Choose Me

Chapter 21

I wake up the next morning bright and early and check to see if Dex responded to my message from yesterday but am a little disappointed when I see I have no reply from him. I text him again, wishing him a good morning, and wait expectantly for a response but don't hear back from him. I don't know why but his sudden silence doesn't sit well with me. I want to believe it's because he's busy but what could he possibly be doing if he's in the hospital. He should be resting.

When I don't hear from him a few hours later, I send him a couple more messages but all I get is silence on his end and it's driving me mad. Why isn't he answering me?

Elsie eventually gets home from seeing him at the hospital and I all but pounce on her, asking her how he's doing.

"He's great," Elsie assures me. "He's already home and resting. I made sure to get him all the food and drinks he could need before leaving him with Bianca," she tells me and just knowing Bianca is with him again, hurts. But I try to ignore that one fact knowing that it's only a matter of time before she disappears from his life.

"So what happened?"

"They think it was just dehydration and stress. He admitted he hasn't been eating well lately."

"Oh," I say feeling relieved. "That's good, right?" I ask her and she nods.

"Yeah, he's going to be okay," she says with a big smile, and just hearing that is a huge weight off my chest.

I leave her to get some rest and lock myself back in my room. I check my phone and see that he still hasn't responded to me. I hate that he's not responding to my messages but I let it go, figuring he needs his rest.

I bury myself in my work and focus on creating dating profiles for all my new clients and chat with strangers I feel could be a good match for them for eight hours straight before calling it a day.

Finally, when I'm all settled in bed and ready to go to sleep, I send Dex a goodnight message and to no one's surprise, I don't get a response. I go to sleep worried with a sick feeling in my stomach, but try to remain hopeful that I'll hear from him the next day.

***

I wake up the next morning and the first thing I do is grab my phone off my nightstand and check for a new message but there isn't one. I sigh and send Dex a message saying I hope he's doing well before getting up and taking a shower. I get dressed and go grocery shopping, seeing as it's my turn to get what Elsie and I need.

I leave my phone at home so I don't have the urge to check it every five seconds and when I arrive at the grocery store I'm rather glad I have this small distraction. It's a good way to keep my mind off Dex even if it's just temporary.

I buy everything we need plus more because you can never have too many snacks, especially at stressful times like this when all you want is to hear from the stupid guy you thought was going to be with you and confront his sister about us but then he just goes radio silent. Like what happened between us never happened. Bastard.

After I pack all my groceries into my car, I head home, and put all the groceries away, trying to drag every little thing out until I can't take it anymore and finally succumb to checking my phone. When I track it down, I am disappointed to see I still don't have a response from Dex. Not one.

What would it cost him to send me one measly text message? Just one. It would be nice to hear from him right about now. But I know I won't. He's ignoring me and I hate him for it. I don't get what happened. He told me he wanted to be with me, and we were going to tell Elsie about us, and now he won't even talk to me.

Guess it was all a lie all along. I should have known better.

Stupid liar.

Why do I have to be so gullible?