Torn (27 page)

“After lunch, I say we head in and go get our nails and hair done then relax. We can head out about
9pm?” I asked.

 

“I think that would be great!” At that point I don’t know if she was excited about going to get dolled up
or the fact that our food was coming over to us. I laughed and shook my head.

I couldn’t tell who enjoyed their food more, me or Courtney. The guys had ordered burgers but each got
a different kind, they both had some sort of critique over the burger but I was in love with my food. I
was not a picky eater and I definitely loved meat,it wasn’t so much how it was cooked but the flavors. I
just knew that this was the best burger ever.

As we were eating, I know I wasn’t the only one that saw her. A beautiful blonde woman had come out
of the water and headed to the cabana two down from us. You would have thought that I was nonexistent to Liam after that moment. He had just stared at her like she was a piece of meat and he had
not eaten in months.

“Liam, darling? Would you like to stick your tongue back in your mouth?” I asked rudely.

“You’re such a dog!” Courtney said as she rolled her eyes.
I was definitely feeling a little hurt at the fact that he didn’t try to make it conspicuous, but rather made
it completely obvious. I put my plate down and signaled for Courtney to head in. I needed to break away
for a second and now was as good a time as ever to start getting our pampering.

Courtney kissed Jason and then whispered something in his ear and he smiled and then followed me in. I
didn’t bother saying goodbye to Liam.

 

It wasn’t until we had reached the door that Liam caught up with me.

 

“Ryleigh! I didn’t know that looking at someone was going to get me in so much trouble!” He said
angrily.

“No, Liam. Go ahead look all you want. It’s the fact that you made it so obvious that you were drooling
all over her, RIGHT in front of me! The fact that you didn’t even care to think of how that might make
me feel, that’s what hurts me!” I tried to hold back the hurt in my voice. I didn’t want to have this
conversation anymore; I turned my back on him and walked into the hotel.

This time he didn’t bother to follow.

 

“Ryleigh, you okay?” I looked up to see Courtney waiting by the entrance to the salon.

“Yeah, I guess. That fucking pissed me off. I’m not innocent, I will check out other guys. Hell, I will drool
all over them, but come on! I don’t make it obvious when my HUSBAND is right there next to me!” I was
really irritated.

“I thought it was disgusting. I know that Jason caught a glimpse; he wouldn’t be a guy if he didn’t. I just
didn’t see him rolling up his tongue. Don’t let him get to you; we’re going to have some fun!” Court
grabbed my arm and we headed into the salon.

We both had the most amazing pedicures and manicures. These ladies definitely made us feel extremely
relaxed and after the scene at the pool, it was exactly what I needed. As Court was having her hair
washed, I decided to do something a little drastic; I had the stylist cut my hair into a bob! My, past my
shoulder length hair was chopped up to my chin. I thought I was going to cry, but in the end was rather
happy with my new decision.

Court came around the corner to see my new style and I thought her jaw was going to drop to the floor.

 

“Oh. My. God! Wow! You look great with shorter hair!” She squealed.

 

“You think so? I was nervous about it, but I wanted to do something different. Do you think Liam is going
to shit?” I asked biting my nails.

“Quit biting your nails! Who cares what he thinks?I think you look hot! It’s my wedding and so that is all
that matters!” She laughed and pulled me out of thechair. “Let’s go back up to the room and chill out,
watch a movie and then we will start to get ready.What’d you say?”
“Sounds like a plan. My room or yours?” I asked checking myself in the mirror once again before leaving
the salon. We headed to the bank of elevators to head back up to our floor.

“Mine. I don’t really want to see Liam, sorry. He kind of ruined my day and honestly I don’t want him to
ruin the rest of my weekend. So needless to say, I really don’t want to be around him very much this
weekend, sorry.” Court said with as a matter of fact attitude.

“I understand. I kinda feel that this was a breaking point.” I said seriously.

 

“What do you mean Ry?” Court asked as we entered the elevator.

“Court, you and Jason have this amazing relationship. I always thought that I had that with Liam. We
have always been happy and have had a lot of fun together. Then when I saw Jason kiss your belly, I
almost cried! Not because it was the sweetest thing ever, but more because Liam saw it and he rolled
his eyes and shook his head. He almost seemed as if it disgusted him. That to me is a big deal, I don’t
want to feel like that I am so unimaginably disgusting when or rather IF we were to get pregnant and
feel horrible the 9 months. I want him to cherish me as much as Jason does to you and he can’t even
keep his hands to himself!”

“So what are you saying? Are you thinking that you’re going to leave him?” She looked back up at me as
we exited our floor and headed to her room.

“I don’t know. I can honestly say that I can’t picture myself having kids with him anymore. I thought that
this weekend was going to bring us closer and its actually driving us more apart.” I could tell I was more
shocked at myself for saying this all out loud rather than thinking it, but it was all starting to make more
sense as I said it.

I had to make sure that Courtney was still alive; she for once had nothing to say to my moment of truth.
She just stood there and looked at me, she had a half smile on her face.

 

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, just thinking. Mostly that I am proud of you for realizing this. Maybe this weekend was to test
your relationship and it has just failed. You can’t stay with someone who does not treat you like you are
the only woman on the planet. If you can’t be happy with your own relationship and you get jealous of
someone else’s happiness, then it means that your relationship is not very healthy and you need to get
out of there.” She said as she sat down on her bed. “Granted, Jason and I have had our share of fights.
We have said we should take a break, but we end up talking and realize that we are very happy
together. I never thought about having kids with him, I never pictured having kids at all, but now that we
are he makes me feel so beautiful even when I feel like I have put on 50 pounds! Liam should be that
way every day, even when you aren’t pregnant.” She threw her hands in the air.

“I know Court. I haven’t felt that way in a long time with him. But…” I paused as I plopped down on the
bed next to her.

 

“But with Caleb?” She said with a big cheesy grin.

 

“Court! I am not going to go into that.” I said pushing her arm.

 

“Admit it! He makes you feel everything that we just talked about! He would be your Buddha belly
kisser!” She laughed.

“Buddha belly kisser? You’re such a dork! But yes,he would be the one to make me feel all those things.
Ugh! I don’t wanna talk about this anymore, I want to get through this weekend; see how everything
else goes and who knows it might get better.” I think I even just lied to myself. I didn’t even convince
myself, so I know that Courtney wasn’t either.

“You’re right, no more about Liam, Caleb or anything else! Let’s find a movie on TV and then we can get
ready to go out. I am still totally in love with your haircut by the way! Let me take a picture!” Courtney
said as she reached in her bag and grabbed her phone and snapped a pic.

I leaned back on her bed and watched her flip through the channels. I could feel my eyes getting heavy, I
think at that moment the amount of sun and flying had finally caught up to me. I felt my head begin to
slide onto the pillow a bit more.

“Ryleigh?” I felt a light shake. “Ryleigh, its 8:30. Do you want to get up and start getting ready?”
Courtney asked.

 

“Shit! I really slept didn’t I?” I said sitting up quickly.

 

“Yeah, I fell asleep for a little bit watching some show about gambling but you beat me! Do you want me
to go get your outfit? Jason and Liam are getting ready in your room.”

 

“Umm. Sure. Do you mind if I grab one of your water bottles?” I asked signaling to the water on the
table.

 

“Of course! Ice is filled up in the freezer, cups over on the bar. I will be back in a couple. Oh! What outfit
are you wearing?” She asked popping her head back into the room.

 

“Black ankle pants, sequin top and black stilettos. Can you grab the shiny black handbag as well?”

 

“You got it. Be back in a minute.”

 

“Court!”

 

“Yeah?” She said just catching the door.

 

“Be nice. Please don’t say anything to piss him offor I’ll have to hear it. Please.” I held up my hands,
begging her.

“I promise.” She said and finally headed down the hallway.
As I was running my finger through my hair, I couldn’t help but laugh at how short it felt. I then heard
Court’s phone buzz and as I looked down I saw that it was a message from Caleb!

She looks beautiful as usual.

 

I didn’t want to pull up the whole message and her know that I looked, but I couldn’t help but wonder if
she sent him a picture of me with my new cut. My heart melted a bit.

 

I was glad at that moment that I didn’t pull up her message; I heard her key card enter the door.

“Well, you didn’t even have to worry, I just ran into Jason and he said Liam was downstairs waiting for
him, he had forgotten his wallet. I didn’t know ifyou wanted your makeup or not, but I grabbed it
anyway.” Court said as she laid my outfit on the bed and placed the shoes underneath. “You are going to
look hot in this!”

“Thanks! I went shopping the other day and had some good luck! You should see the outfit that I
brought for after the wedding!” I said changing outof my shorts into my new outfit.

 

“Hot pink dress?” She asked with a big smile.

 

“Yes! So you did see it? I asked excitedly.

“I did! It looked so cute I almost brought that for you to wear tonight! We’re going to look way hot
tonight! I can’t wait to get out!” She said hurrying to her closet to pick out her outfit. She went with a
red halter top and pencil skirt with her black stilettos. She was going to look amazing, as usual.

“Wow, Ryleigh! You look totally hot!” Court said excitedly as I came out of the bathroom.

 

“You think so?” I asked checking myself in the mirror.

“Nope. I am lying to you.” She said sarcastically. “Yes! You look very hot! Now if I could only drink, we
would be getting drinks handed to us left and right! So, your liver better be ready!” She laughed and
straightened her skirt.

“Court, I don’t know how you can possibly be pregnant! You look very hot in that skirt! You are gonna be
one hot mama! You about ready, I am starving!” I grabbed my belly as I acted as if I were wilting away. I
laughed as I fell to the bed.

“I can tell that I am only going to be wearing this tonight.” She said sadly. “It’s getting a little snug and I
didn’t think I could zip it up. So… speaking of pregnant…” She paused. “Are you sure that you aren’t?”

 

“What?!” I gasped.

“Ryleigh, you sleep more than I do. You completelyscarfed your burger down at the pool. If I didn’t
know any better, you were pregnant.” She said very matter of fact.
“Courtney, I am not pregnant. God, I just got…” I stopped to think of my last period. I felt the blood rush
from my head. “Shit.” I got up from the bed and quickly grabbed my water off the entertainment stand.

“Shit? Shit what?” Courtney asked panicked.

 

“I was supposed to start my period on Sunday. I…I guess, I didn’t realize it because of all the stupid shit
that has been going on.” I said calmly as I looked at my calendar on my phone.

 

“How are you so calm right now? I am freaking out!” She screeched sitting down on the bed.

 

“Cause freaking out about it is not going to make me start! Fuck!” I screamed out.

 

“Okay, you’re right. What do you want to do? Do you want me to run down to the gift shop? I’m sure
they have tests down there.” Courtney was getting antsy.

 

“Yeah, I mean, I guess. Damn it, I’m now freaking out!” I panicked.

“Like you said, freaking out isn’t going to help. I am going to run downstairs and see if they have one. I
will be right back, okay?” She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Everything will be fine.” Courtney said as
she smiled and headed out the door again.

I sat on the bed and played the fact that I could be pregnant over and over in my mind. Could I really
become a mom? Then it really hit me, who the hell was the dad?! The thought made my stomach turn; I
made a mad dash for the bathroom.

After what seemed forever, heaving up any water or burger I had in my stomach, I heard the door creak
open. I kept my head on the cool toilet lid, I didn’t find it very sanitary but I welcomed the cold on my
face.

“Ry, you still in here?” Courtney hollered out.

 

“Yeah, I’m in the bathroom.” I said woozily.

 

“You okay?” she asked as she bent down pulling my hair from face. “Sick?”

 

“Yeah, especially after I realized that I am going to be the next guest of Maury! Courtney, do you realize I
have had sex with two men in this time frame!” I huffed as I pushed myself up.

“Oh shit. Well, let’s take the test first and then we can worry about that.” She said as she handed me the
paper bag. “I am going to finish getting ready so we can still go down for dinner, unless you want to
stay?” She asked as she started to head out of the bathroom.

“No, we can still go down there.” I reassured her.

I opened the bag and pulled out the box of two tests. My heart began to race; I had never taken a
pregnancy test before. I always had some sort of protection going on. Liam and I stopped using birth
control after we got married, but we always made sure we planned ahead. My periods had always been
like clockwork and never seemed to really worry about it.