I turned back to Derek. I caught a look of yearning on his face – an expression that said, Fuck, like someone resigning themselves to watching a valued possession slip away.“You are an asshole,” I burst out.He looked down at me in a flash of anger, like I was being unreasonable.Didn’t I know what he had just given up for me?Wasn’t I appreciative?Then he figured out that maybe that wasn’t the best play, and his features softened.Too late.The damage was done.“Kaitlyn – ” he said, and reached out for me.I stepped away from him and wrapped my arms around me like I was cold.The bed they had rutted in was right beside me. The sheets were wrinkled and smelled of sex.I wanted to vomit.More than that, I wanted to pour lighter fluid all over it and flick a match. Watch it burn.“I’m going to ask you a question,” I whispered, “and I want you to tell me the truth.”He pulled back, unsure what was coming. “What?”I looked up at him, in more pain than I’d ever felt in my life. “Promise
After a nearly sleepless night, I awoke the next morning to the sound of polite knocking on my apartment door.It baffled me at first. I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming or not, partly because it stopped as soon as my head was up off my pillow.Then, just as I was about to lie back down, the knocking started again – steady, light, but insistent.When I realized I really was awake, I was terrified.Oh no – they’re going to evict me, I thought, until I remembered I had paid the current month’s rent while I was on the road with Derek.Then I thought, Oh SHIT – it’s Derek!To be honest, that last thought made my heart soar at the same time that it scared me to death. I wasn’t thinking properly, having just been jerked out of the only hour of sleep I’d had all night. My thoughts were ping-ponging back and forth between the dread of I can’t let him in, he’ll never leave to the bitterness and hatred of That cheating, lying asshole to the hearts and flowers of Oh my gosh, he came all the way t
After Ryan left, I listened to all the voicemails and read all the texts. In fact, another eleven popped up when I turned the phone back on.Ryan’s were all super-concerned about me, and all of them were really sweet.“Hey, Kaitlyn, it’s Ryan… I’m really worried about you. Give me a call and just let me know you’re all right.”“Hey, it’s Ryan… I’m a little concerned that I haven’t heard from you. Could you give me a call or text, just to let me know everything’s okay?”“It’s Ryan. Just to give you fair warning, I got your information from Miles, and I’m dropping by your apartment in New York. I don’t want to freak you out, so I’m letting you know ahead of time. I guess I’ll see you in about eight hours. Hope this isn’t a problem for you. If it is, just leave me a message and I’ll turn around and go back.”I smiled throughout each of them.Derek, by contrast, was like listening to Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde, depending on the message. Half of them were pathetic, half of them were assholish
When we walked in, Glen was frosty to me, but immediately started doing his “I’m your biggest fan” dance with Ryan. Ryan was far friendlier than Derek had been. I mean, come on, it’s hard to get much worse than, ‘Take your tongue out of my ass, buddy.’ So in the end, we all settled into our chairs with a fair amount of goodwill and civility.The editor watched me closely, but his eyes kept glancing furtively over to Ryan.“So… you have the story?” he asked.“…no,” I said, my stomach feeling like there was a lead block inside it.I saw Glen’s hands clench together on the desk. “I see. And when do you think you’ll be able to get it to me?”I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I cleared my throat and tried again. “…it might be a long time. It might be… a really, really long time.”Glen’s face started to turn pink with anger. “I hired you specifically to – ”“I know, Glen, I know, and I feel awful about it,” I said, and I did feel awful. In fact, I felt like shit. “But… we… broke up.
I didn’t find out Ryan had booked first class until the desk person came over the loudspeaker and announced that boarding the plane was about to begin.Ryan stood up and held out his hand to me. “Come on, that’s us.”I stared at him. “First class?! Ryan – !”“Hey, I’m a rock star,” he joked. “I have to keep up appearances.”“I’ll… I’ll pay you back. For this, and for Glen – ”“Kaitlyn, if I were in bad shape, would you give me fifty dollars?”“What?”“If I were starving, or hurt, would you give me fifty dollars? What you make in a couple of hours, say.”He was being overly generous with that ‘what you make in a couple of hours.’ That was more like what I averaged over a day.But I went with it. “Of course.”“And would you expect me to pay you back?”“No, of course not.”“Well, I basically gave you the equivalent of what I make in a couple of hours. So don’t worry about it, okay?”First: my mind was blown. That level of generosity was just staggering to me.Second: math. I was trying t
We flew to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport first, then to a little place I’d never heard of called Rapid City, South Dakota. The airport was a couple of runways in the middle of a vast, green expanse. The terminal itself was small but nice. Much to my surprise, we bypassed the rental car counters and went outside where a black SUV was waiting for us.“You have a private driver?” I asked, stunned. “Here in South Dakota?”“No,” Ryan smiled. “It’s a limo company.”“Oh.” I felt a little foolish. “But if it’s a limo company, why isn’t it a limo?”“We wouldn’t want one of those. Not for where we’re going.”I understood that comment about an hour later.We left the town and drove into a national forest full of hills and thick with trees. Most of the drive I was melancholy, but the scenery was a pleasant distraction. Ryan left me to my thoughts and chatted with the driver about things like the weather and how business was doing.I checked my phone.Eleven new messages, 15 new texts, all from the sam
Either because of my lack of sleep the previous night, or the bottle of wine – or both – I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.But I dreamt. Constantly, vividly, nonstop.They were all about Derek.And all of them were variations on a theme.In one I was following him through a crowded street. Suddenly the street was a hotel hallway, the way that dreams shift without need to conform to reality. I walked faster, trying to catch up with him. As I came up right behind him, a door opened to his left, and a woman’s bare arms reached out and dragged him willingly into the room.As the door closed in my face, the last thing I saw was a glimpse of his eyes staring into mine – and his lips, which silently formed the words:You knew what I was when you slept with me.In another dream I was on the side of a stage, watching the band play to a giant arena.Then suddenly I was among them – Killian off to my right, Ryan to my left, and Riley behind me. But Derek wasn’t there anymore.I lo
The day passed quickly. After we cleaned the dishes, Ryan took me out to the barn to see the horses. I am not a horse chick, just so you know. Never even wanted a pony growing up. But I enjoyed watching Ryan with them. He was so familiar and relaxed, feeding them each a carrot as a treat. He offered to let me try it, but I was too afraid of those giant chompers taking off a couple knuckles.“Maybe we can take them out riding later,” he said as he rubbed the mane of Bessie, a sweet little chestnut mare.“Um…”“You’ve never ridden before?”“No.”“I’ll teach you. There’s nothing to it. Bessie’s gentle, it’ll be easy.”“…if you say so…”Then we left the barn and walked over to one of the other wooden structures, which turned to be a garage, just like I thought. Ryan unlocked the door on a gigantic blue Ford F-150 truck and helped me up into the oversized cab.“What the hell?” I exclaimed.“What?”“This is big enough to fit a small village in!”“I’m the local rock star,” he joked. “It’s my