More Than Friends

Part 150 (Tessa)

"Tess, baby, why are you sleeping on the couch?" I hear Hardin ask as I slowly wake up.

"I must have fallen asleep reading," I lie. As I wake myself up, I remember the horrible discovery I made last night and I start to feel nauseous again.

"Why were you reading anyway? You should have been sleeping."

"I just couldn't fall asleep for some reason," I lie again.

"Well, are you hungry? I can make us some breakfast."

In this moment, I decide to test Hardin. "Actually, I'm going to take a shower. Do you want to join me?" Hardin would never turn down showering with me.

"Um... you go ahead. I'll start breakfast."

"Okay..." I reply and then rush to the bedroom to grab my clothes, then lock myself in the bathroom.

After crying quietly to myself, I have a shower, hoping the shower will somehow magically make it so the last twenty four hours never happened.

When I leave the bathroom, I see Hardin has placed a big breakfast he cooked on the table.

"Come on, Tess, dig in before it gets cold!"

I sit down and pick at the food on my plate, while Hardin devours his.

"What's wrong? Does it not taste good?" he asks sadly.

"I'm just not hungry."

"Is something wrong?"

"No," I lie. I don't want to say anything until I call that number.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine, Hardin."

"Okay, Tess. I'm going to go take a shower, then I'll do the dishes I left in the sink." Hardin goes into the bathroom and I hear him lock the door again. What is his problem?

While he showers, I know I need to take the opportunity to call that number. I rush to the bedroom and pull the crumpled piece of paper out of my pyjama pocket. Just looking at it again makes me sick. I nervously dial the number and as the phone rings, I can feel my stomach is in knots.

"Hello!" a woman says in a sultry voice. "You've reached—"

I quickly hang up the phone. I can't listen to this. This brings back too many bad memories of when I had to find out Zed was cheating on me by hearing it from Molly over the phone.

I know enough now anyway. It was a woman. A sexy woman. And she definitely didn't sound like a young school girl. She's probably a very experienced, sexy woman. No wonder Hardin doesn't want to touch me anymore.

I start to cry again. When I hear Hardin coming out of the bathroom, I furiously wipe at my eyes. I don't want him to know I've been crying because then I'll have to explain why.

Hardin gently knocks on the door. "Tess? Can I come in?"

"Y-yeah," I say and my voice cracks a little.

Hardin walks over to me and I hope he can't tell I've been crying. "Tess, are you sure you're okay? You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"Of course I would because we don't keep things from each other, do we Hardin?" I snap.

"N-no, we don't, Tess."

"I have to go to Emma's for a bit," I lie for what feels like the hundredth time today.

"Oh," Hardin says sadly.

I grab my purse and quickly leave the apartment. I get in my car and start driving. By the time I come to a stop, I realize I'm at our spot at the lake. I didn't even mean to come here, it's just where Hardin and I always used to come when we needed to think.

The last time I was here without Hardin was when I found out Zed was cheating on me and Hardin came to my rescue. Now I'm running away from Hardin. I laugh to myself at the irony.

I get out of the car and walk down the dock. I sit down and just look at the peaceful lake, hoping some of its peace rubs off on me.

I don't know what to do with what I learned today. Hardin had some woman's number hidden in his pocket. It's easy to assume he's cheating on me. But this is Hardin we're talking about, the man who is obsessed with marrying me and having children with me. None of this makes sense.

I want to confront him about this, but the last time I accused him of cheating because of that damn bra Zed planted, it turned out he was completely innocent and I almost lost him because he was so hurt that I didn't trust him.

I spend half the day at the lake, crying and trying to figure out what to do about this whole mess. By the time I'm ready to leave, it's almost dark.

When I get back to my car, I turn on my phone and see I have a bunch of missed calls and texts from Hardin. "Sure, it's okay for him to sneak around, but if I do it..." I angrily say to myself. I don't return any messages, and instead just drive home.

By the time I get back to the apartment, I've decided what I'm going to do. I'm not going to say anything to Hardin... yet. I love him and I just know he still loves me, too. I'm going to give him a chance to come clean and explain things to me on his own. I can't risk losing him if I accuse him of cheating on me again and it was another misunderstanding.

"Tess! I was so worried about you," Hardin says as he rushes over to me and wraps his arms tightly around me.

"W-why?" I ask as Hardin squeezes me.

"You didn't return my calls or texts."

"Hardin, I told you I was at Emma's. I'm allowed to have friends." I pull away from him.

"I know. I'm sorry. I just missed you."

"I missed you, too. But I'm a little tired from not sleeping much last night. I'm just going to go to bed early tonight."

"O-okay. I love you, baby."

"I love you, Hardin," I say and head for the bedroom.

I change into my pyjamas and climb into bed. I try to fall asleep, but I lie awake for hours, until Hardin comes into the bedroom.

I expect him to at least try to cuddle with me because I know he sleeps much better when he's close to me, but instead he climbs into bed, leaving his shirt on and pulling the covers up, while facing away from me.

I silently cry myself to sleep, hoping I haven't misplaced my trust in him.