Chasing Day Series: Chasing Day & Catching Day (26 page)

“Wow! That was incredible!” Whitney praised happily.

Seriously!?!

“Yeah, that was great,” Chase responded with little inflection to his tone.

What have I done?

~~~

Day and Rhys had just returned from their summer long honeymoon in Greece. Paid for by Rhys’ wealthy parents, who lived north in Cambridge. The last two years had been a whirlwind of activity. During their two and a half month trip, Day had gotten some much-needed sun and rest. The masters’ program and her TA work had been grueling, but she was finally done. She couldn’t have been happier, since the last few months of school, also involved planning her wedding.

Her mother had made the long trip to help her with the planning. All within one week, she’d had to take her finals, audition for the London Philharmonic, and have her bridal shower. When they’d finally gotten to Greece, she’d slept for a full twelve hours. Then proceeded to vegetate the rest of the trip.

Rhys had told her that they could get married later in the summer, but she was the one that wanted to move forward. When really, she didn’t want to have enough time to stop and think about the gigantic step she was taking. If she had enough time to think, she would have surely changed her mind. It was bad enough that she’d nearly tripped down the aisle when her steps faltered towards the man standing at the alter.

Her mother hadn’t helped. Pat Daniels was a perceptive woman, and she’d noticed Day’s snappy and moody attitude. So after her mom had helped her into her white princess dress, she’d sat her down to have a little talk.

“Daylen, baby. Are you sure you want to do this?” She asked.

“Of course, mom. Why wouldn’t I?” Day pretended to be busy, smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles in her dress.

“Maybe because you’re still in love with your best friend.” Pat prompted.

“We’re not best friends anymore, mom.” Day’s eyes burned conspicuously.

“You’ll always be best friends, sweetie. Nothing will change that. But my point is, when I mentioned the fact that you’re still in love with your best friend, you didn’t exactly deny the love part. Just the best friend part.”

“Mom-” Day started.

“Hey, I’m just saying.” Pat cut her off. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You still have time to walk away.” She grabbed Day’s hand and squeezed gently. “I wouldn’t be your mom if I didn’t impart some wisdom to you. I’ve been in a bad marriage, with a man that wasn’t right for me. Your father and I loved each other, but not enough. Just don’t get married for the sake of getting married.”

In the end, Day had walked down the aisle anyway. Although everything in her body told her to turn and run for the hills like Julia Roberts in the
Runaway Bride
. Rhys was a good man. Albeit, a little controlling and self-absorbed, but she convinced herself that it was better this way. Better than giving all of her heart to someone and letting them stomp all over it again.

They’d been back from their trip for a couple of days. Today would be her first day as the new cellist in the London Philharmonic. A position, she had no doubt, was handed to her because of her association with Catherine and her relationship with Rhys. She knew she was good enough, but it was still a highly coveted and difficult spot to get.

Rhys had already left for a meeting at the college, so Day had the flat to herself. The apartment still didn’t feel like hers. She still felt like a guest at Rhys’ place.

She brewed some coffee that she’d gotten from an American store, since tea was the preferred drink of choice in England. She sat down at the kitchen table and opened her laptop. She clicked opened her internet browser and Yahoo popped up. Even though she wasn’t there, Day still liked to know what was going on in the States.

She clicked through a few headlines when one hit her like a freight train. Day’s coffee mug fell to the floor and shattered, splashing scalding hot liquid on her feet. She quickly grabbed some paper towels and wiped her feet and dropped some absentmindedly over the spill as she clicked the headline.

SECRET WEDDING

Pro football’s hottest and most eligible bachelor elopes in Tahoe with hometown sweetheart.

The picture that filled the screen was of Chase and a now very blonde, Whitney Taylor holding hands somewhere in California. An unbidden sob escaped Day’s throat and she slapped her hands over her mouth. The pain that ripped through her chest was indescribable. It would’ve felt better if Chase had of flown to London, stabbed her in the heart, and twisted the knife for good measure.
How could he,
were the three words that continued to play in her head on a continuous loop.

Day couldn’t even read the whole story because of the tears that wouldn’t stop filling up her eyes. She slammed the laptop shut, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and laid her head on the table. Heart-wrenching sobs tore through her body till she shook with them. She cried until she had no choice but to suck it up and pack up her cello, to go to her first rehearsal.

As she rode the bus to the conservatory, she wiped at her face as a few more tears slipped past her lids. She wondered how many times two people could continue to hurt each other.

It’s Complicated

Chapter 7

November 2010

“What the fuck is this, Whitney?!” Chase shouted at his wife, as he held up a packet of birth control pills.

Whitney paused from putting on her makeup and looked up at him from her seat at her vanity. “It’s birth control,” she said in a condescending tone.

“I can fucking see that, Whitney. I’m not an idiot.” Chase growled. “The point is, what was it doing in your purse?”

“No, the question is why are you going through my stuff?” Whitney returned self-righteously.

“Because I have a wife that says she was pregnant and miscarried our baby. But when I saw she had birth control in her purse, I decided to look at her past credit card statements. And you know what I found?” Chase asked though Whitney kept her mouth shut, so he continued. “I saw that she’d been paying for birth control for at least the past year. You can’t very well get pregnant
and
miscarry when you’re on birth control, now can you?” Chase sneered at her.

Whitney raised her chin defiantly. “So what? Okay, fine! I don’t want to have a kid. Sue me!” She shouted.

“You lied about having a fucking
miscarriage
, Whitney! I mourned for a child that wasn’t even there! Who the fuck does that?!” He roared, before continuing. “That was something you could’ve told me before we got married! I told you before I even bought this house, when you took me on a tour, that I wanted a house that I could see raising a family in. You didn’t think to tell me then that you weren’t interested in having kids?” Chase said angrily, his head ready to explode.

“I mean, you were just talking. I thought men only wanted babies because their wives convinced them to. I didn’t know you were actually serious.” Whitney said innocently.

“No, you mean that you ignored what I said because you wanted a rich football player husband that could take care of you. You sure did quit you realtor job before the ink even dried on the marriage license. For what? So that you can shop all day and drink mimosas at lunch with your friends every day while I risk debilitating injuries every season? While you spend my money like it’s going outta style?! This isn’t the fucking Housewives of San Diego!” Chase ranted.

“Oh, yes. Let me ruin my body for you. Let me look like a hot frazzled mess with babies hanging off of me every day, while you get to leave the house. Let me be up to my arms in baby poop, vomit and drool for you! All while you still walk around wearing your little love bracelet with your ex-girlfriend’s initials on it!” Whitney screeched and Chase’s head snapped back at her tirade. He looked down at the bracelet he had made eleven years ago. “Yeah, I don’t fucking think so.” Whitney scoffed.

They had been married over four years now and at thirty-years-old, Chase was ready to start a family. He was quickly starting to realize that his wife didn’t have the same idea. Apparently, not quick enough, though. If he’d have known, he could’ve ended their farce of a marriage long ago. Especially, since he knew that Whitney wasn’t the type of woman to let go of her cushy lifestyle easily. If he ended this, he was surely going to pay. Literally.
What the fuck did I do?

Chase heard his cellphone ring in the other room and stormed away from the woman he called
wife
, yet was beginning to hate.

~~~

Day sat across from Rhys, at their favorite spot to meet for lunch. She looked at the top of his dark wavy hair as he was bent over his Blackberry. As always, sending out texts or checking emails. Too busy to talk to his wife.

Day sighed and looked over at a cute little family a few tables over. It was a husband and wife with two little ones. One was about three-years-old and the other only a couple of months. The mother was feeding the baby a bottle with one hand and feeding herself with the other. While the dad alternated between eating his food and wiping the food off of the toddler’s mouth and hands. Both parents talked animatedly about something. They looked happy. An emotion that Day hadn’t really felt in a long time.

“Are you ever going to change your mind about getting that reversal?” Day asked and Rhys looked up with a questioning frown.

Her handsome husband turned to look at what she was talking about and saw the little family. Rhys turned up his nose, realizing what she was talking about.

“How many times am I going to tell you, that I don’t want kids?” Rhys said in exasperation. “They just get in the way. You lose sleep, sex, and sanity. And those are three S’s that I personally enjoy.”

“So you could give a fuck, how I feel about it, huh?” Day ground her teeth in anger.

“What is there to complain about? You’ve got a great life. If you need someone to nurture, just get a dog.” Rhys said callously.

Unwelcome tears filled Day’s eyes as she realized that her husband just didn’t get it and never would. Shortly after their honeymoon, the subject of kids came up. To which, Rhys had dropped a bomb on her.

They were getting ready for a holiday dinner party at Catherine’s estate. Day looked at Rhys’ reflection in the mirror as she put the diamond studs he’d given her for Christmas in her ears.

“You know, when we eventually have kids, we’ll have to get a bigger place.” Day said offhandedly, ready to move out of his bachelor pad and into a place that felt like both of theirs.

“Kids?!” Rhys scoffed. “We won’t be having any of those, certainly.”

“Wait…you don’t want kids?” Day has asked incredulously.

“Absolutely, not! Which is why I got a vasectomy at twenty-one.” Rhys informed her.

“What?!” Day exclaimed, in complete shock. “And you’re telling me this
now
?!”

“What’s the big deal?” Rhys frowned. “You seem pretty career-oriented and I’ve never heard you mention children before. I didn’t think you wanted any.”

“That’s because I was twenty-three when we started dating. Things change and you grow. But a family is something that I’ve always wanted eventually.” Day explained. “It’s reversible, right?”

“Most of the time, yes. But that won’t mean I’ll be reversing it.” Rhys said emphatically.

“Wow. It would’ve been nice to have been informed of all this before you married me. Getting fixed is a huge piece of information that your soon-to-be wife at the time should’ve known.” Day remarked, sarcastically. She was silently fuming inside.

That’s when it hit her. She recalled how he’d wanted them to get checked for any STDs before having unprotected sex, but he’d never mentioned birth control.
Because he didn’t have to worry about getting me pregnant. I’m a fucking idiot,
she thought to herself.

“Come on, love. Let’s not fight about this. Let’s go have a great time at Catherine’s.” Rhys came up behind her, looking at her through the mirror. “Maybe we can talk more about it later,” he said, and then kissed her temple softly.

Later never came.

“You know…why don’t you go and get a dog with the little student that I know you’ve been fucking behind my back. Because as far as I know, out of your three S’s, all I’ve been getting is the ‘sleep.’ You sure as hell haven’t been fucking me. And keeping my sanity while married to an insensitive, pompous ass, is next to impossible.” Day sneered as she abruptly stood up, ignoring the looks she was getting from the other restaurant patrons.

“You’re being childish, Daylen,” Rhys responded though he didn’t deny her accusation.

“You really are an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, aren’t you?” Day asked but didn’t wait for a response as she stormed out of the restaurant.

As she walked down the sidewalk, her head ready to explode with fury, Day heard her phone ringing in her purse. She immediately recognized the ringtone she’d set for her mother. She quickly searched through her purse, pulled out her phone, and hit the green button.

“Hey, mom.” Day grumbled.

“Daylen.” The feminine voice on the other end was not her mother.

“Who is this?” Day asked nervously.

“Daylen, it’s Sandra.” The woman said.

Sandra was Pat’s best friend, but Day couldn’t understand why she was calling her from her mother’s phone.

“Uh, hey Sandra. Why are you calling from my mom’s phone?” Day asked with trepidation.

“Daylen, sweetie…your mom had a heart attack,” she said gently.

“Oh my God!” Day exclaimed as she nearly dropped her phone.

“She’s okay!” Sandra quickly clarified. “She’s here at the hospital in stable condition. It looks like they’re going to have to do bypass surgery. So she wanted me to call you and let you know before she went into surgery.”

“I’ll be there on the next flight out!” Day said as she started to run towards the bus stop.

“Okay, we’ll see you soon.”

“B-Bye.” Day’s voice trembled as she fought off tears.

Day caught a bus home and quickly threw everything she needed into her suitcases the minute she walked into their bedroom. All while wiping away tears of worry. She flipped opened her laptop and with shaky hands, picked the first flight out of London to O’Hare. She quickly rolled her luggage out of their building and hailed a cab. She called the conductor of the Philharmonic to let him know what happened and that she’d be gone for a while. He sent her and her mother well wishes and told her he’d see her whenever she could get back, but not to rush.

Once she boarded the plane a few hours later, Day finally pulled out her cell and shot a quick text to Rhys, not even bothering to call.

My mom had a heart attack. Just boarded a flight to Chicago. I’ll let you know when I land.

Before she put her phone on airplane mode, it chimed with a new text.

I’m sorry, love. You could’ve told me before you left for the airport. I could’ve come with you.

Day quickly typed out another text and then shut off her phone, so she didn’t have to read his response.

No, stay with your girlfriend. I’ll see you when I see you.

Day sat back and closed her weary eyes. She prayed that her mother would make it out okay and that her flight got in as soon as possible.