Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Now I know that she’d been jealous of me and was using that as an excuse all along. I can’t blame it all on her, though, because I was the one that had been so gullibly stupid.
I had come to realize that I had let too much outside influence dictate our relationship in the past. I’d been so busy worrying about how the world saw me that I’d neglected my own wants and the things I needed from a healthy relationship.
Not that I’m excusing his actions, but now I can see and accept my faults as well. We’d both let others have too much say in our personal matters, and that had led to too many misunderstandings, something I meant to avoid at any cost this time.
We weren’t the same teenagers we had been when we first got together, we were no longer the two innocents who had found each other in the midst of stardom hell, and we certainly no longer needed anyone, friend, family, or foe, to tell us how to live our lives. As if he’d read my mind, his next words touched on the same subject.
“I plan to call your mom and Sydney tomorrow. After this, I don’t think it would be wise to put it off much longer. I don’t want them to get mad at you on my behalf.
“I appreciate that, but I want you to know that the only thing I want you to apologize to Sydney for is the thing that happened between her and Scott. You said it was Janie behind those posts, so you just need to make that clear.”
“Since you didn’t do anything wrong, you shouldn’t be held responsible. As for our relationship, you don’t need to apologize to anyone for that. That’s between you and me. I forgive you, and that’s all that matters. By now, they’ve both seen and heard the truth about your marriage, so the only thing they can have against you is the way you treated me when we were together, and for that, I’m the only one who you need to apologize to, and you’ve done that.”
“I hear what you’re saying, and I appreciate the sentiment, but I kinda see it differently. They love you. If it was anyone else but those two, I might let it slide, but if I don’t make things right with them, it can make things difficult for you. I don’t want any blemishes on our new start, and since I was the one to screw up in the past, I should be the one to make it right.”
“True, but I don’t want you to think that you have to prove anything to anyone. You’ve done more than enough for me to give you another chance. That should be enough.” I think I was a bit worried about how things would go if he approached those two.
When I told him before that he needed to apologize, my head wasn’t in the right place exactly. But the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that those two would put him through the wringer, even if he does apologize. Sydney, especially, is not going to let him off the hook that easily, and quite frankly, I don’t want anything to mar the happiness I feel now.
But maybe he’s right. Maybe clearing the air would eliminate a lot of hard feelings, and I plan on going above and beyond to prove to both Sydney and Mom that I knew what I was doing and was more than happy to do it. I just hope they give him enough time to prove himself.
***
*Ryder*
I didn’t let on, but I was kind of pleased with the free publicity. I’d been racking my brain trying to come up with the right way to let the public and our fans know that we were back together. Sure, by now, everyone knew the truth behind my sham of a marriage, but I hadn’t given any interviews, hadn’t set the record straight with my own mouth, so there was still room for a lot of speculation, and the court of public opinion could go either way.
This time around, I knew what not to do, so that was something, I guess. And since I didn’t have those liars around me to cloud my judgment, all I saw was her and I and what I wanted us to be. As far as I was concerned, the vultures outside the window were doing us a great service, so why not use it to our advantage?
I knew they wouldn’t miss a thing, not the fact that I had taken her hand again after buttering our bread, and not the way I was looking at her in the dim light of the restaurant. Anyone who cared to look wouldn’t easily miss the love and admiration I had for her, and that’s exactly what I was banking on.