Page 108 of Forgotten Pieces

“Hey Tacoma,” she says slowly, sadly.

“What happened?”

She avoids eye contact with me as she looks around the lake. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” I cry, the tears spilling over my eyes.

“I don’t want to be the one to tell you this. He should have told you. He should have come here and told you.”

My body starts to tremble as I wait for her words. “What!” I scream.

“Mac thought you should know that Ryder left after the ceremony. His leave was over and he needed to report back to base.”

“No.”

She closes the distance between us and gives me a hug. “I’m sorry, T. I’m so sorry.”

I feel my heart shatter. Was it all because I told him I loved him? Was he not ready for that? Was it our age difference? Did someone find out?

I ask myself a million questions but know I will never find out the answer.

I text him.

I call him.

I do anything I possibly can.

But there is nothing but silence as I fall into the abyss.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Tacoma

“Oh my god, Tacoma, you look like shit.”

I fake a smile as Cam wraps her arms around me. The second I told her everything that went down between Ryder and I, she got her ass on a plane and flew to meet me.

It just happens to be at a hotel in New Orleans. The place I decided to move to. Somewhere far enough away that the thoughts of Ryder won’t follow me here. Hopefully. Even though he is all I thought about the entire drive here. And ever since I crawled into bed last night, clutching a pillow, wishing it was him. I was pathetic enough to find one of his shirts that smelled like him and wrapped it around the pillow.

We walk to the elevator and head up to the eighth floor. I open the door and see Laney searching the internet and jotting down notes. She has been on a mission for the last two hours looking for a place for me to live.

“Cam, meet Laney. Laney, Cam,” I say as I gesture between the two.

“So this is my competition,” Cam says as she looks Laney up and down. “You better be as good of a friend to her as I am.”

Laney walks up to Cam and stares her down. “Bitches get stitches.”

I crack up at Laney. The first real laugh I have had in four days, ever since Ryder chose Shelley over me. “Laney, you’re an idiot.”

Cam laughs. “I like her.”

“I knew you two would get along. Now can we stop looking at a place for me to live for a few minutes and get me drunk. I can’t stand listening to my sober thoughts anymore.”

“Sweetheart, you need a drink stat,” Cam says as she reaches into the giant tote bag on her arm. She digs around and pulls out a bottle of vodka and a jar of green olives. “Dirty martinis, just what the doctor ordered.”

“Life saver,” I mutter as I flop back onto the couch and look at the list Laney was coming up with. You can tell she is a schoolteacher by the list. She has it divided up by neighborhood and then some complicated highlighting system.

She sits down next to me as Cam pours us drinks. “I have a plan, ladies. We drink. Slowly. I don’t need to be dragging your drunk ass around at” —she looks at the clock and sees it’s only noon— “four in the afternoon.”

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