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22. Video Call 2

Jayden

I exhaled deeply.

Up until now, I had no real urgency to get rid of Stella. Her presence in my life had been an annoying inconvenience at most. She never really got in my way. I always did as I wished. But now, things were different. Now, I had Alya. And that left no place in my life for any other woman. I had to make sure that Stella was out of my life for good before Alya arrived in Scars Bay. She didn't deserve to be subjected to Stella's craziness.

I knew that if they ever met, it wouldn't go well. Stella was crazy and Alya tended to be a little possessive. Stella would probably go on one of her many rants and Alya would get upset. While Alya wouldn't have expected me to be single for the past five years, that wasn't going to be the case now. I wanted to have my shit together and be ready for her when she arrived. We had our own things to deal with so the least I could do was to have the other aspects of my life in order. Only then would I be able to focus on her a hundred percent and give our relationship a real chance.

Storm greeted me at the door as usual. He made me smile. I had missed him. I knelt down and played with him for a bit which excited him even more.

"You're such a good boy, Storm. It's been a while, hasn't it? Did you miss me?" I rubbed his back.

After Kate's wedding, I had been busy so Mum went and picked up Storm from the pet sitter. She said that she missed him and wanted to have him around so I agreed to let her keep him for a bit. Mum and Dad were going on a vacation today so they dropped him off on their way out of the city. It had been two weeks since I had seen him and I had missed my boy.

He let out an excited yip.

"I know you did. Come on, let's get you something to eat."

He woofed a couple of times and I grinned. With his little tail wiggling in excitement, Storm followed me to the kitchen. I filled his bowl with his food before placing it on the floor. Storm attacked the bowl with the speed of lightning.

He usually got pissy when someone interrupted him while he had his food, so I left him alone, grabbed the take-out box I had gotten from the restaurant, a plate, and a fork, and placed it on the counter. I emptied the noodles into the plate, stuck it in the microwave to warm it up a bit more, and then walked back into the living room.

I was tired as hell after the long day I'd had but the just thought of talking to Alya was enough to energize me.

I grabbed my laptop and walked back into the kitchen and took a seat at the counter. I preferred using the laptop to video call her because the screen was larger and I could see her better. I turned on the laptop and noticed that the battery was low and it wouldn't last as long as our call so I quickly went out, grabbed the charger, and then plugged it in.

I grabbed my dinner from the microwave and set it beside the laptop. Now, I was finally ready for my call with Alya.

I looked at the time and noticed that it was five minutes to 9.30 pm. Well, she wasn't going to mind if I called five minutes before our predetermined time. Impatient, I called her and watched the screen in anticipation.

It rang for a while before the call ended.

My heart deflated.

Maybe she was busy. Maybe she hadn't expected me to call early and was wrapping up her work. I shook the hurt off and started with my dinner. She would call soon enough.

I busied myself by opening up my emails but still kept an eye on the clock. A lot of the emails were unopened and most of them were unpaid restaurant bills.

Ah, hell. This is even more depressing.

I looked at the time and now it was one minute past 9.30. I video-called Alya again, hoping she would be free to pick up the call now.

Unfortunately, she wasn't.

A few seconds later, I had an incoming call on my phone from her. I immediately picked up.

"Good evening!" I smiled even though I couldn't see her.

"Hey, Jay," she said, her voice low and remorseful.

"Are you okay?" I asked, immediately on alert. This wasn't her normal, happy voice.

"Yeah, um... I'm sorry but I won't be able to talk today. I'm still at the studio, working. It'll take me a while."

"I don't mind us talking while you work or you could call me once you are done working. I can stay up late."

"My phone's battery is about to die," she replied, sounding distracted. "And I've had a long day, Jay. I'll probably pass out the minute I'm in bed. Today's just not a good day. Can we just talk tomorrow?"

"I ..uh, of course," I replied.

"I'm sorry," she replied softly, "I'll talk to you later," and then cut the call.

I couldn't help but feel disheartened. It felt like she didn't want to talk to me as much as I wanted to talk to her. I noticed this over the course of the week. She seemed distracted. Something was consuming her thoughts. And no, it wasn't work. Whenever I tried to probe a little, she shut me out.

There used to be a time when I was the person whom she confided in the most. I hated that I wasn't that person for her anymore. I felt like an outsider whenever we talked while I once used to be an integral part of her life. Her priorities had changed.

And I wasn't being dramatic just because she couldn't talk to me this one time. I noticed everything when it came to her - I had been the one to call her every time we talked, she had always been the one to cut our conversation short by saying that she needed to go and she often spaced out during conversations.

A part of me was convinced that I wasn't just overthinking things and that my gut feeling was right. But another part of me, the part that trusted and believed in Alya unconditionally told me that I was just in my head, making things up and self-sabotaging because I had forgotten what happiness felt like. I was so close to living the life I had dreamed of after all. That part of me urged me to keep holding on and wait for her to get back to Scars Bay. We could figure everything else out.

And I had no idea which part of myself to listen to. I felt torn.

I need to clear my head.

Love, B
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