Unexpected (The Unexpected Series) (2 page)

Candles and flower petals fill the entire living room and the sounds of Toni Braxton filter through the speakers. This was the first song we danced to at his fraternity’s welcome back mixer. We have been dating since my senior year in college, 5 years ago, and lately I’ve been dropping hints that I’d like to take the next logical step. Engagement.

My eyes fill with tears as I realize tonight might be the night Robert will ask me to be his wife. My mother will shit herself.

I place my purse and grocery bag on the kitchen table and look around with new perspective. The scent of the vanilla candles warms my insides and I wipe the tears falling from my cheeks. Robert is nowhere in sight. My nerves are running rampant when the thought occurs that I may be too early. Stopping in my tracks I realize he couldn’t know I was coming over. He didn’t ask me to come.

I sneak down the hall quietly, on instinct alone. He is obviously expecting me. My excitement gets the better of me and my pace picks up until I get to his half opened bedroom door at the end of the hallway.

“Oh God, yes!” A female voice calls out.
What the hell was that?
“Harder Robby, harder!” The voice continues.

Slap
.

“You like that baby, huh? I bet you love it,” a muffled male voice, that sounds eerily similar to my Robert, says.

Peeking through the doorway I feel my heart shatter into a million pieces. The last five years circling the drain like the frigid water of my earlier bath. Gone! If I could turn back the clock 15 minutes I would’ve never come into this apartment. No, I would have, because if not, I would be blind to what is going on behind my back. My eyes focus on the betrayal. It’s like a car accident you can’t look away from even though it’s bloody and brutal. It doesn’t seem real, but it is.

Robert, my Robert, is screwing his secretary on the bed we picked out together at Sears. Their two bodies become one on the sheets we decided on because of the thread count. And he is not just screwing her, oh no. He is pounding it into her from behind with a firm grasp on her blonde pony tail while aggressively smacking her ass. A far cry from the sweet passionate love making we had this morning before he left my house for work.

“I’m coming!” Anna screams and rage consumes my body.

“THE HELL YOU ARE!” I yell with a voice I don’t recognize and push the door all the way open, hitting the wall with the door knob. “GET THE HELL OFF OF HER NOW ROBERT!”

They both jump at the sound of my shriek and she uses our 400 thread count sheets to cover up her fake breasts. Robert just stares at me expressionless and quiet. I’m hoping he has the worst blue balls imaginable.

“Go home Anna,” he finally says. “Erin and I have to talk.”

Awkwardly Anna gets up, never letting her eyes leave mine.

“Yes, go HOME Anna, to your husband and two kids, you whore!” I spit.

Scowling at me, she scrambles to get her pencil skirt and button up blouse on and runs out of the room. I follow behind her, not yet able to stand looking at Robert or ‘Robby’ as she calls him. She slams the door as she exits, leaving me alone in his living room. The candles and flowers that not 5 minutes ago gave me false hope of a future with him now leave me feeling alone and uncertain of what lies ahead. I know it’s over. There is no coming back from this, no second chances.

“Baby. I didn’t mean for you to find out like that,” Robert says walking into the room.

The music suddenly ceases and my heart beats faster as I begin shaking with anger.

“How did you
MEAN
for me to find out Robert? Or were you hoping I wouldn’t?”

The blood rushing to my face makes me dizzy and I have to sit on his couch. I immediately jump back up when I think of them screwing there too.
Disgusting!

“I didn’t want to hurt you Erin. We’ve been drifting apart for a long time and I feel like I’m...I’m getting bored. I know you think marriage is our next step but I’m just not ready for that. I want to experience other things, other people, and other...positions.” He sits down running his hands through his shaggy black hair in frustration.

“What are you saying?” I ask. “That I’m not adventurous enough in bed? I lost my virginity to you Robert! I loved you and I thought you loved me...and now you are telling me that because I haven't role played with you or let you fuck me from behind that the last 5 years meant NOTHING to you?” My hands shake as I pick up my purse and throw it over my shoulder.

I pull open his door and whip back around towards him again, saying my last words to the man who will probably be the reason I won’t ever be able to trust another. “I’m glad I caught you, you dirty bastard. At least my last image of you matches what you are. A DOG!”

“ERIN!” He starts towards me as I slam the door and run down the stairs.

As I near the bottom my traitor flip-flop catches on the step and I stumble across the sidewalk scraping my left leg. As blood arrives at the surface of my skin I feel Robert’s hand wrap around my arm gently, trying to help me up.

“Are you ok?” He asks.

“No! I’m not ok. Don’t touch me!” I yell, trying to yank my arm away. “Just stay away from me. Don’t call me, text me, or email me. Just lose my number and forget you ever knew me, or that you ever loved me. That’s what I plan to do.” I glare into his soft brown eyes that I used to trust, hoping to make my point clear. “I. Hate. You.”

The hurt in his eyes tells me I hit my target.

Good.

His hand releases its hold and I pick myself up and stomp off to my car. Once in my seat, I drop my head onto the steering wheel. The pain throbbing through my leg is a stark reminder of the pain in my heart. As my tears begin to overflow, my vision blurs.
Why would he do this to me?

Getting myself together before I have a complete breakdown, I search in my bag for my phone. I text Noelle knowing she will see these three words and drop everything for me.

Me: I need you.

“T
hat son of a BITCH!” Noelle yells, as she plops down on the leather couch. “After all the two of you have been through how could he do that to you?”

I am shaking uncontrollably and can’t stop replaying the events of the past hour over and over again in my head. After Noelle responded to my text, I can’t remember anything else. I am lucky to have made it home. She was already here when I arrived, with a bottle of tequila opened and waiting. She knows me so well!

Noelle is right to say Robert and I have been through a lot. Some of the toughest times either of us has gone through have been over the past few years. Robert lost both his parents in a drunk driving accident 4 years ago. I held his hand from the minute he found out until the caskets were lowered into the cold December ground. We’ve even mourned a miscarriage together. Although it wasn’t a planned pregnancy, it was a child, and we were very excited about the prospect of starting a family. My dad passed away last year from lung cancer even though he didn’t smoke a day in his short 55 years. It hit me pretty hard and Robert was there to help me pick up the pieces. The two of us went from scared, early twenty something’s, looking to start a life for ourselves, to an established teacher and architect with the world at our feet. It tears me up inside to think the whole relationship ended because Robert thought we weren’t compatible in the bedroom.

We waited a year after we became exclusive before I gave him the most sacred gift I could give; my virginity. My mother taught me from my early teen years that I didn’t necessarily have to be married but that I should choose carefully and give it to someone I love. After 12 months I was sure that Robert and I were going to be together forever. I guess I was naïve to think that sex was about making love, and showing the other person how much you care about and trust them.

When I really think about it, I should have seen the signs. After college graduation we were lucky enough to find jobs near my hometown. Robert insisted that we didn’t move in together noting that we should leave something for when we got married. I agreed, wanting a chance to explore my independence. I bought a house with Noelle and he got an apartment. Once that happened things changed drastically. I didn’t see Robert as much. I attributed it to his new job and working late. I guess he was working alright. Every time I called the office directly Anna would answer and I would never be able to get to him. According to her he was always busy.

Last December I had become suspicious when I found them coming out of his office. She looked as though a tornado had whipped through her hair and he was adjusting his suit. I never brought it up, trusting that he was faithful to me. It seems love truly is blind.

“Erin, maybe this is the best thing that could’ve happened to you,” Noelle says, bringing me back from my thoughts. “I know you loved him...that probably won’t ever go away but he was a real douche. He never wanted you to go out and have fun with your friends and you were so hesitant when I wanted to plan a trip to Cozumel this summer, just the two of us. Maybe it’s time to start being selfish and do things for you. There are no kids to hold you back, no one to answer to, and 90 days of paid vacation. It’s time to live and it starts with booking our trip!” She grows more animated with each sentence, practically jumping up off the couch. I guess I’m glad someone is happy about the break up.

I’m not happy at all. I just want to sulk until the pain goes away, if it ever will. Is it wrong to want to finish this bottle of tequila or eat my 130 pound weight in cookie dough? Thinking of all the “fun things” we can do is not something I’m currently focused on. But if I know Noelle, and I do, she is going to push and push until I give in.

“Let me think about it,” I say, clumsily making my way up from my comfortable position on the recliner. I watch her face fall, but I can’t be concerned with that right now... I need another shot.

~~

“W
akey, wakey, eggs and bakey!” Noelle’s sing song voice sounds like she is talking into a bullhorn directly next to my ear. Did I mention that she NEVER gets a hangover? Whereas, I have 4 shots of tequila and I can’t function the next day.

“I don’t think my stomach can handle eggs and bakey at this moment,” I say covering my head with the comforter and praying that she goes away.

“Ok! Well I just wanted to put your credit card back in your purse. You don’t need to be awake for that. I know where it goes.” Her ramblings sound muffled through the blanket.

Now I’m up! Her nonchalant announcement has me throwing my blankets off and squinting to find her in the brightly lit room. When my eyes adjust she is closing my wallet back up.

“My credit card? Why did you need my credit card, Noelle?” I’m seeing red. She never goes through my personal stuff without asking.

“So you won’t change your mind.” She shrugs like it’s not a big deal and continues, “I just finalized plans. We’re going to Cozumel in July!”

My mouth drops open and I’m sure my face has turned from a creamy pale peach to fire engine red.

“Tell me you’re joking, Noelle! I swear if you aren’t kidding me then I will NEVER speak to you again.”

She hesitates at the door and turns her body back around to face me. The glare from her crystal blue eyes tells me she is going into “take no crap” mode.

“Erin Melissa Decker. You have six weeks to get over it and start talking to me. I could care less if you mope around until then but that boy, and I say boy because he is NOT a man, has held you back from living your life for the past five years. You need some fun and I’m going to make sure that you have it, whether you want to or not! So, put your big girl panties on and suck it up because we’re going and that’s final!” She whips her long blonde hair around, walks out, and slams my door.

“YES, MOMMY DEAREST!” I yell through the closed door and stalk to the bathroom, hangover almost forgotten. What greets me in the mirror is nothing short of scary. Mascara is caked on my tear streaked face from the previous night’s endless sobs. I remember that in my hasty search to find my bed and not the floor last night, I didn’t take my make up off. Taking a deep breath I brave a second look and really focus on what Noelle said.

As much as I hate to admit it she
is
right...again. Robert controlled my every move. My last year of college was spent practically glued to his side. If I wanted to go out alone he was always threatening to break up with me. The trip to Cozumel was something Noelle and I had wanted to do since the end of last summer when a friend of ours talked about the amazing snorkeling adventures she’d had. There was no discussing it with Robert. He had said no. I’ve always wanted to do a lot of traveling and being a teacher allows me the time. Plus, I hadn’t done all that hard work paying off my student loans and never maxing out my credit cards for nothing! Screw him! I’ve decided I’m going, to spite him, even if only after the fact. This summer is going to be life changing. I can just feel it!

I still need to go and clean out my classroom so I wash my make up off and prepare to get in the shower. Then, as if Robert leaving me wasn’t bad enough I notice that I got my monthly visitor.