Page 1 of The Rules Of Attraction
Chapter 1
Summer
* * *
What the hell kind of day was this?
I thought I’d managed to escape the shit, but no, it followed me all the way to Chicago.
Tom was marrying Becca.
My stomach plummeted again just at the thought, and I felt sick.
Tom.
The man I’d spent eleven years of my life with was marrying my best friend.
My hands were still shaking, had been for the last few hours.
It was the immediate reaction on finding the satin textured, cream colored envelope sitting on the floor of my flea-bag apartment when I got back in from grocery shopping.
The envelope contained their wedding invitation inviting me to attend the glorious union of Tom Underhill and Rebecca Kennedy at two PM on Saturday the fourteenth of September.
I’d dropped the envelope, ran to the toilet as bile rose right up into my throat and threw up everything I’d had since fourth grade.
Then I must have lost my mind as I left the said flea-bag apartment and went walking, and somehow ended up here at The Hideaway, a night club.
It was eight o’clock.
I should have been at home prepping to start my new job tomorrow, not here.
I wasn’t even dressed up. The blue summer dress I wore was more fitting for a quick trip to the supermarket or a walk in the park. Definitely not for mingling with the Tuesday night partygoers at a sassy club.
And my stomach still felt queasy.
It was so stupid. This reaction. I shouldn’t have felt like this.
Tom hadn’t been mine for a long time, but what gripped me was the hurt I felt. The hurt and despair from the rejection.
Four months ago when Tom and Becca told me they were together, and had been fora while, I dealt with it.
At that time, Tom and I had been on a break for eight months and I’d just buried my father.
I thought the break was Tom’s way of helping me while I needed to care for my father during the time he needed me most. I thought we’d simply get back together at some point because we’d been together for so long.
But he had no intention to do that.
He’d acted like he’d done me a favor.
Doing me a favor would have been to end things properly with me and not crush me with news of being with Becca.
Back then I didn’t have the strength to accept the truth for what it was. That they’d been seeing each other behind my back for God knew how long. Or, that while I was at my lowest going through all manner of shit the man I loved was screwing my best friend.
For the last four months I’d gone through the motions of trying to pick up the pieces of my life, and bereave my father.
Like a shell, I felt hollow inside and the person who used to be me was lost in the void somewhere.
Today though… the bubble popped. It snapped like someone stuck it with a sharp pin and landed me on my ass that was already at rock bottom.
