Saved By Your Love

13. Love Is a Complicated Thing

Continued...

Sheri's POV

Faith was sobbing like she had a case of the hiccups, talking outta her head. I figured out that it was something to do with her fiancé. On the third message she left, she berated me for not answering her calls. On the fourth, she completely let go and just recorded herself crying and crying and crying! I chewed my nail as I listened to 'em, all the way to the fifth message, then I decided to call her back. I was worried about her, but she wasn't the one who answered.

"Hello? Faith? Is that you?"

"No," the woman chuckled, "it's Grace."

In the background, Grace yelled for Faith to come downstairs, that there was someone who wanted to speak to her.

"Sheri! Where on earth have you been? I've been trying to get through to you all day!" Faith babbled.

I sighed, "I was out, okay?"

"Yeah. I know! I went to your house earlier and an old Spanish lady opened the door. What was that all about?!"

I jerked my head away from the receiver because her voice was so sharp. "Calm down, Faith. It doesn't matter. Now, you wanna tell me what's wr—"

"Clearly it matters if it was too important that you couldn't miss it. Do you know how bad I needed you? I thought you'd be at home all day."

I felt guilty for half-lying to her. "I was on a date," I mumbled. "There is someone. Was someone. That what you wanted to hear?"

"A date. Really?" she scoffed. "I knew you were up to something."

"Will you tell me what the hell is wrong?"

"If you really must know, I went into the office today and I, I—" she was overcome with emotion and started to hyperventilate.

I spoke softly, "Faith, Faith, what happened?" It's gotta be Baldy.

"It was Carl," she cried.

Bingo.

"I went into his office today during his lunch break and they were about to..."

"Take a deep breath, Faith,"

She cried for a few seconds before speaking up again, "he had her over his desk! His desk, Sheri!" she bawled.

So he is cheating. I knew exactly how she felt. "Shit. I'm so, so sorry you had to find out like that. And I'm sorry that it happened to you."

"I understand that you have a really busy life and that's why you couldn't go with me when I asked you to, but you could go on a date with some guy?"

He's not just some guy. "Faith, you don't understand. I couldn't tell anyone about it."

"I can't believe you, Sheri. You're my friend. You were supposed to be there for me."

I rubbed my forehead. "Look, I really am sorry, okay? I mean it. I should've told you what I was up to. What are you doing now? Where's Carl?"

"I honestly haven't got a clue. I'm calling from Grace's."

I quickly thought of a solution. "How about—"

"No. I thought I could count on you, Sheri. Guess not."

She hung up on me.

The telephone wanted to be the center of attention for the rest of the evening as Michael kept calling, all the way into the late night. I sat on the edge of the bed and listened to that repetitive, annoying ring, deciding on whether to answer or not. What happened was scary as hell. It was like an ambush. I thought for sure I'd get stepped on all over like a freshly-cleaned floor. It had been months and months of going around and around in circles till I finally gave this whole dating-thing a chance after so long, I was ready to play the field again.