INSIDE THEIR MINDS

Coming Back

DEREK

After waiting for nearly half an hour I came to the conclusion that she wasn't coming back for me. I had ventured from the pool to the hottub hoping that it would calm my brain and trick it into giving me the answers I was looking for, but its bubbling waters did no such thing.

It was only after deliberating with myself that I knew what I should do. It was in fact the easier choice and if I were to make it, there would probably be less repercussions in my future. But my heart yearned to choose differently.

It fought hard for me to see the benefits of another outcome and the hope that could be entailed with it. My heart pleaded for Alex. It begged for me to be with her and do everything I could for her. It negotiated with me then convinced me that just walking away from her wasn't just a bad choice, but that it wasn't a choice at all.

Thankfully the hotel did have a pile of towels for those like myself that forgot theirs upstairs. I patted my body down, drying as much as I could as fast as I could, not caring if I was still wet as I wandered the hotel's halls.

It was as I was headed to the elevators that I spotted her near the entrance. The fire radiated a beautiful orange glow which reflected off of her in such an amazing light that I felt awestruck.

At this present moment she was the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen and in that split-second I realized that my heart belonged to her.

Seeing her sitting comfortably, an old magazine in her lap and her hair in a messy wavy bun, she was more glorious than anything I have ever seen, but then she saw me.

Her entire demeanor changed from calm and relaxed to complete tension and confusion.

Her eyes barred holes into me as they stared me down, the fire reflected inside them only adding to the angried effect.

With a slight questioning scowl she takes her eyes off me and looks to her jeans. She then withdrawals what could only be my cell phone.

I walk closer to her when I notice the hotel employee standing at his desk obviously entertained from our presence.

"I don't care right now why you have this and I don't want to hear your excuses. The only reason I'm still sitting here is because I owe someone a favor and you do too."

She showed me the phone then played the voicemail outloud.

"Help me."

Even in just those two simple words I knew it was Erica and it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

"I know where she is, or rather who she is with." I say looking to Alex, trying not to cry, trying to avoid any deep feelings altogether.

"So do I, but what do we do about it?"

PHIL

"Will Tara be alright to watch the kids a little while longer?" I asked Kate as I searched our room for new clothes.

"I think so but I haven't talked to her." She said her voice echoing off of the bathroom walls from inside the shower.

"I think she should be alright." I answered finally finding my clothes in one of the boxes that had been lumped into one of the room's corners.

"Have you told the police about your suspicions?" She asked. I could hear the shower curtain move then the water turn off in the shower.

"No, but can you turn the water back on, as much as I don't have time to shower, I desperately need one, I haven't showered in what? Five days?"