Loyalty Test by Melody Tyden

Author:Melody Tyden [Tyden, Melody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

~Gabriel~

After struggling through two days at home, staring out the window and trying to salvage any part of my pride, I went back to work on Wednesday morning.

Monday had been the worst. After my appointment with the lawyer, I called the hotel to try to get Jen’s contact information, and when she called me, I sat watching the phone ring before it went to voicemail, unable to face the prospect of speaking to her. It took ten minutes to force myself to listen to the message, and as soon as I hit play, the sound of her voice sent another painful stab of regret through my body.

She sounded so warm and concerned, as if she actually cared about me. As if everything between us hadn’t been a complete fabrication.

How could I feel so betrayed by someone I barely knew?

I sent her details to my lawyer, and Vicky responded to me later that day to confirm that Jen had backed up everything I said and provided some additional details. She asked if I wanted to see the correspondence between her and Celine, but I declined. It wouldn’t make me feel better but it could certainly make me feel worse, and at that moment, I was simply in survival mode. My focus was on getting through the next five minutes and I couldn’t think any further ahead than that.

On Tuesday afternoon, after I took another unscheduled day off work, Monica showed up at my door, banging on it until I let her in.

“You look like shit,” she announced, eyeing me up and down, her eyebrow arched. “Have you slept?”

“Not really.”

“Well, it’s time to stop wallowing. I’m here to celebrate. Now that Celine’s on the way out, you can move on to greener pastures.”

She pulled a bottle of champagne out of her handbag while I groaned. “I’m really not in a celebrating mood.”

I also couldn’t think about moving on, not with the memory of my attraction to Jen still hanging around the corners of my mind.

“You’re better off without her,” she answered firmly, ignoring my protests as she popped open the champagne and poured two tall glasses full, one for each of us. “I know so many great people I can set you up with. When you’re ready.”

She added the last sentence quickly when I opened my mouth to protest, and I couldn’t even muster the energy to argue. Though I didn’t feel like celebrating, a little alcohol-induced memory loss might be helpful.

While we gradually emptied the bottle between us, I told my little sister everything, about the distance Celine had begun to put between us, my suspicions about her, and about Jen. She couldn’t hide her surprise when I explained how I kissed her.

“You must have really liked her,” she mused.

“It doesn’t matter.” My words had started to come out slurred. I couldn’t even remember how many glasses of champagne I’d had at that point. Were we even still drinking champagne? Maybe Monica had switched us to something else. The glass in my hand didn’t have any bubbles in it.

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