50 Shades of Drake 1 and 2

Chapter Forty-Three

    Destiny stared at her reflection in the apartment bathroom mirror. She gripped the edge of the sink and lowered her head, closing her eyes while the events from the previous evening played in her mind.

    "I thought we were going to meet Chad," her mother had said.

    "Chad and I had a talk, and we decided to cool things off for awhile," Destiny had told her parents.

    "But...you told us he was a great boy," her mother had said, sounding confused.

    Destiny lifted her head and surveyed her appearance. She looked like a wreck. Mascara-laced tears coursing down her cheeks. Liquid eyeliner ruined. Nose running. She took the heel of her hand and wiped at her tears.

    "Chad is a great person," Destiny had explained to her parents. "But our careers are about to take off and now just isn't the time."

    "But...if you find a great boy, you hold onto him until it's the right time," her mother had responded. "There's no telling if you'll find another one."

    "You shot yourself in the foot," her father had agreed.

    "You should call him up right now and work things out," her mother had suggested.

    More tears welled up in Destiny's eyes. What am I doing with my life? she wondered now.

    "If it is meant to be, it will be," she'd told her parents. The restaurant was crowded last night. She'd distracted herself by watching the patrons at the other tables. Anything to help her avoid making eye contact with her parents.

    Because what was I going to tell them? she asked herself. Your daughter broke up with a nice guy, a sweet guy, a loving guy, so she could...what? Try to make it work with a man who would rather keep his options open while he dates me? More tears fell. This time, she didn't wipe them. She looked at herself, really looked at herself. Who was she? And what exactly did she think she was doing? Had she made a terrible mistake in leaving Chad?

    She hadn't felt that she was in love with him, and shouldn't she know? She remembered the talk she'd had with Aubrey about love. She'd gotten to know Chad, really know Chad. And he had been a decent person. But she hadn't felt that she was in love with him. She hated to think it, but he had felt like a backup plan, the entire time she'd dated him. And she felt horrible. She felt horrible for thinking of him that way when he'd made her a priority. He'd loved her, and he had shown it. She'd never caught him in a lie. She never saw or heard of him flirting with other girls. He'd had offers. She'd heard about those. But he'd politely turned them down. He had respected her enough to be honest with her. "And what do I do?" she asked her reflection as more tears continued to pour down her face. "I leave him. I leave a guy that most women would hope for."

    It was a conversation she'd had with her friends a few years ago. If you met a nice guy, a guy that treated you well, did you stay with him and marry him? Because he was nice and treated you well? Or were girls supposed to wait for that magical kind of love, the kind you hear about in fairytales? Each option had their drawbacks. Stay with the nice guy that treats you well that you aren't in love with, and it's possible you were settling. Sentencing yourself to never knowing what true love felt like. But if you chose the other option and waited for the magical, fairytale kind of love, it was quite possible that you would never find it. That you would waste your life away and wind up alone because you were looking for a myth. More and more people were marrying out of convenience, or to do right by children that were conceived out of wedlock. And there was no right or wrong. For some couples, it worked. It was all a matter of what kind of love you wanted. Stable partnership that seemed more like a marriage between best friends, or wild, passionate love that was the stuff of romance novels. Some of Destiny's friends had claimed that the romance novel type of love didn't exist, but Destiny didn't believe that. She felt it existed, it was just rare.

    She glanced over shoulder and peered into the hallway of the apartment. The apartment felt so empty now. Candace had already cleared her stuff out with the promise of checking in on Destiny within the next few days. Everyone was moving on while she still didn't even know which staff writer job she wanted to take.

    While sniffling, Destiny removed the makeup she had applied. She washed and rinsed her face. She dried her face with a fluffy pink towel. She clasped her shaking hands together and waited for the shaking to stop. Then, she withdrew her makeup from her makeup bag and reapplied her makeup. Her phone vibrated on the bathroom sink.

    Ignoring the phone, she applied lip gloss to her lips and smacked them. Ran fingers through her silky, straightened hair. She stepped back from the mirror and smoothed down the skirt of the sleeveless ivory dress. She looked...acceptable. Her eyes looked a little red from crying, but hopefully that would clear up. She blinked her eyes now.

    The image of Chad's hurt face flashed in her mind. She lowered her eyes and stared at the floor, willing away any other tears that dared to fill her eyes. She didn't want to have to apply makeup a third time. She couldn't help but feel miserable, though. She'd crushed his feelings. She'd hurt him. She felt like...a monster. A user.

    A knock sounded on the apartment door. Blinking back tears, she hurriedly packed her makeup back into her makeup bag. She turned off the bathroom light and exited the bathroom. She walked down the short hall with a million different thoughts and memories running through her head. Memories of how it felt to have Aubrey touch her. Memories of how it had felt to walk in on him with another woman. The happy times with Chad. The look on Chad's face when he realized that she was trying to break up with him in a way that spared his feelings. Wondering if she'd made a mistake by dumping Chad. Wondering what tonight would bring.

    She grabbed the strap of a shimmery blue purse, slung carelessly over the back of the couch. She slowly walked to the door and pressed her palm flat against the surface of the door. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door. "Hello, Aubrey." Points for her. Her voice didn't sound as shaky as she'd expected it to sound.

    He smiled and looked beyond her, into the apartment. "Where's Chad?"

    "He won't be joining us tonight," she told him.

    His smile widened and he offered her his arm.

    She stared down at his arm, her brows furrowed. Still worrying, still wondering, still blinking back the stubborn tears that were insistent on coming. She lifted her eyes and looked at him. Looking so stylish and suave in his black designer suit and striped black dress shirt. The look in his eyes was intense, but he displayed patience. She took another deep breath and accepted his arm.