Page 4 of Shameless
“Just … I have to go.” I ran out of the building with Molly on my heels like the stereotypical runaway bride. “Give me your keys.”
Molly blinked. “What?”
“I need to go, please?”
“Where are you going to go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay.” She handed me her keys. “Theo and I will catch a ride with someone.”
“Can you … Can you tell everyone for me?”
“Seeing as I’m your maid of honor, I guess this is one of my duties.”
It wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to argue with her.
“Thank you.”
I didn’t know where my mom was, but at that moment, I didn’t care. My only concern was getting out of there before I saw Blake, because there was no way I could tell him I was pregnant with another man’s baby.
Before I realized it,I found myself on Interstate 45 heading north, a highway I knew all too well. Was I seriously going to show up wearing a wedding dress? A wedding dress that I was about to marry another guy in? I had nowhere else to go since I couldn’t go back to the apartment I shared with Blake, and I couldn’t go to Molly’s or my mom’s because he knew where they lived.
So, I drove three and a half hours and parked in front of Eddie’s condo. What was I doing? It wasn’t as though I thought he would take me back because I assumed I was pregnant with his baby, or that I even wanted him to take me back. I just felt lost and, honestly, scared. Still, as I sat in Molly’s car and stared up at the building, I knew a part of me still loved Eddie. Maybe the whole pregnancy thing was fate’s way of making sure I didn’t marry the wrong man?
Or it was karma for sleeping with Eddie when I was engaged to Blake.
Was I a horrible person for loving two men?
Taking a deep breath, I opened the driver’s side door and got out. Straightening my dress, I made my way into Eddie’s building and up the elevator to his floor. With each step toward his door, my heart rate increased, my palms became clammy, and my head felt dizzy as though I was going to pass out.
Before I could knock or turn to leave, the door opened and my stomach fell to the floor. “H … Hi,” I stammered.
He drew his head back and blinked. “What are you doing here?”
I swallowed. “Can we talk?”
3
Blake
I couldn’t find her.
I searched everywhere I thought Stacey would be, but it was as though she’d vanished. She wasn’t at our apartment. She wasn’t at the hotel where we’d reserved a room for the night, and she wasn’t at her mom’s or Molly’s. They both swore up and down they had no idea where she had run off to, but she had run and that was a total punch in the gut. In the wee hours of the morning, as I lay in the bed we were supposed to spend our wedding night naked in, I sent her a text saying:
I’m staying at the hotel and I’ll be at the airport for our flight in the morning. I won’t be mad if you show and I hope we can talk it out in Mexico. Or if you want, call me and I’ll come to you. Just please talk to me
I wasn’t sure if I was angry or hurt or sad or embarrassed about her leaving me at the altar. Or maybe I was all the above because I didn’t know what to think. It was like I was in a daze and not thinking clearly, or maybe I was living in some sort of nightmare.
By the time I needed to leave for the airport, Stacey still hadn’t responded to me. I hadn’t slept a wink, hadn’t eaten, and instead, all night drank a bottle of Jack I got from a liquor store down the street from the hotel to numb whatever the fuck I was feeling.
Still feeling a slight buzz from the whiskey, I grabbed my suitcase and dragged it behind me as I walked to the door. With each step, I wondered if Stacey was going to show up for our flight. Whatever had spooked her, I had to hope we could deal with it, even though she made me look like an ass in front of my family and friends.
The rideshare I’d ordered was waiting as I exited the front doors of the hotel. After I put my bag into the trunk of the car, I slid into the backseat and greeted the driver with a tip of my head.
“Airport, right?” he asked.
I buckled my seatbelt and rested my head on the headrest. “Yeah. International terminal, please.”
