CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Quietly Josie sat in her living room, looking at the clock as it ticked slowly. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Each movement of the minute hand was starting to drive her further and further up the wall. This was her usual work time. She had no idea how anyone could survive staying home this much.

Only, she did not want to leave the house. She did not want to go to work, or brush her hair, or anything. She just wanted to sit there on the couch and angrily stare at the clock. A clock that made her feel like she was being mocked for feeling so hurt over what could have possibly been nothing.

She chewed over her bottom lip as she got a text message. At first, she ignored that cute little ding. Then another ding and a vibration made her lift the phone. She looked it over carefully and hummed as she read the text from one of the nurses.

That guy is here. He is looking for you.

This is the third time since your schedule change.

What do you want me to tell him?

All three of those had been from the same woman that had told her about Blake being a heart breaker. She wrinkled her nose and sighed heavily.

Tell him that my schedule changed. Josie typed with a wrinkle of her nose. What more could they ask of her? She did not even really want to be there anyway.

Licking her lips, she waited for any more dings. Nothing came. So, she stood up and started to work on baking something. She was trying to learn something new, keep her mind busy while she was taking so much time off. She sighed heavily and ruined another pan of cookies.

She shook her head and threw them out before deciding to sit down and think about what she was doing. She closed her eyes and looked at her phone. What she was doing was unhealthy. She needed to seriously think about what to do to get out of this rut.

All she could think about was Blake and how irritating it was that she had heard that story and that she was unable to confront him. She really needed to do so.

Josie decided to confront him if he kept on trying to get in contact with her. If he did not, then that meant she had no need to... As she thought that, she felt her heart start to break a little. She did not want that. She really did not. He had been so kind to her, he had been so adamant about being near her, and…She pushed her thoughts to the side slowly. Her eyes glanced about the room quickly as she picked up her phone and started to type out a text message.

"This isn't fair to him." She murmured out loud. She took another deep and slow breath, thinking about how to word this. Her thumb hovered over the send button. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. No, no, she could not send this text. She could not tell him she was in the wrong. She could not admit she was messing up. Not yet. She turned her phone off and set it to the side.

She chewed her bottom lip and jumped when she heard a knock on the door. Staring at it, she just swallowed hard and toyed with her phone. Who would dare knock on her door like this? She did not move. The knock on the door came again, a lot more infuriated. Then she heard his voice on the other end. She shook her head violently and refused to go toward the door.

When she did not answer for so long, Blake just left. She could not fathom how to think about it. She chewed her bottom lip carefully and tilted her head to the side. Her lip was swollen from how much she had been chewing on it lately.

She sat on her couch for the next couple of hours, staring at the wall. She missed her time to go into work and just sat there. Until another knock on the door came.

This time, out of irritation and wanting to be left alone she opened the door and glared at Blake as he stood there, looking at her with enough confusion to make her wonder what he had expected. What had he really expected from showing up here? In all honesty, he had no right to just show up.

Especially with how things were going now. She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes as he watched her, glaring at him as he seemed to gather his own thoughts.

"What happened?"

"I umm...What do you mean?"

"Look, you've been avoiding me. I don't like that you've been avoiding me. Okay, I'm very patient here, but a man needs answers and I'm obviously not getting them."

“Uh huh,” she murmured.

"I thought things between us were going fine?"

"They were."

"What happened?"

"Things happened."

"Why won't you tell me anything?" he nearly yelled.

"Don't you yell at me!"

"Tell me what’s wrong!”

"You really want to know what's wrong? Really?"

"Yes! We've been going out, things have been fine, right? Everything has been nice and easy, and here you are, suddenly dropping me out of the middle of nowhere. Not even a short explanation. I will not wait any longer."

"You want to know what is wrong? Really? Okay, fine! Well how about this? I heard things about you, okay? And before I get into that, hear this: I told you before my ex wasn't a nice man. I loved him very much. I thought we were going to have kids, grow old together, and have a long happy life. But you know what really happened? He started sleeping with my best friend. When I found out about it we obviously had a fight. He let me know that there is no such thing as love, it always fades. So now he's off with my ex best friend!” she growled.

He said nothing.

"The other day, I was talking to my friends at the hospital and they told me about you…apparently how you've been around. You've been breaking hearts and stirring up trouble. I have no interest in that. I don't need that in my life, and if you're going to be that way, then you can…you can go somewhere else!"

She stood for a long moment or two, eyeing him carefully. She hoped he would say something, hoped he would tell her she was wrong. Silence filled the air between them for what felt like too long.

"So... it's true,” she hissed almost silently and slammed the door between them, then headed back to her couch and slouched.