Actions Speak Louder Than Fortune Cookies

76 - What Do You Want?

At 8:00 on the nose, Sebastian and Rylee walked hand in hand down the short hall to Chris' room. Sebastian and Anthony were teaming up for interviews this morning and afternoon while Chris and Hayley made up the other team. Then they were all meeting up to do a group interview at 5:00.

They all split up, saying their goodbyes and Rylee and Alexa were the only ones still left at the hotel. They decided to go out and grab breakfast down the block. As they made their way into the surprisingly busy cafe, the girls grabbed a booth in the back corner.

As Alexa sipped her coffee she asked, "Are you okay after yesterday? I can't imagine how rough that must've been to hear."

"Yeah, I'm okay. I hate that I got that upset. But my brain went into overdrive for some reason... I just kept thinking about how Michael treated me and kept me in the dark all the time. I know Seb isn't even close to being like him, but it messed with me." Rylee leaned her cheek on her hand as she frowned.

"Well I'm glad you two sorted it out." Alexa commented as she sipped on her coffee with a knowing look.

"What?" Rylee said as she sat up curiously.

"You know...We mentioned it the first night we all got here. The walls are pretttty thin. This morning was no exception," Alexa chuckled.

Rylee leaned back, her head landing on the padded booth panel behind her. "I just can't stay mad at him, I've tried," she chuckled in return, "and then this morning he even double checked to make sure I actually forgave him and it wasn't just drunk me forgiving him."

"Wait what do you mean 'drunk me?'" Alexa asked curiously

"I may have gotten back to the hotel and cleared out an entire bottle of wine...by myself...in like an hour..." Rylee ducked her head into her crossed arms leaning on the table, embarrassed.

"Rylee Ann."

"I know, I know. I'm stupid and overreacted. But I was genuinely upset and I just needed to drown in my sorrows." Rylee sat up again, look at Alexa, "I think at the end of the day I was never truly angry with Seb but was reflecting back on Michael and being angry at him."

All Alexa could do was nod. She agreed. Sebastian had honestly only tried to help her...he didn't really know about all the trust issues that came with Rylee from Michael. She thought maybe they had died down, but apparently yesterday had proved that false.

"Yesterday actually made me think about going back to my therapist..." Rylee said quietly stirring her coffee slowly, rhythmically.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it's not fair to take out what Michael did to me on Seb...I feel like Justin can help me sort that out again..." Rylee shrugged taking a sip from her mug.

"Hey, it wouldn't hurt. Does Sebastian know you've gone to therapy before?" Alexa asked.

"Yeah, I've mentioned it before. He goes too actually."

"Oh, huh. I didn't know that." Alexa looked up slightly surprised.

"Yeah he's gone for a while. He's pretty open about it." Rylee shrugged matter of factly.

Alexa looked over to the left quickly and then back to Rylee. "Is that girl just like..staring over here?"

Rylee tried to look over subtly but made eye contact with the girl because she was indeed staring at them, "Uh. Yup. Maybe we should just go."

Alexa nodded and immediately started gathering their things as Rylee did the same.

As they left their booth Rylee took another quick glance at the girl. She was a tall blonde, probably in her mid twenties. She was wearing a black crop top and black leggings. Rylee guessed the girl had just recognized one of them and was maybe trying to figure out why.