Page 19 of Reclaiming Love

Chapter 10

She retreated to the silence and safety of her room, not ready to face Heather yet.

Lying down, Melissa curled up like a discarded tissue and let the familiar roll of unease spread over her. If Heather hadn’t turned up when she had, what then? She closed her eyes, as though shutting out the light would pour darkness over the event.

Heather knocked and before Melissa had summoned up the energy to reply, she’d entered.

“What’s wrong?” She came over to the bed where Melissa lay. “What’s wrong, Mel?” She sat down, her concerned eyes narrowed.

Melissa forced herself to a sitting position, more to play a part than anything. Confusion scattered her emotions. Maybe she was making a big deal out of nothing? Maybe she’d asked for it? After all, they’d been kissing wildly; why else would she end up on the bed? And in her own room too.

She’d led him on. She wiped her hands across her face and drew her knees against her chest.

“How come he ended up here?” Heather wanted to know.

“He apologized for the way he behaved. Wanted to make it up to me.”

“Is he always so controlling?”

Melissa’s head jerked up sharply. “Why do you say that?”

Heather picked up a magazine that lay by the bedside. “You haven’t noticed or are you choosing to ignore it?” Her friend idly flicked through the pages.

Melissa neatly avoided answering the question that had bugged her like an insect bite for weeks. “I admit he was a bit of a jerk earlier—”

“A bit?”

Melissa closed her eyes a second too long. “Okay, he was a total idiot. He apologized to me and he wanted to apologize to you, but you weren’t around.”

“He saw me while he was leaving. If he wanted to apologize to me he could have said something.”

Melissa felt her face burn at the memory of what he’d done to her. Of all that Heather did not know.

“Who cares, anyway? It’s not me he needed to say sorry to. It’s you. He treats you like shit. Can’t you see it?”

Melissa stared at the magazine in her friend’s hands. She couldn’t defend the guy. She was only now discovering his other side, and she didn’t like what she found.

“He’s seems set on changing you. All that bullshit about how he’s making you perfect. And since when do you read this?” She shoved the latest copy of Vogue at her.

Melissa looked at the glossy magazine. “Is that a crime?” she asked, suddenly defensive.

“No, but you used to laugh at me because I wanted to know what Kim Kardashian’s latest fashion faux-pas was. That stuff never interested you. You always had your nose in some goddamn shape shifter romance.”

“And because I’m now reading something light, you think it’s his doing?”

Heather jumped to her feet. “If it isn’t, then what about the skim milk you’re having all of a sudden? And the diet articles I see you reading? And this sudden interest in working out? It used to be that you couldn’t get out of bed to get to work and all of a sudden you’re at the gym by eight?”

“Seven,” Melissa corrected her.

Heather glared at her. “That’s exactly my point.”

Melissa glared back. “You don’t like me reading fashion mags, you don’t like that I’m getting healthy and eating right, and now you hate the fact that I’m getting fitter too. Why—are you scared I might take some of the attention away from you?”

The pained look on Heather’s face told her the accusation smarted. Melissa was the one who’d stood by patiently blending into the wallpaper whenever they went out while Heather lapped up all the attention. Melissa had been by her side but invisible—or at least that was how she’d felt. But she’d never minded it much because she didn’t like having all that attention to herself.

All of a sudden Melissa wasn’t sure whether her friend was worried about her controlling boyfriend or whether she was jealous.

“Are you kidding me?” Heather asked quietly. They faced each other in a deadly lockdown. “You’ve changed. You can’t see the wood for the trees anymore.” She threw down the magazine and slammed the door behind her.

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