Page 32 of Rainstorm

I’d never hear the end of their lectures, since they never agreed with my decision to leave everything I had to be here with my husband. I gave up a promising future in front of the television cameras, because I believed I had an even brighter future with my husband. Back then, I didn’t care what they said, because I was in love. ‘Where you go, I will go’, and all that shit we said at our wedding, which I can’t even let myself think about right now. All I know is that I would have gone to the end of the world if he had asked me to.

Now I’m alone, and I need to do this for myself. Although I’m just two hours away from my parents, it feels more like there’s a whole ocean between us.

I just can’t go slinking back to them.

Defeated.

Destroyed.

Divorced.

I don’t doubt they would support me, but they’d never understand how I feel. I don’t want any lectures, I have enough with my own doubts and fears.

I’m certain about one thing though, and that’s that I need to get out of here. Now!

But I still can’t find my car keys. I’ve searched through my purse without success and now I’m at the point of throwing the entire contents out on the floor. I just cannot find those damned keys.

Roselynn, did you leave them back at the house?

In my desperate hurry to get away from Chase, I didn’t pay attention to minor details, like needing the stupid car keys to be able to get in the stupid car and leave.

Dammit. I’d gladly break the window with one of my heels, but that won’t help, not when the car won’t start without the key fob.

I’m about to start kicking the chassis in frustration when a hand on my shoulder startles me.

“Roselynn?” a gentle voice murmurs, as if I were some kind of wild animal needing to be calmed. “Are you okay?”

I turned around to find a pair of green eyes staring at me with concern, looking puzzled and worried.

Ariel.

“Where are you going?” she probes. “Whatever’s wrong, you can’t drive like this, you won’t even make it as far as the corner.”

Ariel takes a deep breath before continuing with her questions. Questions for which I have no answers.

“Roselynn is everything okay?” she asks. “Where are you going with those bags?”

“I need a cab,” I snap, my voice sounding harder than I mean.

“No, honey, what you need is a linden tea and someone that will listen to you.”

That sounds wonderful, but... as much I love tea, it won’t fix this problem.

“I just want to go...” I can’t even finish the sentence.

“Problems in paradise, huh?” It’s a rhetorical question. “Come on, let’s go to my place, get you calmed down. Seems to me you need more than just a cab.”

Even though I don’t really want to, I find myself following as Ariel picks up my bags and takes them to her small apartment over the parking lot.

“I don’t want to bother you, Ariel. I just need a moment to pull myself together.”

“You’re not bothering me, Rosie. You may not believe it, but you’re actually the closest friend I have.” She looks at me with those big green eyes of hers full of concern. “You might want to use the bathroom—you know where it is.”

I go through the small hall painted in a bright shade of blue until I reach the bathroom. Once inside I see the image that appears in the mirror. Gosh, now I understand why Ariel was so concerned.

I look every bit as bad as I feel. My eyes are red and swollen, my pale cheeks smudged with tears and what remains of my makeup. To complete the picture, I no longer have the hairstyle I so carefully created while I waited for my beloved husband to return from his business trip. All that remains now is a nasty tangled mess.

Ex-husband.

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