Broken Pieces

Chapter twenty-eight

MATURE CONTENT AHEAD. CAN SKIP IF IT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE. YOU WOULD KNOW WHEN YOU GET THERE.

I didn't feel like I would burst into tears any minute soon but I knew that I was at the brink of losing it.

Caden had been in LA working because though the work he has in new york was still going on, he had to be there for some important thing. He had been gone for a week but he was back.

I had no idea why I was thinking of him in the position I was but I knew that he was the first thing that came to my mind right then as I stood in the restroom looking at my reflection in the mirror at a hotel where the dinner party was going on outside but I was hiding in here because I'd just seen Stephen Micheal.

Mia wasn't here with me and neither was Bianca. I had come because I was invited and just felt like it. But seeing him made my stomach churn. He probably wouldn't recognize me but that didn't stop the overwhelming urge to hide from him seeing me at all.

I could be brave and go out and show him what I'd become. But what had I really become? I was kind of known, I had more than average sales and my store was to be featured in a magazine next week with an interview for me. But I was still nothing important yet.

Something told me that that was just my mindset because my self esteem had taken a beating by Stephen all those years ago. That some people would have taken years to get to where I was now or days. I shut down that evil thought at the back of my mind.

The sound of two young women giggling as they entered the restroom jolted me out of my thoughts and made me realize that I couldn't hide in here forever.

I could feel their gazes flick over me but I didn't look at them. I just made a decision. I waited for the person on the other line to pick up.

"Hey," came Caden's surprised and cautious voice as he spoke immediately he picked the call.

"Hi, uh, can I come to your place tonight? I-I know I said I wasn't going to come but I want to now."

Caden was silent, but it felt like he was trying to figure something out. His silence showed skepticism and caution. "Sure."

I cut the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. His one word answer was weird but I just knew that I'd rather not be home today. And there was also something calming knowing that I would be lying next to someone.

My dad had his nurse with him and expected me to be back late anyway. So, I didn't have to bother. All he thought was that I was working too hard because he always thought I came back home late in the night rather than early in the morning from Caden's house.

Andrea on the other hand was uncharacteristically completely oblivious to anything. All she had said was that I would have to cut back on my hours at the store.

She was going to be home today though. She was Kevin's date to some event but wasn't sleeping at his place. She had said that since she hadn't spent time with me these days like before-We should gist and hang out after I was back from the dinner party.

But I was in no mood for that.

However, was that the real reason why I didn't want to go home? I thought but ignored my mind's question.

Me: Andrea there has been some change in plans. I can't be home tonight, Bianca was unexpectedly at the party and she is drunk so I am taking her to her house and will crash at her place. Because it would be too late to leave her place and start the journey home. I would be back tomorrow morning but we'd have that talk soon.