal was doing shady shit and never told me.”
