Chapter 13 #2
Anna didn’t seem to be listening as she came and sat on my bed beside me, pulling out her phone. “Now, don’t freak out, but there’s something you need to see…”
“Okay…” Her voice was serious, and I suddenly felt more awake. “Why do I feel like you’re about to deliver bad news?”
She winced slightly, and her hand seemed to clutch her phone a little tighter. “There’s a picture of Wes at his parents’ charity gala in the society pages.”
“And…?”
She gave me a tense smile before she continued. “And he’s with his ex.”
She turned the phone so I could see the screen.
I had to blink my tired eyes several times to be sure I wasn’t imagining it.
I was looking at a photo of Wes dressed in his tuxedo, and he was standing next to the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen.
She had long dark hair falling over her shoulders and was wearing a stunning green sparkly dress.
Her brown eyes were glancing up at Wes, and he appeared to be laughing at something she’d said.
His arm was lightly wrapped around her back, and they looked every bit a happy and glamourous couple.
“Are you sure that’s her?” I asked, swallowing as I tried to calm the nerves building in my stomach.
“Yeah, that’s Sarah,” Cress said. She’d moved off her bed and was peering over my shoulder at Anna’s phone. “But maybe that’s Sawyer with her.” She said it more with hope than confidence.
“No, it’s definitely Wes,” I replied, and Anna nodded in agreement.
I swallowed again. “I know you said not to freak out, Anna, but I’m finding that a little hard right now.
They look so…” I paused as I searched for the word that best described how perfect Wes and Sarah looked in the photo.
“They look so together.” The word I’d landed on stung my mouth as I said it.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Cress said, trying to reassure me. “He wouldn’t have snuck out to see you last night if something was going on with Sarah.”
“And he wouldn’t have been constantly calling and texting you the whole weekend either,” Anna added.
“No,” I agreed. But then my doubts took over, and I started to speculate. “Unless he felt guilty about something…” I placed my head in my hands. This was not the news I wanted to wake up to. Especially not when things with Wes had felt so good before I fell asleep last night.
“I’m sure it’s not that,” Cress said.
I didn’t share her optimism. “Then why didn’t he tell me he saw her?” I asked. “We’ve been in touch all weekend, and we saw each other last night. He could have said something if he wanted to.”
Neither girl had an answer for me.
I tried my best to ignore the churning in my gut as I got ready for school.
I looked at myself in the mirror as I put on my makeup and told myself there was no reason to get upset.
There was probably nothing to worry about.
I trusted Wes completely, and he deserved the benefit of the doubt.
But the more I thought about it, the worse my anxiety became.
I’d trusted Levi, and that had come back to bite me.
Everything had been perfect with Noah, and then something totally unexpected had blown it to pieces. History was not on my side here.
I tried to shake the photo from my mind as Cress and I made our way to breakfast, but my uneasiness rushed right back to me when I saw Wes coming out of the boys’ dorm.
His face lit up when he saw me, and he made a beeline for us.
But I struggled to form a smile in response.
I knew the only way to stop my worrying was to talk to Wes about it.
But the thought of that just made me even more nervous.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said when he reached us.
He went to give me a kiss on the cheek, but I couldn’t seem to contain all the anxiety I’d been bottling up. “Can we talk?”
Wes froze, and his brow puckered as he pulled back to look at me. “Uh, yeah…”
He was clearly confused, which didn’t make this any easier. Was he simply playing dumb, or did he really not know why I was upset?
“Uh, I’ll leave you guys to it,” Cress said before hurrying away. I didn’t blame her for running—if I could have run from this situation, I would have. But there was no avoiding it. I needed to know the truth.
“What’s wrong?” he slowly asked.
“Is there something going on with you and your ex-girlfriend?” I wished I’d sounded more rational. I hadn’t planned to accuse him of anything, but my emotions had gotten the better of me. It was hard not to imagine the worst when every other relationship I’d been in had failed so dramatically.
“No, of course, there’s nothing going on,” Wes said. “Why would you even think that?”
“Because of this.” I pulled out my phone and showed him the picture of him and Sarah that Anna had sent me.
Wes’s frown grew more pronounced as he stared at the picture. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but it felt like an age, which really didn’t help my anxiety.
“Well?”
“Sarah was at the gala on Saturday night,” he said, finally looking back at me. “But we barely spoke.”
“Wes, it looks like she was your date.”
“Of course, she wasn’t,” he replied before stepping closer to me and taking my hands in his.
“Look, her family works closely with my parents on this charity. She was always going to be there. It would have been rude of me to completely ignore her. And there were photographers doing the rounds all night.”
I stared at him as I allowed his words to sink in. What he was saying made total sense, but I still couldn’t ignore the way he and Sarah were looking at each other in the photo. How happy they seemed. “You don’t still have feelings for her? You don’t want to get back together with her?”
“Isobel, I’m with you. Getting back with Sarah never even crossed my mind.” He clasped my hands a little tighter. “I would never do anything to hurt you,” he said. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
As I looked into his eyes, I knew he was telling the truth. Wes was too kindhearted, and I honestly couldn’t picture him cheating on me. Even if he did, I couldn’t imagine he would lie about it on top of that.
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “It’s just hard for me not to jump to conclusions. You know I’ve been cheated on before.”
“I know,” he said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I saw Sarah. I just didn’t think to say anything because we hardly even talked.”
“What was it like seeing her?” I asked, my voice far quieter than I’d intended. My nerves were obviously still simmering. “Did you feel—”
“I honestly felt nothing,” he said. “She felt like a stranger to me. Being with you has only made me realize how much better we are for each other. Sarah and I were never going to work. I know now that I’d been holding on to the relationship when it died a long time ago.”
I let him pull me into a hug. If I’d seen Levi over Thanksgiving, I probably would have felt the same.
I hated I’d questioned Wes and that I’d so quickly jumped to the wrong conclusion.
I knew I could trust him, and yet my gut hadn’t wanted to listen.
Still, I was glad we’d talked about it even if I was a little disappointed by the way I’d reacted.
The whole situation made me think about Norma’s prediction for me.
She had told me to trust my heart, and while I might not believe in her psychic powers, I did believe she knew what I needed to hear.
She’d seen my breakup with Levi and heard all about how things with Noah ended.
Maybe she was trying to encourage me to be open to love again.
And Wes was the perfect guy. Exactly the kind of guy I needed.
I wanted to trust him with all my heart—but why was that so much easier said than done?