Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Cadence
My eyes opened as I reached into the bed next to me searching for Elijah. Disappointment settled over me when I felt nothing but cold, empty sheets. I hadn’t even heard him get up.
When I’d come home last night, not only was he already there, but he’d been asleep, too. I’d been left with that nagging voice in the back of my head. The one that told me, since he never reached out to check on me after coming home to an empty house, he didn’t actually care about me.
I stretched, pointing my toes and lifting my fingers over my head as the fabric of my silky night shirt rode up my midriff.
As the sun shined in, signaling another warm sunny day, my eyes wandered across our bedroom.
I’d picked out everything in this room. The pictures on the wall, the decor scattered around, my reading chair in the corner, our bed set.
It was all to my taste and preference. There were no hints of Elijah anywhere besides his clothes in the closet and dresser, which was laughable because we’d lived together since we moved here after college almost four years ago.
The thought unsettled me. Didn’t that bother him? Was the home we shared such a minor blip on his radar that it didn’t matter what surrounded him?
I pulled the black and gray floral comforter off my body and stood. I grabbed my cell phone off the book that sat on my nightstand, and the fluffy white robe that I kept slung across my reading chair.
I wrapped the soft, warm fabric around me. Coffee. Coffee was the number one priority, and then I’d search for Elijah.
Normally, we spent our Saturdays out running errands and preparing for the week ahead. We’d hit the grocery store and stop in any other miscellaneous places along the way.
Which meant we reserved Sundays for relaxation. I’d curl up with a good book while Elijah found something to tinker with around the house and watch whatever professional sport was on.
We lived in a two-story home in a quiet neighborhood on John’s Island. Most people imagined all the houses in Charleston were colonial masterpieces. Our community was one of the newer ones filled with American Craftsman homes. Those old colonials down on Market St. were worth millions.
Not that Elijah’s family hadn’t offered to buy us one so we could be close to them.
His parents lived in a beautiful home downtown that cost more than I’d probably make in a lifetime, but I was not about to spend that kind of money on a house, even if it wasn’t my money.
Elijah and I had fought about finding a home within our budget for weeks.
But I had nothing to prove, and I wanted it to be mine.
I found Elijah downstairs, staring intensely at his computer on the black granite island.
“Good morning.” I walked to the Keurig we kept on the counter and put in a K-cup. The loud pop of the needle breaking the plastic echoed in the silent kitchen.
“Morning,” Elijah finally grumbled.
I said nothing else as I made my coffee exactly how I liked it: medium roast with a heavy hand of vanilla creamer.
I took a sip and instantly felt the warm caffeine loosen some of those tight muscles from sleep.
I pulled out the stool next to Elijah and sat. “So, how did the night go after I left? Did they get enough donations? What was their donation goal, anyway? I thought they were supposed to have a sign that highlighted the progress as money came in. You know, like in the movies.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he kept scrolling through the numbers and letters that displayed on his computer screen.
“Elijah?”
With a heavy sigh, he turned his head toward me. “What?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line, holding back the attitude that fought to get loose. “I asked you a question.”
“I wasn’t paying attention.”
Taking a deep breath, I willed the dam that kept my emotions from spilling over to hang on just a bit longer. “I asked about the rest of the night.”
“Oh. It was fine.” He turned back to his computer.
The tether on my patience snapped like a small twig under too much pressure. I wasn’t interested in playing mind games and I was still hurt by the way he treated me at the gala.
If he wanted to be an ass, I’d happily sink to that level with him. “What the hell is your problem?”
Could I be overreacting just a touch? Maybe. But after he insinuated I was some kind of seductress last night and now he was barely acknowledging me, I’d hit my limit.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
As his fingers moved across the trackpad on his laptop, my anger simmered a little more. Every swipe. Every click. I clenched my jaw tighter. The nerves in my body filled with an electric buzz as my hand reached out and snapped his computer closed. “Maybe now you can listen better.”
“What the fuck, Cadence. I’m working.”
“And I’m talking to you!”
“Funny how your needs always come before mine. Who cares if I’m doing anything important. You need to talk, so I should stop everything I’m doing and listen.”
“That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it. Don’t distort my intentions to make yourself the victim here.”
“Then what do you want, Cadence?”
“I’m not expecting you to drop everything, but I know you can analyze that data on your computer and talk to me at the same time.
You can do that kind of number crunching with your eyes closed.
In fact, I’ve watched you do plenty of things still buzzed from a night of drinking without a wink of sleep. ”
“We aren’t in college anymore. That shit doesn’t fly in real life.”
“I’m not saying we are. Ugh. Why are you twisting everything?”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. All I wanted to know was how the rest of the night went. Who knew it was going to turn into this? It’s always a fight with you these days.”
“Hm. Well, let’s see. My girlfriend causes a scene at a charity gala that my family is known to be generous benefactors of, wearing a revealing dress and inviting men to hit on her. Then, after she leaves early, she goes to a bar to do God knows what with God knows who.”
I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest, heat burning inside me. “And how do you know where I was? It’s not like you reached out and asked.”
“When you weren’t home, I tracked your phone. I also noticed Jade there, too. And what was Jade doing last night? Oh, yeah. Going to see that band she loves so much… again.”
“When did you convince Jade to share her location with you?”
“That’s irrelevant, but when you went to New York with her. So, forgive me for being upset that my girlfriend is out gallivanting around acting like some groupie to a no-name band that probably isn’t good enough to make it big.”
“I’m not some groupie. And Jade asked me for a ride home. I was with my sister.”
“Yeah… Not gonna believe that one. You would have been back before me if she only needed a ride. You hung out there. With those guys.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Elijah shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, nothing.”
I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as the world around me snapped into crystal clear focus. “If you have something to say, just say it. Stop dancing around the subject. Be direct for once in your life.”
Elijah turned his body toward me, and I could see his patience breaking as well.
The muscles surrounding his mouth tightened into a scowl.
He ran a hand through his already tousled hair, and his deep blue gaze never left mine.
“Do you think it’s funny if people around town get the idea you are cheating on me? ”
“Why would they think that? Because I’m clearly not. I’m too busy here, with you, arguing with all your personalities. I’ve got plenty on my plate.”
“So now you’re not even taking this seriously anymore? You’re the one that wanted to talk.”
“Yeah, about why you were upset. Not about some possibility of what other people may assume. Especially something so stupid.”
“But after how you acted last night, and now you’re hanging out with some band. You might as well stand up in the middle of King Street and yell, ‘I’m cheating on my boyfriend.’”
“Are you kidding me right now? This is a joke, right? You’re not seriously suggesting I’m trying to cheat.”
Elijah tilted his head to the side with a narrowed gaze. “I don’t know, Cadence. You tell me.”
My mouth opened in astonishment. It felt as if he’d taken a dull knife and shoved it into the gaping hole he’d created in my chest with his insecurities and the perfectionism he held me to.
My head pounded from the ridiculousness of this argument.
For the second time in 24 hours, someone had rendered me speechless.
Elijah stood, his body tight and stiff as he looked down at me. “I’ve got work to do. I don’t have time for this.”
He picked up his laptop, white-knuckling it as he headed upstairs into his office.
What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened?
I refused to tiptoe around my home like I was walking on eggshells. Afraid that at any moment, Elijah would subject me to his wrath simply for breathing the wrong way. So, I showered and put myself together for the day.
We were in the middle of the Carolina summer heat and the humidity was its own version of Hell. Which meant you wore waterproof mascara if you didn’t want your face to look like it was melting and kept your hair up. I always went the extra mile and added a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.
I was still angry, the uneasiness burrowing into my bones. I didn’t have it in me to talk to Elijah, so I slipped on my sandals, grabbed my keys off the antique entrance table, and left.
When I got into the driver’s seat of my Jeep, I looked up into my rearview mirror as I waited for the engine to idle down.
Somehow, I hadn’t noticed Damien had moved it as I drove home last night. Nothing else had been moved beside the seat position. It made sense since he was at least a foot taller than me. I smiled to myself as I moved the mirror to where I liked it.
I rolled the windows down, letting the fresh, crisp morning air fill me.