He found it humorous when I said that my parents were indisposed at the moment and my father wasn’t allowed to come over and help me. I meant it when I said right now I could not look at him.
Thirty minutes late, I strolled through the front doors of the dentist’s office, still shivering at the idea of my parents and their morning activities. I just couldn’t, nope not today, not ever.
***
“Okay, Mr. Haynes, I think that should do it.” I offered the man a cup of water so he could spit one last time. “Everything is looking good.” I covered the tray of tools and pushed them to the side before unclipping his bib. “You can schedule your next cleaning with the ladies up front.”
“Thank you, dear.” He gave me a nod before leaving the room and walking toward the front of the office.
My day had felt off, ever since I found the same brand of cigarettes just outside my apartment door that were lying outside my truck the night of the Halloween event at the station. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, jumpy at the smallest of sounds, and my stomach felt as though it had been tied into the tightest of knots.
“For a girl shacking up with a man like Landon, you sure don’t look happy.” Spinning around too quickly, I knocked over the tray of tools, and they crashed to the floor. “Trouble in paradise already?” Holly stood in the doorway with a smug look on her face. “I can definitely take him off your hands if you’d like me to.”
“Not now, Holly.” I wasn’t in the mood. I couldn’t do this with her. My chest ached to the point where it was alarming, and had it not been only triggered by stress, I would have been frantic. I knew it was anxiety, and right now, it was spiking through the roof.
“Aww, I feel bad things are falling apart so quickly for the two of you. Is it because of us?”
“There is no us for you and Landon.”
“Maybe not now because you have managed to get in my way, but there once was.” She walked into the room instead of leaving like I’d wished she would. “From the looks of it, there may not be an us for you and him, either.”
“You are assuming I’m upset about Landon, but I can assure you everything between the two of us is great. Better than great, actually.” I didn’t like the way she was watching me, the way she looked at me as if she knew without a doubt I was lying. It pissed me off.
My temper flared; it was something on a normal day I could keep control of. I felt like I was falling apart, and I hated feeling unsettled. I was a planner and organizer; I loved, no, I needed everything to fall into place. My hands were shaking as I grasped the tools in my hand, still crouched down on the floor. Looking up toward Holly and her condescending eyes, watching me, as if waiting for me to fall apart, it was all too much. “What in the hell is wrong with you?” Pushing up off the floor, forgetting about the tools that lay at my feet, I charged toward her. “I’ve had it up to here with your attitude. How delusional are you? It was a fucking kiss, you crazy bitch. A kiss!” I tried not to scream, but my patience was slipping. “You act like the two of you had some epic love affair when in reality he ended things before they even started. Who falls for a guy they went with on a couple dates and shared a kiss? It’s time to move on.”
“I’d call fucking me against a wall in a dark alley a little more than a kiss.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she smirked when I froze. “Oh wait, he didn’t tell you? So typical.” She was more manipulative and conniving than I’d given her credit for. “Landon liked it dirty. He liked that I was a little wild. I figure by now he must be getting real sick of the perfect little girl who wouldn’t know a good time if it slapped her in the face.”
“You’re lying.” She had to be, and I wasn’t going to allow her to get to me.
“It was five dates, and every single time he took me in a new place. Landon loved to hike up my skirt and push me against any hard surface.”
Flashes of our night together after AJ and Rhett’s wedding rushed through my mind. How he took me in the very same way as she described. I felt my stomach sour, and that earlier pain I’d felt returned, only this time with a vengeance.
“Enough,” I whispered, covering my mouth as it began to water. I could feel the bile begin to rise as it burned in my throat.
“Poor Chloe,” she pouted, “can’t face the harsh reality that her perfect little man isn’t so perfect after all.”
Feeling lightheaded, I reached out to gain some much needed support as I gripped the patient’s chair. I felt like the room was spinning and I couldn’t keep up.
One deep calming breath after another I stared at the floor near my feet. I had to tune her out; I couldn’t crumble here, not in front of her.
“Sooner or later, he is going to toss you aside, and when he does, I’ll be there to warm his bed.”
Suddenly I moved before I had the chance to think. My shoulder collided with hers as I passed; I knew
