Entangled

Preface

She couldn’t believe that it was over, much less that he had a one-night stand with her one of her friends. She would never forget that phone call. The one where her old high school friend Allison Hines called to tell her that she had slept with her boyfriend Jamie Westbrook a few months ago and that she was pregnant.

Christie was beside herself. She didn’t give him an opportunity to explain. She just cut all communication. She blocked him from all of her social media accounts, his phone calls, text messages and emails. She was devastated. He was the one she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The one that completed her.

As she looked back on their relationship, the one thing that should have been a red flag was the whole three years they had been together, he had never actually said the words, “I love you”.

However, him never saying the words didn’t change how she felt. She spent the last two years in limbo. Nothing she tried to do to get over him worked. She dated a couple of guys, but they just weren’t him. They didn’t make her feel the way that he did. She would unblock him and block him again before he even noticed. She couldn’t bring herself to see if he was happy with Allison and their child.

Then one summer night she unblocked him from one of the social media sites and five hours later, she got a direct message with his number to call him.

She was terrified of how the conversation was going to go. But she had decided that she needed closer. She needed to know where she had gone wrong and if he was happy so that she could move on.

It was this phone call that changed everything.

Chapter 1

It was a scorching hot day in the middle of August, and Christie Blake sat at her desk starring out the window. Her view of her downtown Miami office overlooked the clear blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a gorgeous view. Moving here was one of the best decisions she had made after her bad breakup with Jamie Westbrook. There was no way that she would have had the same high-end clients and would be making this type of income, if she would have stayed in her small hometown. Even with that being said, she would have been just as happy, if not more, if she never would have had to leave, if he had just loved her and wanted to marry her.

She owned a financial company and had picked this office because of the view. It sat on the east side of downtown and the sunrise over the Atlantic was absolutely beautiful. The bright yellow and orange colors lit up the sky and it felt as though God was smiling at her every morning.

Today was like every other day for the last three years, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jamie. He was the love of her life, but she obviously wasn’t his. How could she be? He had slept with one of her good friends, Allison Hines, from high school and got her pregnant. But it never stopped her from thinking about him, loving him, or wanting to talk to him. He was more than just her boyfriend. He was her biggest supporter of all her dreams and goals. He was her motivator and encourager and above all her best friend.

She had been so heartbroken and devastated by his betrayal that within a few months after the breakup, she had left town to start completely over.

Through the years, she had unblocked him on social media, would send him a friend request, and then she would immediately cancel the request. She had unblocked his phone number sometime within the first year, but he never called or text her. That made her think that he was with Allison and they were happy raising their child.

Today, before she left for work, she sent him another friend request, but a few minutes later, she cancelled it. She thought this time it would be the day that she would leave the request alone, but it wasn’t.

It never mattered what she did or who she dated; she always knew that Jamie was ‘her person’. He was the person that made her feel special, and complete. As she once again deleted the request, a flood of memories hit her like a ton of bricks landing on her chest, completely taking her breath right out of her lungs. The tears had flowed down her face just as they did the day she got that call from Allison. It was like a waterfall falling down the side of a cliff in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

She remembered the first time they went out, five years ago. It was a beautiful summer day in her small beach town, off the North Carolina coastline. The sun was glistening over the ocean and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. There was a light breeze coming off of the water that made the ninety-eight-degree weather bearable on the waterfront. The smell of the ocean was salty and she imagined it like heaven. She could sit and inhale it all day long.

They had known each other in high school, but they were never really friends. They talked when they passed each other in the hallways and they both played basketball. That was why she was completely shocked when he reached out to her via social media. In casual conversation, they had decided to meet down at the waterfront park.

As she waited for him to arrive, she sat on the bench swing looking out at over where the Atlantic Ocean, Intercostal Waterway and Cape Fear River met, the lighthouses that shined from the islands down onto the water, and watched a few boats pass by. The smell of the salt water took her breath away. She loved it here. She always imagined this would be the place where she would get married. She remembered her stomach being in knots and she had no idea why. Yes, he was definitely a very handsome man, with a body that was chiseled out with muscles and abs. He stood 6’ feet tall, with a little facial hair for a well trimmed beard. He could be on the cover of GQ Magazine from the photos she had seen on his Facebook and Instagram! But sitting there talking with him that first day it was as if he had no idea how he could walk into a room and take a women’s breath away or melt her heart. He was a very humble and modest person. She had never met a man like him.

She remembered when he walked up behind her, and tapped her on the shoulder, she jumped. He apologized for startling her as he came around and set down beside her. They talked for hours about things that they liked, didn’t like, what they had been doing since they had graduated. (He was a year younger than her.) From that night on, they were inseparable.

Her mind started to flash to that night three years later that had caught her off guard and completely shattered her world. As soon as she started to think about it, she pushed it out of her mind. After the breakup, she couldn’t live there anymore. It was too emotional for her. She couldn’t handle running into them together. So, she packed up all of her things, left her family and friends behind, and moved down south. She went almost as far down as you could possibly go. She put as much distance between them as possible and never asked anyone about him and Allison. She didn’t even want to know but deep down she did want to know. She knew that didn’t make any sense. She missed him so much that her heart ached. She would have given anything to have still been with him. She didn’t understand at all why this had happened. Why had he gone outside of their relationship? Why wasn’t she enough? But his betrayal was something she couldn’t forget even if she did forgive him, or was it?

Back to reality, the day seemed to drag on. She sat at her desk answering phone calls and making transactions for her clients wanting to take money out of their IRAs. This was the slow time of the year though and hardly any of those calls were coming in. There were more calls coming in from grandparents and parents sending tuition payments out of their 529 accounts to their grandchildren or children’s colleges for the upcoming fall semester.

This was not a normal day for her. Normally she just set back and let her staff process these types of requests. She mostly dealt with setting up the new business accounts that some of the other employees were responsible for obtaining. Some of the accounts she set up were individual accounts, while others were business accounts needing to open up 401Ks. The accounts were set up through her, then there were others, financial advisors, that would actually trade the accounts on the stock market. She would meet with the clients and discuss packages, prices, etc for the accounts. She kept her meetings and schedule lite most of the time. It was what she considered a perk of owning her own business. But today she needed to get her mind off of Jamie. She needed the memories to stop.

There was a knock on her door bringing her out of her thoughts.

“Ms. Blake,” it was her executive assistant Mia.

“Yes, Mia,” she replied so that Mia could walk in.

“You have a visitor. The man said his name was Darrell from your hometown and that you went to high school together. He is here working for a few days and wanted to see about taking you to lunch to catch up. Does it sound like someone you know?” Mia asked.

“Wow! Yes, I know Darrell. I am very surprised he is here in my office; however, it is public knowledge. You can send him in,” I replied. I can’t believe this. Why today when my emotions are a wreck does Jamie’s best friend happened to show up in Miami and at my office. My stomach immediately went into knots. What is this about?

Her office door opens back up and in walks Darrell. Her heart immediately drops from her chest to her stomach. She was pretty sure this was going to end up being a conversation about Jamie and Allison and she wasn’t ready for it. She didn’t even want to discuss them at all.

“Hey Darrell!” she said as she tried really hard to put a smile on her face. They had all been friends, but when she left North Carolina, she left everyone behind. There was only one person from high school that she still kept in contact with and that was her best friend, Sharon, and she had left their hometown a few years before Christie did. “What brings you down to Miami?”

“The company I work for sent a group of us down south to work on a road project for four weeks. This is my last Friday here. I had thought about coming to see you, but I wasn’t sure if you would want to see me or not. I decided today, since I am off, to give it a shot!” he replied.

“I guess that is my fault. When I moved, I lost contact with everyone. But I am happy to see you,” she replied.

“Are you sure? By the look on your face when I walked through the door, you looked scared to death! Look Christie, I know it’s been a few years and I know it seems a little awkward, but I am not here to discuss you and Jamie. I won’t even mention him at all if you don’t want to talk about him. I just thought it would be nice to go to lunch and just catch up. Like you said, he’s not the only one you cut ties with; you know. You and I had a lot of conversations and you gave me a lot of insight on my own relationship. I just miss you,” he said.

“You are right. I am sorry. I would love to catch up with you and let’s leave Jamie out of it. Any ideas on where you would like to go for lunch?” she asked.

“Jamie, who!” he said with a laugh, “There is a really good Cuban restaurant that I heard about. It is supposed to be about four blocks from here,” he said.

“Sounds great. I think I know the place you are talking about! Let me just grab my stuff and give some instructions to my assistant. I think from lunch, I may take the rest of the day off and show you some of my favorite things to do in Miami, if you are game?” she asked.

“Definitely! I would love to spend the rest of the day checking out the city!” he replied.

“Okay. I can leave my car here, and you can drive!” she said as she gathered her purse and headed out of her office with him behind her.

“Yes, I will drive!” he replied.

“Mia, I am going to take the rest of the day off. Can you lock everything up when you leave and if you need me, call me?” she said.

“Yes, Ma’am. Enjoy your weekend,” Mia said.

“You too,” she replied.