Page 42 of Ever After

Jay swooped in when I needed comfort the most. I know how I feel about him, but I don’t know if I should have these feelings. It’s a fresh feeling and comfort that I never had with Aiden. It was so quick and unexpected. He doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this mess. He wants us to work so badly, but I don’t even know if I’m ready to open up again to someone else like that yet. Leaving one comfort for another, I can’t tell what’s right or what's wrong in this situation. I know I’m to blame too, but I didn't stop even though I knew I should have.

After a long day at work, my eyes keep drooping shut. Every time I try to force my eyes to stay open, I see spots floating around. Trying to catch up on two weeks’ worth of work is exhausting.

I decide to start a bath, and I pour some eucalyptus bath salts into the water to help soothe all this tension. While the water runs, I walk into my kitchen to pour a glass of wine for myself.

Steadily stepping into the bathtub to get my body use to the heat, I let out a long sigh. With every inch I make into the water, my tension becomes less. Once I relax my head back, I’m soothed even more. The silence helps put me in a state of ease.

My body jolts from the sound of the doorbell. Just my luck. The second I want to relax, someone is at the door. I sit there debating if I should answer it or not. The bell rings out a second time.Shit.Reaching for my robe, I hurry and wrap it around me as tight as possible and hurry out of the bath.

No one is there after I open the door. “Seriously, I got out of the bath for nothing.” As I’m about to shut the door, I see wildflowers in a vase on the doorstep. I pick them up and set them on the kitchen counter. These are beautiful. I’m looking around for a card or something to know who they are from. That’s weird, I can’t find one. The delivery guy should have known who they were from, but he left. I’m not sure which flower company they are from, so I can’t call them. After the last encounter with Aiden, I really doubt he sent me flowers.

Chills run through me from getting out of the bath without drying myself off. I gratefully lower myself back into the tub to warm back up and decide to call Jay and thank him. It’s been a few days since I’ve heard from him. I haven’t been too good about keeping in touch with him, either. He gets busy too. I bet he’s showing me he cares and is thinking about me.

“Hello,” Jay answers. He sounds surprised I’m calling.

“Hi. Is this a bad time?” I ask.

“No, just surprised by your call, I guess. I haven’t received a lot of responses back from you these past few days.”

“I know. I’ve been busy trying to catch up with work. Thank you for the flowers. I wanted to call and tell you they’re beauti—”

“What flowers?” Jay cuts me off before I can finish.

“They were delivered to me about ten minutes ago.”Fuck.What if they aren’t from him? I drop my head to the back wall of the tub, praying he’s joking. This is embarrassing if they’re not from him.

“Lilah, I wish I had sent flowers for you, but they aren’t from me.”

“Is this a joke? Are you joking with me?”Please be joking, please be joking.

“No. I don’t even have your address to send you flowers.”

Slapping my forehead, I whisper to myself, “No shit.” I’m an idiot. My whole body tenses up. The water feels like it’s a thousand degrees hotter. Sweat is dripping from my forehead. We both sit on the phone in silence. I don’t know what to say.

“Lilah?”

“Hmmm.”

“Who are the flowers from?”

“I don’t know anyone who would send me flowers but you.” Damn Aiden.

“Are you and Aiden talking?”

“We have to talk. We’re still married. I’ve talked to him about divorce.”

“You know what I mean. Is he trying to get back with you? Are you guys trying to make it work?”

I take a big sip of wine. This conversation will not be relaxing. There goes my relaxing night. All because I’m a damn dumbass. I didn’t tell him Aiden wanted to work things out when he flew here. He’s going to think I’m hiding this from him.

“Your silence confirms my answer,” he says.

“No, it’s not like that. I promise.”

“What is it like, then? I won’t do this two-timing shit again. All I want is the truth. I can handle the truth. I know you were still married when we started this, but I thought you were different and someone to trust.”

“No, no, no, it’s not like that at all. Yes, he’s trying to get back with me, but I’ve told him I’ll never get back with him thousands of times.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

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