Face the Music
Authors: Andrea K. Robbins
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary, #Romance, #Contemporary Fiction
Face The Music
Andrea
K.
Robbins
Published by Andrea
K.
Robbins at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 Andrea
K.
Robbins
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/andre
a
krobbins
Smashwords
Edition
, License Notes
This
eBook
is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This
eBook
may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Dedication
For my blue-eyed, curly-haired
,
mini-me who, at 5 years old, told me:
Mama, when you finish your butterfly book don’t write another, okay? You never have time to play with me anymore.
Prologue
I pushed open the door to his apartment and froze. The place was empty. Totally bare. There were dents in the
grey
carpet where the couch had been. Nails poked out of the wall, but the
framed
mirror that hung there was gone.
My brain was slow at comprehending. I just stood there, dumbfounded, trying to understand. What was happening? Where was everything?
Paul stepped out of the back bedroom but stopped when he saw me. He had a suitcase in one hand and the red duffle bag I’d given him for his birthday slung over his shoulder. “Allison?” he said, looking anywhere but at me. “What are you doing here?”
I drew in a deep breath, trying to
contain
the panic rising inside me. “I was going to surprise you with dinner.
” I glanced at the sack of groceries in my arm.
“
I haven’t seen you for two days.” My mind was replaying recent conversations, trying to recall if he’d mentioned anything about taking a trip. I was drawing a blank. “
Are, are you going somewhere?”
His baby blue eyes were dark and darted from the wall to the floor to my face. He may have been at an absence for words, but the look I got gave all the answers I needed.
“You’re leaving.” It was more of a statement than a question.
He nodded so slightly that I
wondered
if I had imagined it. “Look. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say here. I thought it would be easier if I just went.”
“Went? Where?”
“I’m going to Toronto.”
It was like I was in a dream, disconnected from my body and watching the scene unfold from somewhere else. The detachment kept me from totally losing it.
“Toronto? As in
Canada? Why?”
My voice was small and high in my throat.
He gnawed on his thumbnail, something he did when he was agitated. “Jesus, Allie. Do we really have to do this? Can’t you just let it be, without all the explication?”
I flinched. “Let what be? I don’t understand what’s happening, Paul.” Actually I did, but I was holding onto the hope that there was another explanation.
“I got a promotion. They need me in the Toronto office.”
I shook my head, tears threatening to come. “I can’t go to Toronto. I have too many obligations here, you know that.”
He blew out a breath and gave me a long, pitiful look. I knew then that there were no other explanations.
“You don’t want me to go.” My voice was deadpan as I stated that little truth.
Whatever strength I
was
using to contain
my panic was about to shatter.
He continued to look at me as if I were some pathetic little child. “Can you honestly say you’re happy?”
It felt like a loaded question. I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them I’d awaken from this nightmare.
But it wasn’t a dream. His grievance
s went on,
“It’s like we’re already married. Day after day, we do the same damn things
, have the same stupid conversations
. I’m suffocating. Aren’t you?”
He paused, and i
f he was looking for me to give conformation, I didn’t. I just stood there,
unbelieving,
watching from my distant, detached perch.
“I know you’ve got a lot of shit on your plate right now, and I’ve tried to be supportive. Believe me. It’s just too much. I feel like you’re sucking the life right out of me.”
He then picked up his bags and walked past me. Right out the door. Ri
ght out of my life.
Chapter 1
Six months later…
My alarm went off at a quarter to six, but I didn’t get
up right away. Instead, I hit the snooze button and buried my face in the soft flannel pillowcase. A vivid dream about Chris Knots
, the super-sexy frontrunner on this new reality TV show,
Superstardom
,
was r
apidly fading from my mind. D
esperate to reclaim the details, I squeezed my eye
s shut and fought to remember.
My efforts were
mostly
fut
ile, however
.
Nothing left but a few foggy scenes
. A campfire on a beach somewhere, under a blanket of stars…
I sat up and hugged my pillow, silently chastising myself for fantasizing about a life I’d certainly never know with a man I’d never
even met.
“
Pull your head out of the clouds,
Allison
,” I mumbled, tossing the blankets aside and reaching
over to switch off the alarm.