Chapter 11
Dylan
“Come on,Aurora, just get in the car and give me a chance to explain. Please hang up the phone and just hear me out,” I pleaded, reaching to take her phone from her hand.
She glared at me as she ripped her hand away and shook her head. “I can’t hang up now. Lorelai will worry something is wrong.”
“Just hang up the phone and get in the car,” I said, clenching my fists.
There was no telling what Carlie would do if she came over here. There was also no knowing if there were reporters inside the club either, or, for that matter, outside. I had to get out of here, not only to protect myself, but to protect Aurora. She’d never be able to deal with a group of swarming reporters.
She looked at me and then down at her phone, finally ending the call, shoving it into her back pocket.
“You didn’t win, just so you know. She wasn’t answering.” She crossed her arms in front of her.
It was then I heard my name being called, and I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Carlie step out the back door of the bar looking around for me.
“We’ll take care of it,” Knox said, pulling his phone out.
“Just call our lawyer and the police,” I said.
“On it.” Knox and Clay took off toward the back door of the bar together, leaving Aurora and me alone. Since I’d had issues with this girl before, a phone call to the police was all it was going to take. That and to my lawyer, which Knox was on top of so I could get out of here. It was then Aurora’s phone rang, and she pulled it from her back pocket and looked at the screen.
“Don’t answer it. Please. I’m begging you to give me a chance to explain,” I pleaded.
Aurora met my eyes and looked down at her phone, biting her bottom lip. “I’ve got to answer it. It’s Lorelai. She’ll worry if I don’t,” she said, bringing the phone to her ear.
“Hey,” she sang, sounding like there was nothing wrong.
She listened as she stared at me, while I continued to plead with my eyes that she’d give me the opportunity to explain my side of this nightmare. I watched as she listened. I couldn’t read her. I didn’t know what it was she was going to say. I just hoped it was what I wanted her to do.
“Oh goodness, Lorelai, no, everything is fine. I must have butt dialed you while I was in the club,” she said, meeting my eyes. “No, everything is fine.”
At those words, the fear of losing her left me, at least for now. At least I knew I still had time to explain my side of the story. After, if she wanted to leave, I’d have to let her, but I prayed she didn’t. I didn’t want to lose her already, especially not this way.
“No really, I’m sorry. I promise everything is okay. I know Phil will come if I need, but really it was only an accident. I didn’t even feel my phone vibrate or hear it ring until I got outside. I’ll call in the morning. Again, I’m sorry for scaring you. Okay, you too, have fun.”
I watched as she ended the call, and then she pocketed her phone and looked up at me, crossing her arms. Her eyes held so many questions, and I hoped I could answer them all.
“Well? Now is your chance.”
I nodded toward the car. “Get in. I’ll explain when we are back at the apartment.”
“This is ridiculous,” she grumbled as she shoved past me and climbed into my car.
* * *
Aurora stoodbefore me as I sat on the couch in my living room. The drive back was silent, neither of us saying a word. I imagined that had driven her crazy to be quiet the entire time when I knew she’d wanted me to explain everything to her in the parking lot back there.
I sat on the couch as she paced in front of me. I was trying to decide where to start—the beginning, the middle or the end—but each time I looked at her, all I saw was impatience and irritation lining her pretty face as she stood there waiting for me to begin.
“We’ve been back here for twenty minutes and I’m still waiting. You can’t force me to stay here, you know. I can always head down to my car and go to Lorelai’s,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her.
I clenched my jaw tight. I was still fuming from earlier, and I didn’t need the attitude from her right now. What I needed was patience and understanding, something I rarely, if ever, received from Carlie. However, I had to remember that I hadn’t given her the story yet to receive any sort of understanding.
I glanced up at her. I could see the anger in her eyes and in her body language. She had every right to be angry. Carlie had almost ripped the hair right out of her head.
I’d already heard from Knox and Clay. They’d called the police and our lawyer, but Carlie had taken off before anyone got there.
“I’m waiting, and I’m giving you another twenty seconds to start before I put my shoes on and walk out that door for good.”
“Alright, look, first, are you alright? Do you hurt anywhere?” I asked, getting up and making my way over to her. As soon as I went to place my hands on her arms, she stepped out of my reach.
“I’ll be fine. What the hell was that? Who was that?”
“That was my ex.”
Aurora said nothing. She just looked at me, waiting for me to continue.
“It started with Sullivan Novak,” I said, anger coursing through my body as she watched me. It didn’t matter how many times I’d told the story. His name still made me want to punch anything in my way, just as much as it did when we played against him and his team.
“Who is that?”
“He was a guy on our team. The team traded him midway through last season, shortly before everything went down, thank god, otherwise he probably wouldn’t be alive, and or I’d be in jail.”
“Okay.”
“Carlie made advances toward him, or maybe I should say he made advances toward her, I’m not entirely sure. I found out about them at an away game when I’d thought she was away with her family. When I was on my way back to my hotel room, I heard what sounded like her voice. I turned to look, and that was when I saw her with him. They were kissing, and then they entered his hotel room and shut the door.
“Anger filled me, so I marched down the hall and banged on the door. She answered, then burst into tears, begging me to forgive her. She’d apparently been sexting with him for months and had been seeing him behind my back. Every chance she got, she was in bed with him, every family vacation she’d lied about, every work trip she’d gone on and each time he was in town and told me she couldn’t watch or come to the game she’d been with him. They’d done this right under my nose after lying to me. When I found out, it fucking gutted me. My world stopped.”
Aurora said nothing. I wasn’t sure what to think at this point as she stared at me.
“It didn’t stop there. When I stood my ground, she dragged my name through the mud every chance she got. Our breakup was already all over online and in the papers. Reporters ate the story up. Then she started dragging my name right through the mud on social media and to reporters every chance she got. It came to the point I had to get a cease and desist, and a restraining order put in place. She was ruining me. I lost sponsors because of her. She was literally killing my career and my bank account.”
“She didn’t seem to think you were over tonight. She seemed to—”
I stopped where she was going with this, because it was something I’d heard repeatedly every time she surfaced and acted this way. “Let me guess, it looks like I caused the breakup, right? Like I was the one who cheated. If you were to dig hard enough, you could probably find an old article online that says the same thing, but I can assure you it was her actions that landed her where she is. I cut her loose so she could have what she wanted, Sullivan Novak. Other than that, none of it was me.
“Also, we weren’t engaged. We’d talked about getting married, about having kids, but that was all. There was nothing in the works. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure she was the one. I’d started having doubts about five months earlier. All she did was confirm it. After, there was no room for forgiveness after what happened. She went for the other guy and tried to blame me for it all.”
“I’m just telling you what I saw. She attacked me as if she were still with you and I were your latest conquest.”
“Of course she did, and honestly, I was expecting this when I did that interview the other night. It was stupid of me to even answer the question they asked about my personal relationship. I should have known better. I should have known that wasn’t an approved question.”
“Approved questions?”
“Yes, the interviewers are supposed to give our PR department a list of questions and they go through and approve of them. I haven’t been interviewed in months because of her, but my lawyers and the team’s lawyers said things should be fine now. I was told all questions were approved, but I’m guessing they snuck that one in and that our PR department never got a copy of some of those questions. Without being warned, they caught me on the spot. I just couldn’t pass over it.”
“So you are saying she only did this because of that interview?”
“That’s my guess. She hasn’t been around otherwise.”
“So you’re not dating her? Right?”
“No, and I’m not interested. I wish she’d just leave me the hell alone, because who the hell knows what will come out about this tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes, everything snowballs in this business, especially with the media. So, if there were any media outlets nearby, this will be all over the place in the morning.”
Aurora turned away from me, walked over to the window, and looked out over the city. She was quiet, and I was worried as she stood there thinking. The last thing I wanted was for her to leave. I wanted her to stay and be with me tonight. I hadn’t planned for the night to go this way, and I’d be back on the road soon enough. Trying to navigate through this problem without being near her would be next to impossible. We were too new to one another to even try.
With my head down, I walked over to her. This time when I reached out, she stood there as I placed my hands on her arms. She looked up at me, her eyes unsure.
“I swear to you, if you are lying to me…”
“I’m not. I wouldn’t do that.”
She studied me, not breaking eye contact for a second.
“How do I know I’m not just some rebound?”
I pulled her against my chest and wrapped my arms around her. “I couldn’t have done that. I’m not that type. I’m a one-woman guy. As angry as I was over everything that happened, I was also gutted and needed time to make sure that I didn’t hurt someone in the process of healing. During that time, I stayed single for over a year. I couldn’t get involved right away, I was hurting, and I swore to myself I wouldn’t bring that into another relationship.
“I don’t know how much of this to believe. You’re a guy. Guys don’t normally care, and I’m sure you had many opportunities of girls dropping at your feet.”
“That’s fair, and you’re right, there were plenty of opportunities, but I’m not that type. You can ask Knox.”
She looked up at me. I could see she was searching my eyes for answers, to see if what I was saying was the truth.
“I don’t know, Dylan.” She averted her eyes from mine again.
“I promise you, I’m telling you the truth,” I said, my voice low.
This time when her eyes met mine, I didn’t hesitate. I placed my hand on her cheek and brought my lips to hers.
“Stop, just stop.” She pushed at my chest and stepping away from me.
“What?” I questioned.
“This is too much, Dylan. I don’t know what the hell to believe.”
“I’m telling you.”
She stepped away from me and started toward the door.
“I know, but…I think I just need some space,” she said, turning back to me.
I looked at her; she glanced at her shoes, then back at me. If she wanted to leave there was nothing I could do. She looked back at me, then at her keys that lay beside her purse, then she sighed.
“Can I at least take a hot bath and just have some time to myself?”
Relief ran over me. She didn’t want to leave. I nodded. You can find towels in the bathroom closet. Take your time. There are Epsom salts under the counter if you want them, and the TV remote is on the wall just beside the lightswitch.
* * *
I lay in bed,my arms behind my head, staring up at the ceiling. It was a little after two. Aurora lay beside me, curled up on her side. She’d taken a hot bath while I talked with Knox. When she hadn’t returned to the living room an hour later, I wandered down the hall to find her curled up on my bed, sound asleep. I covered her and eventually came to bed.
I shifted, trying again to get comfortable.
“You awake?” she asked, her voice barely audible.
“Yeah. Is every okay?”
She shifted under the covers and rolled over, facing me. She lay there, studying my face for a bit, and then slid her hand into mine. “Don’t get mad, but I was worried that maybe I was just another proverbial notch on your belt.”
I rolled onto my side; her face bathed with the moonlight that poured through the sheer curtains.
“I’m sorry if I got angry.”
She wiggled her way a little closer, pressing her lips against mine, her hand resting on my side. I reached out, pulling her closer to me. She was wearing a set of boy shorts and a tank top that left hardly anything to my imagination.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, raising myself up on my forearm. I brought my lips to hers and kissed her slowly as my hand found its place on her hip. As my tongue washed through her mouth, I tugged on the drawstring of her boy shorts, and she lifted just enough that I could slide them off her. I threw them over my head before rolling over to grab a condom from the bedside drawer. When I turned back, Aurora lay there, completely naked, biting her bottom lip. Even though the room was dark, I could still see the light-pink blush on her cheeks in the moonlight as I kissed her hard.
I rolled onto my back and ripped open the condom, rolling it on me. When I went to roll back over, she surprised me by pressing her hand to my chest. She kissed my lips and threw her leg over me, straddling my lap.
“Is this okay?” she questioned quietly, almost as if she were ashamed by being so forward.
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Of course. No complaints from this guy,” I said, brushing her hair back out of her face and tasting her lips again.