Page 49 of Pregnancy Scandal
I stared and looked at her too, wondering what the hell I was supposed to think.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. Foolish question. Very foolish question.
She laughed again. “I don’t know if I should answer that, or how I’d give you the PG-rated version of that story. Did you need something? Gilly’s not here.”
“No. I don’t need anything.” My throat closed up and tears stung the backs of my eyes.
What the hell was I supposed to think besides what it looked like?
Giselle answering the door wearing nothing but Gilly’s shirt tended to say a whole lot.
“Well, I’ll let him know you stopped by.” She nodded and closed the door in my face.
I allowed the tear that had been building to run down my cheek, and in despair, I drove back home.
Mia was there when I got in. She took one look at me and knew something was wrong.
When I told her what happened, she pressed her lips together and sighed.
She sat me down on the sofa in the living room, but I was so antsy I had to stand. I paced around the room, my mind a mess.
Gilly was with Giselle last night, or this morning, or whenever it was.
They were back together.
That was what it looked like.
It was…
So, why couldn’t my brain accept it? It was fact staring me right in the face. Fact. She was in his house, wearing his clothes. How did she get in the house if he didn’t let her in?
That part was irrelevant. It was the whole sleeping together part.
“What are you thinking, Abby?” Mia asked.
“Everything. Mia, why does something feel not quite right to me? Why am I holding on to hope when it’s clear they’re back together?” The tears came now. “Mia, he came here just last night, and we talked. It was clear he wanted to be with me. He said he’d be there for me no matter what I chose, and now this? Mia, he told me if there had been me back then, there wouldn’t have been her, or anyone else. It doesn’t make sense.”
Mia sighed again and grimaced. She looked like she was considering something.
“What, Mia? Share, please. I’m going nuts here. I totally am.”
“Abby, maybe I want to see you and Gilly together so bad that I’m clutching on to straws. I’m clutching on to straws because my mind is telling me it doesn’t make sense either. I’m gonna go on the limb and strip away the romantic side of you two and think of you as friends first and say I don’t think Gilly would hurt you like that. He wouldn’t say those kinds of words to you and hop in bed with his ex, either the same day or the next day, or ever. At least not until he spoke to you and he knew you guys were done. You said it yourself. He told you if there’d been you, there would never have been her or anyone else. So, Abby, maybe it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t make sense.”
I took her words in, and warmth filled my heart.
She was right. I knew what I saw and knew what it looked like, but it didn’t mean that was how it was. Not until he told me so. Giselle was who she was, who I classed as the love of Gilly’s life. However, there was no way he would hurt me the way I thought it looked. Not even with her.
Before I’d become the girlfriend, I was the best friend. Back in high school, when I had to bite the bullet and accept that I couldn’t be this clingy person who leeched onto him, especially when he was in a relationship, he always did something to acknowledge me and let me know I was important to him. It could have been a small thing. As small as a little look. A look of confirmation or acknowledgement first before anyone else.
I was the best friend, and even when I didn’t take notice, he always put me first.
Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I rose above my fears.
“I have to go see him.” I nodded with conviction.
Mia smiled. “You go see him, Abby, and sort this thing out.”
I took one step forward and stopped short as a wave of something I couldn’t quite describe washed over me and drained me. It syphoned the energy from my body, and the room spun.
