Page 19 of A Matter of Time
Though it had happened years earlier, my heart pounded as I relived it all: the disbelief, the hurt, and the anger I’d felt, seeing her in his embrace.
“Did they kiss?” Billie asked softly.
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to find out. Before they could see me, I took off back home. When I got there, I texted him, pretending not to know anything, just asking how his night had been and how things were going, and he never wrote me back. I didn’t sleep a wink all night, and by the time the morning came, I waspissed off.”
Billie and Laura both nodded in understanding. They wouldn’t have expected anything different.
“I went to school ready to confront him, and who did I see as soon as I walked in? Kara freaking Beckett, who was only too happy to tell me that the news was all over school that Cam and Marley were going to prom together.”
Billie gasped, and even though Laura already knew the whole story, she still winced too.
“You must have let him have it,” Billie guessed, knowing me as well as she did. “I can’t imagine you took that lying down.”
“Of course I didn’t,” I confirmed. “I marched straight up to him, right there in the hallway in front of everyone, and asked him why the hell I had to find out from someone else that he had another date to the prom.”
“Did he deny it?” Billie asked.
I shook my head again. “No. He simply said he had planned to tell me later, that he would explain it all to me, whatever the hellthatwas supposed to mean. I told him he didn’t have to explain a thing, that despite what he seemed to think, he hadn’t completely fooled me, and I told him about seeing him at Marley’s the night before.Hehad the nerve to get mad atmefor spying on him, and we both shouted at each other until we got sent to the principal’s office. By that point, I couldn’t hold back, and I ended up swearing at both Camandthe principal, which got me sent home for the day and banned from attending the prom, which was hardly a problem anyway since I no longer had a date.”
The anger that had boiled over that day still simmered inside me if I gave it the slightest bit of attention, and I took a deep breath to calm myself once I got the whole story out.
“Anyway, that was it, really. Cam never apologized. He even tried to claim thatIowedhiman apology for not giving him a chance to explain. He really did take Marley to the prom, and our relationship ended. We’ve never spent a full evening in each other’s company again, at least not until last night.”
Billie had a few more questions, which I answered for her before insisting that we all go to bed before the morning came, which would be in a matter of a few hours by that point. As I lay in my bed in the dark, listening to Laura’s quiet snores beside me, I actually felt grateful that Billie had brought the whole thing up.
I needed the reminder of just how much Cam hurt me and just how betrayed I felt by what he’d done, so that what happened in the bar that night didn’t happen again. Cam belonged to my past, and aside from having to work together for a few weeks, he would remain there. I had a very good reason for keeping my distance, and I needed to keep that in mind, no matter how much I might be tempted to forget it.
~Cam~
In the morning, I made a quick breakfast for the Callahans before calling a taxi for them and sending them back to the hospital. I could tell Mrs Callahan wanted to offer me something in return for letting them stay, but her usual go-to thank-you gesture would be to invite the person she wanted to thank over for dinner. That didn’t really work in this situation; first, because I lived in Houston while they were still in Sandy Creek, and second, because things were still awkward and unsettled between me and Tonia. I insisted that I didn’t need any kind of reward and I asked them to tell Dex and Shawna I’d be praying for them.
Since I let the Callahans sleep in my bed while I took the pull-out couch, my back felt a little stiff that morning and the prospect of sitting on a bus for a few hours really didn’t appeal to me. However, it would be a lot cheaper than another taxi ride like the one we took last night when I ended up having to pay the driver for his time to go back to Corpus Christi too. It probably would have been cheaper to buy a used car for the night and ditch it in the morning.
The money didn’t bother me too much though. I made decent money and I could afford to take the hit. Not that I splashed my money around without good reason; I grew up on the poorer side of the middle-class line and I knew what it felt like to go without, but I also didn’t see the point of having money sitting around in the bank when you could use it to help someone out. I didn’t begrudge spending some of it to help Tonia out when she needed it.
It also explained how I ended up getting to know Marley Stevens in the first place, and how I learned that trying to help someone out wasn’t always as straightforward as it seemed. Sometimes, it led to a whole hell of a lot of unintended consequences.
It was almost eleven o’clock by the time I arrived back at the hotel in Corpus Christi where I’d parked my truck the night before. Trying to be inconspicuous, I ducked into the hotel lobby to use the restroom before I began the long drive back to Houston, and when I came back out, a familiar figure stood at the check-out desk, just a few feet away from me.
Putting my head down, I tried to walk past without being seen, but luck didn’t seem to be on my side.
“Cam?” Bradyn sounded understandably surprised to see me as he gave me a curious smile. “What the heck are you doing here?”
Well, crap. What could I say? Explaining it to Tonia had been bad enough, but at least I’d been on her side. When it came to Bradyn, I’d actually come down to thwart him in the first place, and now, I was getting called out on it. It almost made me want to stop trying to do nice things for anyone when it kept blowing up in my face.
I tried to play it casual and avoid his question as I went over to shake his hand. “Oh, hey, Bradyn. What brings you to town?”
“I’m here for work,” he explained, still looking confused about my presence. “I had a meeting that ran long and stayed over. What about you?”
“Oh, just… uh, came down to see a baseball game.” I blurted out the first thought that came into my head, though I had no idea if the local team even had a game that day.
Bradyn’s face lit up as he leaned against the desk, oblivious to anyone else who might need to speak to the receptionist. “I didn’t know you were a fan. I’ve got season tickets to the Astros but I’ve never been to see the Hooks.”
The Corpus Christi Hooks were the local minor league team and one of the farm teams for the Houston Astros. Luckily, my dad was a huge fan and I’d spend enough time chatting with him to be able to talk somewhat knowledgeably on the subject. “It’s interesting to see what kind of talent they’ve got down here sometimes. Makes a nice day out.”
He glanced outside at the bright blue sky, the perfect setting for an afternoon game. “Shoot, I’d love to go with you, but I’ve got to take Tonia back to the city. I’m just waiting to hear from her.”
He thought Tonia was still there? With everything else going on, she must not have had a chance to tell him she’d already left, and if she’d gone back to the hospital, chances were she had her phone off. If he waited for a reply from her, he might be waiting a long time.
