Coney Island

Chapter 7

'You're going to wear a hole in the floor,' chuckled Joe from where he was sitting in his armchair reading the paper.

I stopped pacing and turned towards him. 'Are you sure we shouldn't just tell them the truth?' I asked nervously as I wrung my hands together.

My anxiety was through the roof due to the fact that my family and Joe's family were on their way over to attend my birthday dinner, and they had no idea that we weren't a couple anymore.

I had only flown back from Karlie's parents this afternoon after spending the whole weekend with her and Hugo. It was amazing. I'd had so much fun getting to know him and getting to know Karlie again, who, after spending time with her, I'd realised was just a more mature version of the woman I fell in love with. She was still goofy, argumentative, and incredibly affectionate, which were some of the qualities I adored the most about her.

However, the Karlie that I had spent the weekend with wasn't the Karlie her family had been subjected to for the past seven years. Tracey and Kurt had both commented on how nice it was to see their daughter back to her old bubbly self and had both thanked me for putting the sparkle back in her eyes.

We had a heartfelt conversation one night while Karlie was spending some one and one time with Hugo that after marrying Josh and giving birth to her son, Karlie had become withdrawn and secretive. She'd lost her radiance and her zest for life, which had been very worrying. They had known something was wrong, but every time they tried to talk to her about it, she would bite their heads off or claim she was just tired from work and being a new mother. As the years went on, she distanced herself from them to the point where she would go weeks without any contact and months without seeing them, which really wasn't normal for her, considering when we were together, we had made sure we saw her family at least once a month, and Karlie had never gone more than three days without calling them.

Though what had worried them the most was how Karlie's relationship with her sisters had dwindled. The four women had always been extremely close, but during her marriage, they were lucky if they saw her twice a year. She blamed it on hectic work days and conflicting schedules. They'd known something didn't add up, but they would never have guessed it was because she was trapped in a marriage that she had never wanted to be part of with a man who she despised.

It was clear that Karian and Kimby still weren't thrilled about our reunion. They hadn't been as cold towards me, but it was obvious that it would take some time for them to get used to us being back together. Though they had both commented on how Karlie seemed much happier now than she ever had with Josh, and that gave me hope that they would come around to the idea of us again.

'I think it's best if we wait until after Christmas to break the news of our breakup,' Joe pulled my attention back towards him. 'We haven't had time to figure out what we will say, and we haven't spoken about what will happen next. I think it's something we need to discuss between ourselves first, then with Karlie, and then we can tell our families, our friends, and our fans.'

I nodded my agreement, though I still felt anxious. His reasoning made sense, but I hated lying to my family and friends, especially Selena and Austin. I was worried that they would be able to see right through me. 'Maybe i should just tell-' my words were cut off by the doorbell.

Joe stood up, stopping in front of me to squeeze my hand. 'It'll be okay. The only thing that's really changed is that we're not sleeping together anymore. Which we didn't do much of anyway,' He pointed out with a smirk which earned him a small smile from me.' We're still friends, and we still have love for each other. We'll be fine, I promise,' He added, which did actually help a little.

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him. 'Thank you,' I replied gratefully, thankful for his constant support that I knew I didn't deserve.

He pulled back and looked into my eyes. 'I just want you to be happy,' he said before he went to let in our guests.