Chapter 53
Shay
One Thursday morning, Greyson called and asked me to come visit Karla. I was surprised when the call came through, because I was certain Karla wouldn’t want anything to do with me due to my connection with Eleanor. I headed to the clinic as soon as they called.
My nerves were through the roof as I walked down the hallway toward Karla’s room. When I looked into her space, I smiled as I saw her sitting at the desk with her notebook and pen, scribbling away.
I didn’t know what she was writing, but I was happy to see her pouring words onto the page. No matter what, the written word had a way to heal broken souls.
“Hey, you,” I said, making Karla look up from her notebook.
Her eyes widened with joy, and she came limping in my direction. “Hi.”
She stood in front of me for a moment, rubbing her hand up and down her arm as she stared at the floor.
I smiled. “Well, are you going to hug me or what?”
A breath pushed through her lips as if she was waiting for permission to give me a warm embrace. She wrapped her arms around me and held on tight.
“I thought you hated me,” she whispered.
“What? Why in the world would I hate you?”
“Because I broke my dad and Eleanor up. I didn’t mean to, really.
I’m just . . . trying to figure out everything.
I can’t understand how my dad could be happy with someone else after losing my mother.
I mean, I really like Eleanor. She’s a good person.
I’m just . . . I feel like I was betrayed,” she confessed.
I thought back to my own mother and the betrayal I felt when she’d announced she was engaged to David.
Instant guilt hit me because I knew Eleanor and Greyson had a true connection.
Maybe my mother and David did, too. I just couldn’t see it until I looked at someone else’s storybook and saw the similarities to mine.
“If there’s anything I know about life, it’s the fact that love is complicated,” I explained, taking a seat at Karla’s table. “I’m still trying to figure out how it works myself, but if it’s true love, you’ll all figure it out. I swear.”
“I’ve been writing a lot lately,” she told me.
“It’s been helping me figure out what’s going on in my head.
And I think I’m kind of getting it. I’m thinking of myself as a character like in my books.
I’m the heroine who has a lot of character arcs.
I have flaws, but I’m trying to see how they make me beautiful. ”
I smiled. “I think that’s beautiful, Karla.”
“Maybe you can read my story when I finish it?”
“I’d be honored. I’m proud of you for doing the hard work. For digging deep and looking inside yourself for answers.”
She nodded. “Uncle Landon has been helping me a lot with that. He said the end goal is happiness, and that’s all I want. I want to be happy again.”
“And you will be. I promise. I can’t wait to see you soar.”
“I’ve been making lists of things that make me happy. Like songs and movies and stuff. I think that’s helping me.”
“That’s a really good idea. I think I might do the same thing for myself.”
Perhaps it was time for me to study my own character arcs, because no matter how old one was, there was always room for growth.
After I finished my time with Karla, I headed straight over to my mom’s house. When she opened the door, she had a frown on her face, obviously still upset over my childish behavior.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I told her, shaking my head. “I’m just so scared of love. I don’t know how it works, or how it moves, or how to stop heartbreak from coming. I reacted so poorly to hearing the news about David, and I am so sorry about that.”
Her frown slowly began to turn around. “I did sort of spring it on you,” she confessed. “I could have prepared you and Mima for it a little more.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I reacted so poorly. I know what Dad put you through all those years ago, and I never want you to hurt like that again.”
“I know. Believe me, I’ve spent so much time living in that world of anger that I’ve struggled with letting people back in.
I don’t trust men—I still don’t as a whole, and that’s something I’ll need to do some work on.
But I do trust David. Shay . . . if you knew how he treated me, you’d never doubt his love.
Your father’s love caged me, while David’s sets me free.
I’m so happy,” she exclaimed, placing her hand against her chest. Her eyes welled up, but this time it was from her joy. My mom was . . . happy.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her so giddy. The joy poured out of her soul. It landed in her eyes and sat against her lips.
“Can you tell me more about him?” I asked.
“Of course. I’ll need my maid of honor to know all the details, after all.”
“I’m your maid of honor?”
“Oh, come on, Shay.” She shook her head in disbelief. “As if I’d ever choose another.”
* * *
Things were finally feeling as if they were coming back together around me, and I was so unbelievably thankful for that.
Karla and I were going to work on getting back into our writing meetings.
I asked Eleanor if it was OK if I did so, and she begged me to continue my work with Karla.
She cared so much from a distance. I was certain that soon enough, she’d find her way back into Greyson’s world.
Some things were simply meant to be.
All was grand up until I showed up for work to a very unhappy actress.
“What the hell is this?!” Sarah barked as I walked into her trailer. Something about her crystals must’ve been off, because her energy was beyond erratic.
“What’s what?” I asked, confused as ever.
She stormed up to me, curlers in her hair and her makeup half done, with straight-up crazy eyes.
“This,” she hissed, holding her phone in my face, showing me the photographs of Landon and me almost kissing in front of the yoga studio. There were also pictures of me leaving his hotel multiple times.
My heart sank.
Sarah’s nostrils flared. “I told you to get close to him so you could report back to me with information, Shay. Then I see this! How could you? I trusted you.”
“To be fair, I told you I wasn’t very comfortable doing that for you. I didn’t want to get involved.”
“Yes, well, it looks like you wiggled your way straight into his good graces. I’m going to have to let you go.”
Wait, what?
“Are you serious? I need this job, Sarah.”
Sarah shrugged and waved me off as if I were nothing. “Yes, well, you should’ve thought about that before betraying me.”
“I didn’t betray you,” I grumbled. “I just didn’t do exactly what you wanted me to do. Besides, I’m not Cyrano de Bergerac. I’m not going to push you into the arms of someone I care about.”
“So it’s true?” she asked. “You do care about him?”
Of course I cared. How could I not? He was my Satan, and I was his Chick. I’d always care for him even if we never received our happily ever after. The last thing I wanted to do was push him straight into the arms of a low-key crazy person.
“None of that matters,” I said.
“You’re right, because you don’t matter.
Do you really think you have a chance with Landon when I’m in the picture?
You’re nothing in the grand scheme of things.
You’re as replaceable as a pair of shoes.
Sure, maybe you came around and reminded Landon of his past, but you’re not his future, and you never will be. You’re a worthless piece of junk.”
I narrowed my eyes at the grown woman standing in front of me, completely baffled by her actions. “Oh, give me a fucking break,” I groaned.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re so entitled! You think you are so perfect that you can bully people into acting a certain way because you think you have power.
But you know what? I’m not intimidated by you.
So go ahead. Fire me. But at the end of the day, I’m still going to win, because I refused to let a woman who carries around thousand-dollar rocks call me worthless.
And news flash! I got the same damn stones from for nine bucks! ”