Silver Screen Romance (Book 3)

5. How much weight can a soul take?

Mandy’s POV

“Tal Cooperman at your service.”

“Hey.” I sighed.

“Mands? Everything okay?” He asked concerned.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? Did you guys get to Arizona okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just not sure I want to be here. I mean I love Carey and I want to be with him, but I loved my life in LA, the only thing that was forcing me to get out of there was Brian and after last night ..” I stopped. I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell anyone about my fight with Brian, but I guess now there was no going back

“What happened last night?”

“I caught Brian in my front yard throwing beer cans at my bedroom window and we kind of fought at Joel’s house.”

“Wow. Does that change how you feel, would you ever consider giving Brian another chance?” He asked.

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “Of course not, I was just thinking about everything that Brian and I went through and how Alisha was always the one to fix us and now she’s not here and I’m with Carey and I know that’s what she would’ve wanted.”

“Mandy. You’re not with Carey just because it’s what Alisha would’ve wanted right?”

I stayed quiet.

“Mands?”

“No. I love Carey. I just feel like if I stay here I am going to resent him for it.”

“So come home, simple as that.” He said.

“I don’t think I can do that either. Joel was talking about going back to Maryland for a while, being around my mom and where Alisha grew up would be good for Robin, and I want to go to, I guess I just want to be around everyone. Here in Arizona I am going to be alone most of the time and there’s so much that I am going to miss.”

“I think you just need to be honest with him, but it seems like all of this is coming from somewhere else. You left your life in Waldorf, without looking back, for Brian and now things are complicated because it’s Carey, so what’s the deal?”

I heard the shower stop, I panicked and hung up on Tal.

The last thing he said stayed in the back of my mind for the rest of the day. What was really going on?

A week later, Robin had gone home and I had been avoiding Tal’s calls. I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with me and my feelings towards Carey, I knew I loved him, but at this point was that enough?

I was home alone for the afternoon because Carey had gone out riding with some friends that had just gotten to town.

The doorbell rang, I wasn’t sure who it could be since no one had called and said they would be passing through Arizona.

I opened the door to see Val.

“Oh my God! What are you doing here?!” I screamed.

She set her suitcase inside and I closed the door behind her.

“Well, I am supposed to be meeting Matt in Huntington for lunch, but I got a code red from Tal, which forced me to change my flight and here I am.”

She followed me into the kitchen, hopped up onto the counter and stared at me while I grabbed us some drinks from the fridge.

“What?” I asked.

She tapped her chin a couple times. “Now what would make Tal send me a code red all the way to Italy?”

“I don’t know.”