Too Much

Chapter thirty eight

Days passed, the winter seemed to get colder, outside and inside of my home. Vanessa didn't really talk to me anymore. Sure, we slept in the same bed and ate together in the mornings but we didn't talk.

She threw herself into her work and shut me out, almost completely. I tried my best to be there but she wasn't budging and I still had to find out why I was being iced out.

"You look deep in thought." I looked up as Steph took a bite out of her Vegan burrito.

I started spending more time with Steph simply because at least she talked to me. And she listened. She could read me like a book and it was creepy but I had to remember that she knew me almost better than anyone, not to mention she was a trained psychologist.

"Yeah, just thinking about work." She sat down the burrito and stared at me knowingly. "Okay, it's Vanessa."

"What's been going on?" She asked, her eyes never leaving mine.

I toyed with the straw wrapped, sighing lightly. "The same thing I told you last time but worse. It's like I'm not even there half the time. She doesn't even cuddle with me in bed anymore."

Her head nodded softly as she twiddled her thumbs together. "You've tried talking to her again?" I nodded. "Give her some space. Now I don't mean the break up space, I mean let her know that you'll be there when she's ready to talk but don't pry."

"Why does it have to be so complicated?" I groaned out and dropped my head onto my arms.

"Hey," Steph whispered and placed her hand on my shoulder from across the table. "If a relationship doesn't go through bumps then you'll both never grow stronger." I looked up, my chin on my forearm. Her eyes were glistening brown again as she smiled. "What happened this morning? Did you talk to her?"

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'. "She was gone before I woke up. Left a note that she had to go to LA for an emergency meeting and took the twins with her to 'keep them off my hands'." Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my burger and bit into it harshly. "She's been subtly shading me for days and I don't get why."

"I'm sorry, I know you guys will work it out." She said with a smile. "Do you need a ride to the gym?"

"Yes please." I hummed and packed up my food. "You should hang around, do some reps with me." I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

She laughed lightly and drank the water from her flask. "I have work soon and I'm not about to take another shower."

"Your loss."

-

"So, we're ready to drop it?" Zach asked from the FaceTime call. I nodded softly as I continued to toss the baseball between my hands. "Your fans are having a debut party. Apparently they've been planning it for weeks and some celebs said they'd show up."

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah I love them." Stopping in front of the camera, I ran my fingers over the lacing before speaking. "Have you seen Vanessa out there?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded softly. "Yeah actually. I was super confused too but she was hanging with Gigi down on Rodeo. She's also been with that uh, what's that kids name? August something. He posted a pic with her on insta."

I quickly grabbed my phone and put Zach on pause as I went to my Instagram and typed in 'August' and August Alblagblah popped up. I clicked his profile and sure enough, the most recent picture was him and Vanessa.