A Tattered Love (15 page)

“What do you mean your last day is Friday?” I shook my head not understanding.

“I mean my last day of work at the pub is Friday. I’m looking for another job.”

My mouth flew open. “Tell me, this isn’t because of me.”

“It’s all because of you. I can’t work here. My job will be threatened at the drop of a pin if we even decide to speak to one another. I can’t live like that. I need security, and this place is obviously not going to provide me that.” She looked at me with an all-honest look spread across her face. “I need time, Dustin. I need time to figure out my life, work on getting a new job, and just spending time alone. I’ll keep out of the public’s eye, and down low for a while. Because of this incident at the gala, I’m not making any money anyway. Nobody is tipping me, because  all they think is that I’m a criminal and don’t deserve to be working, apparently. Your mom did a fantastic job at spreading the word around town to all the rich folks that come into the pub. So your mom may not have fired me, but she might as well have, if I can’t make any money with tips from my customers.”

I reached over to her, taking her hand, raising it up to my lips, and I gently kissed it. I was a man, but I really felt like I was going to cry for her. I messed up her world in a matter of minutes by taking her to something that I should have gone to by myself. I wanted to prove to my family that I could love people other than ones they wanted to force me to love. I wanted them to see how happy I was. Apparently, they didn’t care about my happiness. They cared about their reputation. I had to leave. I heard more than enough coming from Riley to hurt and burn me for a long time.

“Riley, I need to go. I’m going to make this right.”

She stopped me before I left. “There’s nothing to make right, Dustin. What your mother discovered was my past, and no, I’m not proud of it, but there is not one thing I can do to change it. I moved on, I moved out here, and I started my life over with nobody, not one person, to stand by my side. I have my dog, Cooper, and that’s it. I walked away from my family, because of the humiliation they brought me. I was morbid around them. All they did was bring me down, make me fail, and most of all try to make me into something I wasn’t. A criminal. You can believe what you want, but I didn’t steal anything from anybody. I was involved with a tough crowd, and was falsely accused of stealing something. Someone planted it in my purse and when I left, the alarms rang. I was popped for something I didn’t do. The store conveniently didn’t have surveillance cameras. It was my word against these so-called friends of mine, and of course, they threw me under the bus, and told them I did it. It was a small town and everyone knew my family name. Because of my family being caught up in illegal crimes, they automatically assumed I was the same way as my parents. I’m sorry that you had to hear it from your parents, but I wasn’t about to tell you about my past. It was something that I wanted to forget. I hope one day you can understand and forgive me. I didn’t steal from your mother. I hope you can believe me.”  

It hit home. This girl had as much of a broken family as I did.

** CHAPTER 11 **

Riley

I wanted desperately for Dustin to understand my past, but nobody really did. It was another reason why I moved. The only person who had stuck by my side from afar was Seth. He knew my past and looked beyond it. He was there, and knew what went down and what didn’t go down. He was my only friend after all that had happened to me. I moved away, because I knew if I stayed in that damn town any longer, I would go nowhere in life. I decided that after I stuck it out at college, I would be gone. And I did just that.

***

Thankfully, with my college education under my belt, I was able to land an interview with an immaculate five-star hotel as a marketing manager. It was a huge step up from working at the restaurant, and it was also what I went to school for. This was more or less my dream job. I wanted to pursue marketing, and this would be a step in the right direction. It would be a normal job with a normal schedule. The job would be very demanding at times, and they would expect me to work my hardest at completing projects and deadlines that may even require a little overtime. I was completely fine with that. I needed this job to take me away, and escape from what has become a dramatic life here in Cape Cod. I wanted just the opposite, and that was why I moved here. I figured things would eventually have to settle down. I also had hoped that Dustin and I could make something of our lives together, but I think we rushed things with one another and needed to slow things down a bit.

I was so excited to announce my good news to Abby. After the interview at the hotel, I headed home in a hurry and prayed that Abby was home from work already. I rushed up to my apartment and changed out of my interview clothes, and put something more comfortable on. I rushed Cooper outside with me and headed down to Abby’s apartment. Once I reached the apartment door, I noticed it was slightly ajar so I knocked on the door.

“Abby?” I called out.

“Yeah, I’m in here, doll!” she yelled back.

“Mind if I bring Coop inside?”

“Not at all!” she yelled.

I walked in, and saw her shuffling through things on the floor. It was a pure mess.

“What happened in here? Did you know your door was open?” I asked confused by the obvious mess that lay out in front of me.

“Someone broke in—and I’m pretty sure, I know who that someone was.”

“What? Abby you should be calling the police before you touch that stuff!” I yelled at her as I pulled Cooper in closer to me so he didn’t make more of a mess than she needed.

“No, I don’t need to get the police involved. I know who it was, and I know what they want.”

I sat on the couch, holding Cooper next to me.
Do I pry for more information as she does? Or leave it be? Nope, I’m prying away!

“What do you mean, Abby? Who did this and what do they want?” I narrowed my eyes at her eager to hear her explanation.

“Just an ex-boyfriend of mine. He wants my engagement ring that he gave me, which
I paid for.
” She shrugged her shoulders. “It isn’t going to happen.” She glared at me to see my reaction.

“I didn’t know you were engaged before?” I looked at her shyly as I knew this was probably a sore subject for her.

“I’m just cleaning this mess up before Evan gets home. I don’t need him stressing over this, and don’t really find it in his best interest to know about it.”

I sat there just giving Cooper some rubs, as I really didn’t know what to say to that. I knew there were things she didn’t know about me, and I thought maybe since she probably heard some stuff from Dustin that it might be the appropriate time to talk to her about it.

“I’ll help you clean it up. I also want to talk to you and clear up a few things.” I looked at her and my eyes gave away my emotions that I was about to express.

“What’s up, Ry, I’m listening.” She smiled at me, and stopped what she was doing, giving me her full attention.

“I know you heard some stuff from Dustin, I’m sure. I just want to make things clear, so there are no assumptions. Yes, I had a shitty family, and I left them because of it. My dad is in prison, he did steal money, or he tried, and my mom did help him, pleading insanity in court. I have nothing to do with them. I do have a record, but I want you to know the truth. I didn’t steal anything. I was wrongly accused. It was planted in my purse by an ex-friend who thought she’d set me up. Due to my family’s criminal history, they automatically thought and assumed I had done it, and it didn’t matter what I said. There was no proof that I didn’t because there were no cameras. I was popped for something I didn’t do. I decided to move far away from home after college, and that’s exactly what I did. I packed my shit and left and came here. I haven’t looked back, and I don’t intend to.” I looked at her and shared my deepest feelings. I never thought I’d have to go into detail about my insane family, but here it was and here it lay on my mind, not wanting to go away. It made me feel sad, and it angered me that I was sad for them. People like them need help, and all I can do is pray for them to become better people someday.

“I believe you. Who’s Mark that you mentioned the other day?”

I looked at her dead on and just stared. Another thing of the past that I didn’t want hindering my brain. I knew after letting it slip the other day it would eventually come back up.  I thought I might as well get this over with and tell Abby the last thing of my past she needs to know.

“He was my ex-fiancé that passed away.” I felt the huge lump form in my throat, and I knew tears were next.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just I heard you mention him while we were shopping.” She sat next to me on the couch and wrapped her arm around me. “You want to talk about it? Does Dustin know?”

I hadn’t told Dustin yet because it was a long time ago. I felt like since Dustin has a daughter that he neglected to tell me, I might as well unleash my entire past with him. It was coming slowly but surely, I just didn’t want it on my mind. I’m not proud of my past, and I definitely regret many things. Mark wasn’t one of them, and I knew I would always be in love with him. I’ll never forget how great he was. He was my high school sweetheart. We dated for four years in high school, and our senior year he decided to kill himself. Apparently, he was being bullied, and I didn’t have a clue that it was happening. He wrote a note to me and told me how much he loved me, and couldn’t wait to see me again someday. He just couldn’t handle the pain or the pressure, and decided to end his life. It tore me to pieces. I didn’t think I’d ever move on from the tragedy. The hardest part was helping his parents cope. They were a tight knit family, and they never saw it coming, nor did I.  People I thought were our friends were actually tormenting him.  Sometimes I wonder why he never told me.   I can only imagine the anguish it must have caused him to take his own life.  I told myself that he didn’t tell me to protect me from the pain too.

“He doesn’t know, but I’m going to tell him soon. I don’t really want to talk about it.” I started petting Cooper to distract myself.

That wasn’t what I had intended to tell Abby when I decided to go to her apartment.

“Actually, what I do want to talk about is—this wonderful new job I just went on an interview for!” I said to her with a huge smile on my face. I really didn’t want to sulk in the past at the moment and I wanted to express happiness. I basically just wanted to move on from the things that had happened in my past.

“How did it go?” She looked at me in an all-serious facial expression.

“I think it went well, I’m really hoping I get this job! I need the money, and I need to get away from Eddie’s, unfortunately.” I shook my head still upset over the whole situation.

“I hope you get it. Did you put in your notice at the pub?” She looked at Cooper petting him, waiting for my response.

“Yeah, my last day is tomorrow, actually.” I looked at Abby trying to hold back my tears because I was not ready to face being jobless all over again but knew I had no choice.

“I’m sorry you have to quit, Riley, I really am. I understand fully why you’re doing this so don’t think I don’t. You need security and you’re right, Eddie’s isn’t going to provide that for you right now as long as you want to pursue a relationship with Dustin.”

Those words were like hearing nails on a chalkboard. Dustin was the one person that I was completely unsure of, but at the same time very sure of— I didn’t know when the right time would be, but I knew I wanted to be with him.

“Should I pursue Dustin? I mean, he kept something so personal away from me.”

I looked at Abby, as I wanted her to give me her honest opinion.

Her smile curved her lips, “Of course I want you and Dustin together. You guys are so great together you just had a messed up start. Start fresh; accept his past and he’ll have to accept yours. As long as you don’t mind dating someone with a kid, he shouldn’t mind dating someone with a criminal background and crazy family. It’s ok, Riley, we all have dysfunctional families one way or another. No family is perfect.”

I sat there and talked with Abby until almost midnight. We cleaned up her place, making sure everything was back where it belonged so Evan wouldn’t notice. We talked about their relationship, and how so in love with Evan she was, and could only hope they would marry someday. It was scary to think that she was thinking about marriage already, and I was thinking about liking a man enough to think I may want to love him. Seemed strange. That seemed to be my life lately. I wanted to get to know Dustin more before I made any rash decisions. We needed to relax, and work on making our relationship work. All things needed to be laid out on the table, and just be done with already.

I headed back to my apartment, and relaxed some more with Cooper. I knew my last day was tomorrow, but I was nowhere near tired, and couldn’t sleep. I lay in bed with Cooper by my side just staring at the ceiling. I don’t know who came up with the idea to count sheep or whatever, but that shit never had worked for me. I didn’t know what to think, but I started to get nervous about my last day. I would be jobless. Even though my job at the pub sucked, it was a job. It paid the bills, and kept my mind busy thinking about what I needed to do at work. It didn’t give me time to think about personal matters. I had enough put away in the bank that I could survive at least two months without a job. That didn’t leave me much time. I just really hoped the hotel would call me back with good news by the end of the week.