Shattered.Destroyed.Broken.With every new moan, it was like a knife slammed into Faith's open chest. She'd never felt pain like this; never!She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to have to listen to this but she couldn't move. Try all that she might, she couldn't move an inch.She kept issuing orders to her body to move but her body wouldn't cooperate. Yet, she suffered with every second that passed.What was she going to do? Storm in there and accost Devlin? It seemed like the logical thing to do.Maybe he would have an explanation for why this was happening. Yes! Maybe there was an explanation.Her arms were completely numb at this point. She could no longer feel the pain from carrying the things in her hands. The heavy cake in her hand was completely forgotten.Was this why he sent her away? Why he wasn't communicating with her? Was it because of another girl?When did he have the time to meet someone new? They spent almost every moment of the past few months together!Fa
Inside the mansion, the woman straightened her skirt with a slight smirk on her face."That was awesome, Mr. Banks," she said.Without looking at her, Devlin flicked one hand towards the door. "Get out," he said in a low voice. He held his head in his other hand."What?" She asked."I said get out," he repeated.She frowned but nodded slowly. "Alright, boss." She gathered her items which had gotten flung around in the rush to get panties and boxers off."I'm leaving," she announced once everything was packed. She moved closer to Devlin and tried to kiss him.Devlin shoved her off lightly. "What do you think you're doing?" He asked incredulously."Trying to say goodbye," she answered."Get out," he said again. This time there was fury shining in his eyes.She immediately turned around and exited the study. A few paces from the door, something glittering on the floor caught her attention.She stooped and picked up the card. She read it's content quickly. With one backward look at the do
"Will you like to have sex with me?" Faith asked again.Ernie balked, his ears turning a ferocious shade of red. "I'm sorry?" he asked."I asked if you'd like to have sex with me... today," she added for emphasis.Faith forced herself to hold eye contact with him. She kept her face plain, making sure that none of the disconcertion she herself was feeling would show on her face.She wasn't comfortable doing this either. She'd never done anything of the sort. Ernie was practically a stranger, but he was a stranger that liked her.There was no denying that he liked her. He'd liked her from those early days at the cafe. And after all that had happened, the ultimate confirmation that he liked her was his showing up today.After what Devlin did, and her totally forgetting to reach out to him afterwards, he should have blocked her number immediately.But he still showed up when she asked. That kind of devotion was exactly what she needed right now. She needed to feel wanted and loved."So wi
Faith was furious, and not with anyone else, but with herself. What she'd just done to Ernie was unforgivable. She'd taken advantage of the poor boy's affection for her. After repeatedly ignoring him and forgetting him, she'd tried to use him as a tool to get back at Devlin.Even worse, she'd riled him up and just left him there like that. How could he ever forgive her? It shouldn't have been him.At the end of the day, she'd gone running scared because of the same Devlin who broke her heart. Pathetic!Tears streamed down her face, but she couldn't even cry out loud for fear that Sheila or Adele would overhear.She still hadn't told them about what happened. She was still too embarrassed. So there she was crying into her pillow to muffle the sound of her wails.She hated that she'd had to put up an invisible wall between her and her friends. She hated that she'd had to seclude herself in this moment of pain.There was no one to talk to, no one to discuss the pain with, no one to tal
Casiuss was trapped and he knew it. He raised his hand in surrender but angled his body so he wasn't touching her. He kept his eyes carefully on her face."Why are you doing this?" He asked in a tightly controlled voice. "What does it matter? I want you and you want me.""You're Devlin's girl. He is my boss and friend.""I am not Devlin's girl," she snapped. Cassius raised his brow wordlessly. "Okay, let me ask you this... Is or is Devlin not f*cking his secretary?"A look of surprise crossed his face. Whether it was still surprise that this was happening at all or surprise at the fact that she'd found out, she couldn't tell."What makes you think that?""I heard them myself. Stumbled upon them in the study. Remember how easy it was to hear that day?"Cassius nodded. He remembered. "I'm sorry," he said implacably."So you really didn't know?""No... not this time." Faith nodded. She believed him. "But that day we overheard them, it was her as well, wasn't it?"He nodded reluctantly.
Sheila moved back a step, allowing the other ladies to see who was at the door."You have some nerve coming here!" She said to the man in the doorway, staring at them with irate eyes."Devlin!" Faith gasped.She hadn't seen him since the day he asked her to return to Barbell. It felt like ages ago. Seeing him again now was like a punch to the gut.His eyes, his nose, his mouth, every bit of him so familiar to her that she could trace the outline of his body with her eyes closed.It was like a shot to the heart, seeing him standing there so unexpectedly. He looked good, good enough to eat. Her reaction, the thumping of her heart, revealed to her exactly what she knew, that she loved this man to insanity.She would have given everything for him... everything! But he'd thrown it all away and for what? He'd betrayed her in the worst possible way. He'd become her world and then brought it crashing down around her. Oh, that he would have just left her alone. That she would've never met hi
The road stretched out before and behind Faith. The miles she'd already covered swept behind her like a wedding train. The miles left to cover spread before her as far as the eyes could see.Faith Donovan was going home. After all the tears and sorrow, she was returning to the one place where she felt most comfortable. It was true what they said after all. There is no place like home.It'll be a bit of a shock for everyone to see her come home in her pearly white car and her fancy new dresses. Someone might just keel over and die from shock.The truth was Faith was no longer that girl that left home all those months ago. She was changed inside and out.Her thinking, her behavior... just everything. She hoped this new her wouldn't rub anyone the wrong way. Not just her family, but the neighbors as well.When you grew up with next to nothing around families facing the same struggles and hardships as you, you ended up as more of a community, a family, than just neighbours.But her new re
"Is this yours?" Her father asked, circling the car."Yes, Dad. It's mine.""Wow, that is incredible!""Do you want to drive it?""Yes, but not now. We can go on a drive later, okay?""Sounds good.""Pop the hood, will you? I want to see what it looks like in there."Faith got back in and popped the trunk. She started up the engine up again, knowing that was what her father wanted.Then she climbed back out and joined him in front of the car. "Wow, that is a sweet purr," he gushed. "Devlin bought this for you?""Yes, dad," Faith answered simply.Still, her dad must have caught something in her tone because he slapped the hood shut and dusted his hands off. "That's enough for now. Let's head in."Faith nodded, turned the engine off and followed her father into the house. The house was quiet."Your mom's at work and the kids are still at school," he said by way of explanation.She nodded. "I figured they would be.""I was just waiting for you to arrive. I should head off myself. That m
"Dev! Get out!" Faith yelled. "Out! Out!" Sheila yelled too, determinedly pushing Devlin out of the room. "You shouldn't be here. Don't you know that it's a bad omen to see the bride before the wedding?"Devlin groaned. "Come on! I don't believe in superstitions. Can I just see my lovely wife?""She's not your wife yet, mister. Not until the ceremony is complete. Plus, you saw her last night. You too idiots slept in the same bed. I don't understand why you can't stay apart for even a second." She got him out the door and slammed it shut in his face."Done," she declared, dusting off her hands and returning to Faith. There was a short knock at the door and it opened again.Sheila turned around in exasperation. "Devlin, if I have to tell you one more time--"But it wasn't Devlin who stepped in. Adele squealed and rushed over to Faith, pulling her into a hug. "Oh my gosh, honey, congratulations!"Faith hugged her back. "Thank you, Adele. I'm so glad you could fly in.""Girl, I wouldn't
Immediately Faith saw Devlin walk through the door, her heart started beating faster, her palms started sweating and her breathing became heavy.She was scared of how their encounter was going to go, but damn did he look good. He was dressed in black cargo pants and a teal green shirt. His hair was rough and uncombed. He'd obviously come straight from bed.As soon as he entered, his eyes started scanning for her until he saw her and their eyes met. He pressed his lips together and started walking towards her, not breaking eye contact.From the corner of her eyes, she saw Adele pulling a reluctant Sheila away and into the house to give them some privacy.“Faith”, Devlin said softly as soon as he reached her.“Devlin”, she replied, breaking their eye contact now that he was close. It felt uncomfortable to continue to look him in the eyes like that. Also, she was worried her heart would go into overdrive at the sight of him.It wouldn't do to show him how much he was affecting her. Not w
As she drove to his house, she could not help but feel nervous. This would be the first time she was seeing him since they went on the road trip together and he had all but said he’d be fine with whatever direction their relationship took.She had been a friend when he desperately needed one but now that she had offered all the help she could as a friend, she could not continue with that. And even though she was the one who severed their relationship in the fist place, she loved him too much to be able to accept that.She drove like a madman, remembering ironically that she'd called Sheila that just earlier that day. She was mostly nervous and worried for him but underneath the nervousness, she was excited to see him again and maybe that had a part to play in why she drove so fast too.She arrived at his house several minutes earlier than she should have, jumped down and practically ran to the front door. She pressed on the door bell.Devlin himself answered the door, but the sight th
After they had breakfast and washed the dishes, they moved to the living room to hang out. The next few hours were full of light-headed conversations while munching on snacks.Sheila suddenly reached out and smacked Faith on the head. "Hey! What was that for?" Faith complained.“We’re going to a pool party. You should come with us”, Sheila said with wide, innocent eyes. But her amused smile gave her away.“Yeah, you should come. It’ll be a lot of fun”, Adele added.“I don’t know. You know pool parties aren’t really my scene”, Faith replied shaking her head. “You guys go have fun.”“Not without you, babe”, Sheila said.“Yes, pleeease”, Adele added pleadingly.“I don’t know”, Faith said. She was not really feeling it.“Come on, you had a lot of fun yesterday, right?” Adele asked her.“Yeah, but that’s different. That was you two. This time it’ll be a bunch of people I don’t know”, Faith replied trying to convince them.“It’ll be a lot of fun. And you won’t be with the bunch of people,
They got to the movies just in time to see a rom-com movie. Sheila wasn’t much for it but it was the only movie left that hadn’t started. They got some popcorn and drinks and went in to the cinema.It was always nice to spend time with Adele and Sheila, though they did not do it very often. A little into the movie, they started started talking to each other, making funny comments about the actors.One of the attendants came up to them and told them to keep quiet. Apparently, someone somewhere had complained they were disturbing everyone. They agreed to keep it down and the attendant walked back up t his post.A little later, they could not help it and just started talking again. Adele who did not seem too enthusiastic about the movie at first started shouting out her comments loud enough for the entire cinema to hear them.The attendant started for them once more but seemed to decide against it halfway and turned back. Maybe because everyone was laughing and no one was complaining. Sh
They ate the dinner prepared by Laura and once again, they offered to wash the dishes. Laura agreed after much persuasion. Once they finished with that, they went back to the living room where they struck up a conversation.“So Faith, how did you meet Devlin," his father asked.“Devlin reapplied to College. He needed a tutor and fortunately for him, I was available--the highest scoring entrant that year.”“Tutoring him could not have been easy. He must have been a pain in the ass. Pardon my language.”Faith smiled. “Oh, don't worry about it. And yes, he we incredibly insufferable. He’s lucky I was patient because I don’t know what he would have done without me.”“Well, thank you for staying by his side even when he’s such an idiot”, he said looking at her in a way that made her feel like he also understood what was going on. Was that something every parent had, she wondered.Devlin didn’t seem to understand since he was just laughing. He looked like he was really happy to be back home
Walking up to the house seemed to take forever. Now that they were here, Faith could not help but be nervous. She was nervous for him of course, but she was also nervous for herself, because she was going to meet the parents of the man she had been dating. Well, use to date.She had no reason to be nervous since they were not seeing each other anymore- for the moment- and she was only supporting him as a friend. Her body however had a mind if its own as she could not stop fidgeting.Eventually, they got to the door but nobody knocked. Devlin seemed to be a little scared so she fought down her own nervousness and knocked for him.A few seconds later, a man who looked exactly like Devlin, except older, opened the door. Immediately he saw who his visitor was, his eyes widened in surprise and a smile gradually formed on his face."D-Dad, its-its been a while", Devlin said looking down unable to meet his father's eyes."Devlin. What are you standing there for? Give your old man a hug."Wit
"So, tell me what happened", Faith said immediately."Well, I got in, and we talked and...""Oh no, my bad. First, what happened at the door?""This is going to be long, isn't it?""Well, the faster you answer, the sooner it'll be over"."How about I just give you a detailed summary of what happened?""Ok, alright." "When I rang the doorbell and she opened up, she was of course surprised to see me. I couldn't tell if she was scared because she sent the letter or was just still angry. Either way, I was still to blame"."She asked me what I was doing there and I told her I just came to talk. Of course, she replied that I was a few years too late and I did not have any right to come into her home after all that time.""Then I remembered what you said about speaking from my heart and I just told her, "I know that I ran away, but I loved your daughter. And it's because I loved her so much, that I risked coming all this way and getting turned back to get a chance to make things right.""By
Two days later, Faith and Devlin were in her car on their way to Isabella's parent's house. They chose her car since it wasn't as flashy as his and conveyed at least a bit of humility.They had left very early in the morning. He had to drive to her house first since she insisted they take her car. He arrived to meet her ready, so they started the journey without him having to enter her apartment.It had been a very silent trip. He was terrified of what he was on his way to do. She didn't quite know what to say to him, so they spent their time doing separate things, her on her phone and he pretending to be focused on driving.After a while, he stopped the car on the side of the road and said to her, "Would you please take over driving. My hands can't seem to stop shaking"."Of course", she replied at once. She then immediately came out of the vehicle and switched seats with him.Once they were back on the road, he turned to her, "I don't even know what I'll say, how to start. I just te