Page 12 of Running from Drac

Please, God, let him get home safely.

Poppy and Pippa emerge from their rooms a few minutes later. They’re both already in their pajamas, but neither one of them look surprised.

“You told him, didn’t you?” Poppy asks as she puts a reassuring arm around my shoulders. “Come on, tell us all about it.” She maneuvers me back into my bedroom before sitting beside me on the bed.

There’s no answering her right now, not when the sobs are shaking through me in waves. Her shoulder soaks up my tears, but they just keep falling.

“I had to. I couldn’t live with that kind of guilt, Poppy. He deserved to know. He told me about Jinafer, the least I can do is be honest about my infidelity as well.”

She nods.

“It serves him right. You had every right to cheat on him. Don’t let him be an asshole and make you feel like shit. Remember he did this to you first,” Pippa chips in. She’s standing in my doorway, admiring the wall’s new décor. “Damn, that’s gonna be hard to patch.”

“Just because he cheated on me doesn’t mean I should do the same to him. I feel horrible, Pippa. I can’t believe I cheated on my fiancée.”

“I can.” I look up at Poppy, startled. Usually, it’s Pippa who voices her opinion. Poppy has always been the quiet outsider who doesn’t say much, even though I know she doesn’t particularly like Eddie.

Pippa does her best to stay in the middle, but sometimes I feel like she wants us to break up with the things she says and the way she encourages me to leave Eddie all the time.

“Don’t look at me that way. It’s called submerging your feelings, Amber. You haven’t resolved your feelings about Eddie cheating on you with Jinafer. In Vegas, under the influence, a lot of truths were voiced, and all of them came from your own mouth. Whether you remember what you said or not, alcohol has a way of releasing frustration and hidden emotions. You aren’t happy with the way Eddie has been treating you. That’s why you really went to Vegas. You didn’t care if it hurt your relationship because it was hurt way before you ever fucked the Australian.”

She grins when I roll my eyes.

“Don’t remind me. I can’t even look at myself in the mirror anymore, Pippa. I’m just a big fat cheater now.”

“Trust me, Eddie will get over it. In two days, you will be back together in an unhealthy relationship like always.”

“You’re better off if he doesn’t come back. Do you really want to be married to Eddie for the rest of your life? Look at what a slob he is now. Picture ten years from now when you are tied down to him with kids and stuck in a loveless relationship where your husband cheats on you every day. Because that is what you will have Amber, trust me,” Pippa growls. I want to tell her to shut up, but I know she’s right. Pippa is always right. The passion between us is gone. It’s been that way since he told me about Jinafer. I do what I can to make him happy, and that’s where it ends. He never tries to make me happy. Even when we have sex, it’s all about what feels good for him, never what feels good for me.

“Give him some space. Eddie will realize what a mistake he is making and he’ll be back. That’s your thing. You break up, get back together, and break up again. It’s a vicious cycle,”Poppy adds as she pushes up her glasses and sighs. “At least you have a relationship to cry about.”

“Shut up, Poppy. Don’t wish for this kind of relationship. Just because you don’t have a boyfriend doesn’t mean you should want to have an unhealthy one like Amber’s,” Pippa states snarkily.

“Hey!” I yell.

“Sorry, but it’s true. You will find the right guy for you someday, Poppy. You just have to be patient.”

The twins exchangethat lookagain, before they turn their attention back to me.

“I’ll call Daniel. He can patch up that hole for you.”

I nod. Daniel is a mutual friend of all three of us, but he’s had a crush on Pippa for as long as I can remember. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do to please her. But the man has no clue that she’s never going to date him. She’s just not interested.

“As much as I love being invited to this pity-party of yours, I have to study. Seriously, don’t let Eddie get to you. You messed up. It happens. If he can’t get over it, then he’s not worthy of you.” Poppy kisses the top of my head and leaves me and Pippa alone in the room.

“Do you want anything?” Pippa asks, still standing in the doorway.

“No, I just want to be left alone.”

She nods before giving me a half-hearted smile and closes the door behind her.

A weekend in Vegas and a one-night stand… that’s all it took to lose the love of my life forever.

There’s no denying how much I screwed up. The worst part of it is, I don’t think there’s any way to repair the damage I caused.

Eddie is my soul mate. I have loved him as long as I can remember. Yeah, he treats me badly sometimes, but he’s aguy. Not just a guy, but a man’s man, the kind of guy who would rather wrench on a car, watch a football game, and have sex than cuddle with me while watching a romantic movie or something on TV, enjoying just being in the room with each other.

But despite everything, Eddie has always been the guy for me. We grew up with each other. I think that’s what hurts the most. I allowed five years of a relationship to be ruined by a night of hot sex with a foreigner. Sex I can’t even remember.