My Husband's Boss

Chapter 14: A Nightmare Come True

I watch his hand twitch as he reaches out to feed  the cute baby giraffe. He squeezes my hand tighter as he inches closer to it. "I can't do it." he says yanking his hand away and stepping back before the baby giraffe lets out his tongue. "Mr. Primrose, yes you can. You have nothing to be afraid of. It'll be okay, I promise." I whisper coaxing him to try again. "Lena, you don't understand..." he says defeated. "Just close your eyes take deep breaths and count to ten. Then stick out your hand it knows what to do. It seriously won't hurt you. It just wants to be fed. I promise." I say calmly noticing his frantic expression.

"Alright.." he mutters letting go of my hand. He swallows hard and slowly steps back toward the fence. I wonder what his deal is? Why is he so afraid of feeding a giraffe - a baby one at that? I feel a vibration in my in my pocket. Without thinking I pull it out and answer the call before even looking at the number. "Hello." I say quietly trying not to disturb Mr. Primrose's progress. "So when did it become okay to lie to me?" Kerry's voice slaps me. "Well hey to you too Kerry. I think you called the wrong number?" I say giggling. "No, I meant to call you Lena." she commands in restrained tone. "Okay.. But Kerry what are y- what exactly are you talking about?" I ask as I sneak away from Mr. Primrose. "You told me you handled the situation between you and that jackass! And now you're holding hands with him at the zoo? What in the hell are you thinking?" she demands. 

The branch falls from my hands as my eyes shoot wide open and a chill flashes through my body. Shit she knows... I quickly walk past the man we bought giraffe food from almost walking into the lady and her child buying food from him. My mind scrambles as I sit down on one of the benches unsure of what to say. "Kerry, you don't understand..." I say biting my lip. Shit, what do I say? "What do you mean I don't understand? It seems pretty straightforward if you ask me. You're cheating on Sterling and it doesn't look like an accident too me." she asserts. "Kerry it's not what it looks like... Okay maybe it is bu-" I say.  "How could you do this to him? How could you break our pinky promise? I thought we talked about this the night Sterling left at our supposed girls night. I can't believe you would lie to me about something as serious as this and have a pretend like it's nothing. Lena we've been best friends for over ten years. How could you? You promised me that it was just a kiss and that was it." she exclaims. 

"Kerry, we're still best friends we will always be best friends. Please you have to hear me out. I didn't mean to lie to you about this. It's just that - I can't explain it right now, but please can you promise me you won't say anything to Sterling? I promise you I won't lie to you and I'll tell you everything you want to know, please. Just calm down and wait for me to explain everything." I exclaim. My mouth becomes dry and a dizziness overcomes me as scenarios of me losing two of the people I love the most, my soulmate and my best friend, play out in my head. "It's pretty obvious if you can break that promise who's to say you won't break this one. I don't get it Lena, how could you keep something like this from me? Who are you?" she remarks. 

"Kerry stop. Please. I kept it from you and lied to you about it and I can never change that. And I am so sorry for breaking our pinky promise... But I'll tell you everything and anything you want to know." I say quietly shaking. "I just don't know if I can trust anything you say at this point Lena..." she says disappointingly. "Kerry don't tell him." I utter. "As much as my mind tells me I should I'm not going to. I honestly should though." she says. "Thank you." I say taking a sigh of relief. "I just want you to tell me the whole truth by tomorrow. I love you to death Lena you're like a sister to me, you know that. I might not be as close as you are to Sterling but you seriously either need to tell him or stop this. He's a good guy and he's never done anything to deserve this. You better have a damn good reason for this." she says. "Don't worry, I do." I say. "I have to go I'm on a date I'm on a date right now. We can meet up and talk about this tomorrow if you don't have another date that is." she says. "Wai-" I say as she hangs up. I can't even cry at this point. I should have known this wouldn't work out.