Vivian must sense the same uncertainty I am, because she quickly offers an out for her mental indecision. “If Jack isn’t around to keep her, Olivia can always stay with our kiddos. No one will mind a bit.”
Carly’s body relaxes and her frown softens into an easy smile. “Thank you for that, Viv. If it isn’t a bother, I would rather her go with you guys than Jack. I really don’t even want him aware of the trip. He’ll only make a big deal out of it.”
Vivian tilts her head, reading between the lines. “How’s everything going with Jack? Is he making everything more difficult?”
I look around for Olivia to make sure she’s outside of earshot. She doesn’t need to hear the verbal bashing that her father is about to receive. Carly, I can see, is thinking the same thing because she doesn’t speak until she confirms Olivia is too far away and too engrossed in the dresses she’s looking at to hear the conversation.
“You know at first, he tried to make me feel stupid, like it was nothing and I just misunderstood an innocent friendship. He insisted the vasectomy was his way of taking the pressure off of me to have more children, so we could look into other options like adoption. He wanted us to go to counseling and work things out,” she explains.
“Bullshit. There is no mistaking what we saw on that video,” Jen insists.
She is absolutely correct. The video I gave Carly was edited. There was plenty more to show if necessary, but I felt that was enough to give her the push in the right direction. I didn’t need to shove the affair in her face; she saw what she needed to.
“I agree. He’s just trying to take advantage of my emotions, and if he really thought he could talk his way out of any wrong-doing, then he must have never had too much respect for me, or my intelligence, in the first place.”
“Fuck him,” Jen spouts off. Vivian immediately glares at her and then searches the store for any eavesdropping ears. When Carly shows offense for her use of language, Jen relents and apologizes.
“Yeah, well, once he realized I wasn’t going to take him back, he’s gotten rather nasty about things. He criticizes me any chance he gets. He tries to guilt me into thinking the divorce is my fault because we had a less than stellar sex life. That I’m homely and I’ll never find any other man, so I might as well come back because he’s the only one who would be all right with the way I look.”
Her shoulders sag, and it’s evident this man has completely torn down every bit of her self-confidence. I maintain a cool demeanor; however, I want to hunt this man down and make him pay for ever hurting my friend this way. After I’m done with him, he’ll regret ever treating a woman this way.
“I’m going to kill him,” Vivian steams, her rage rolling off her. She is typically the most sensitive, caring woman, but if her fiery temper flares, Hell hath no fury.
“It’s fine. I get that I’m not much to look at right now. I’ve been in mommy mode and let my appearance go,” Carly tries to explain her mom jeans, lack of make-up, and pony tail, but I think there is more to it than that. She’s always been the self-conscious one in the group. She’s curvy in a way that men usually love, but the average female hates. While she hides her figure because she’s insecure, men drool over her cleavage and bubble butt. She has no idea how truly beautiful she is, and it sounds like Jack helped to trap her in that box of self-doubt.
“Well, girly, we are going to fix this situation, ASAP,” Vivian declares wrapping her arm around Carly’s shoulder and giving her a light squeeze.
“What do you mean?” she asks, bracing for the devious plan Vivian and Jen are obviously hatching.
“We love you, chica, and you’ve got a lot to work with.” Jen waves her hands around Carly’s body, highlighting her assets. “But I’m thinking at little less Ally Sheedy from the Breakfast Club and a little more hot momma from the burbs.” Jen circles her hands around Carly’s mess of a hairstyle. I cover my mouth to hide the small laugh that escapes my lips. Jen has absolutely no filter, but in this case, it’s our job as friends to help Carly make the transition into single life again. How the girls at her spa haven’t gotten a hold of her, I’ll never know, but the girl needs to be dolled up a bit.
“You know, Jen, just because you add an ‘I love you’ at the beginning, it doesn’t make your comment any less insulting,” Carly huffs and plops herself next to me on the couch.
“Sorry. It’s just that, well…” She stalls, collecting her thoughts. “I always say the best way to get over a man is to get under another one. I’m your friend and you need me to help get your mojo back, whether you think so or not.” Jen looks to Vivian, who is one step ahead and is on her phone booking an appointment with her salon for Carly. “We are going to have you so smokin’ that you will be the object of every man’s affection in Vegas. You will have your pick!” Jen lightly claps her hands and bounces on her toes in excitement.
“The last thing I need is another man,” Carly declares. “I just want to feel better about myself, and I don’t need a man to do that.”
“Maybe not, but you do need a little hair product,” Jen laughs, attempting to pat her hair down. “Girl, you are one hot mess right now.”
Carly swats Jen’s hand away and looks to me seeking I don’t know what…approval, maybe a safety line, neither of which I’ll give her. Instead I offer a smile and the only words that make sense. “It’s time to find our Carly again.”
She understands and smiles back, a smile we haven’t seen from her in years. “Okay,” she murmurs.
Vivian tapped on her smartphone and throws it into her purse. “All done,” she announces. “You have an appointment at my salon. We will have you all fixed up and feeling good in no time.”
Lakin
I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve the life I have now, but I’m guessing I was some awesome kind of dude. Success in school and business have always came easy for me, and in the women department, well, I never had any issues. However, I had never upgraded any of those exchanges to relationship status. They were exacting that…exchanges. Somehow, though I have found myself in a relationship I never thought I wanted until I met her, and I couldn’t be fucking happier to be tied to her. Campbell is everything I never knew I wanted.
Tonight is going to be a first for both of us.
I told her to wear a pair of her most comfortable jeans and a t-shirt. I refused to tell her where we were going so she was a little apprehensive. As I pulled up to her apartment to pick her up, though, she bounded down the stairs in the attire I requested with a bright smile ready for whatever I planned to throw at her.
“I was going to come up and get you,” I say as I open the passenger side door for her. Shit, I’m trying to be Prince Charming here, and she stole my thunder. This is a date after all.
“Sorry,” she says sheepishly. “I’m just so excited. You have been very elusive about what we are doing tonight.” She kisses me on the cheek and settles into her seat. I pause momentarily, letting her affection absorb into my skin, savoring every second of the feeling.
I rub my hand across the skin that her lips touched, before making my way back around the car, and sliding into the driver’s seat. I look at her once again before throwing the car in drive and speeding out of her building complex.
I smile to myself as she stares out of the window.
She’s right. I have given her absolutely no clues about tonight and I offer nothing more on the way to our final destination. The traffic is heavy and as we approach the swarms of people crowding the downtown streets, I assume she has figured out where we are going. However, as we pull into the stadium, I realize this really is a night of firsts.