When Adam awoke, he had a huge smile on his lips. He slowly opened his eyes and stretched his hand out to touch Rylee. What he found was am empty place, cold sheets. No Rylee. He blinked a couple of times to get used to the light in his room. He’d forgotten to draw the curtains last night. Slowly he sat up and looked around. Her clothes were gone and there was a note on the nightstand.
“Seriously?” he mumbled to himself, reached out to grab the note and read it. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
She’d really gone back to that Ben Lawson guy? She’d left him while he was still sleeping? What the hell? He wanted to know why she’d done that. Okay, she’d written that he shouldn’t doubt her feelings, but her behavior was still very upsetting.
Adam got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He needed something to eat. After smoothing down his hair, he headed to the kitchen, where Dougie was sitting, munching away on some cereal.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully, putting his bowl down.
“What’s so fucking good about this morning?” Adam glared at him, opened the fridge only to close it again before he took a banana. He knew he should eat properly, but he wasn’t in the mood for anything else.
“Woah!” Dougie leaned back and stared at Adam. “Okay, what the hell happened? Everything looked good yesterday.”
“Well, yesterday is over and this day didn’t start so well for me, okay?” He finished his banana in no time.
Dougie watched him for a moment, before he got up and busied himself on the fridge. When he turned around he put a bowl of cereal in Adam’s hands and sat down again. You wanna talk?”
Adam stared at the bowl and sighed. He looked up and opened his mouth: “Well, Rylee stayed the night. She couldn’t tell me that she was happy with her guy and with her life, because she couldn’t lie to me. And this morning she is gone and I find this.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and handed the note to Dougie.
“She says that you shouldn’t doubt her feelings.” Dougie looked up at him and put the note down.
“Yeah, but she left me while I was still asleep. She could have at least woken me up to say that to my fucking face, talk about it. I don’t know why she thought it wise to just grab her things and run away from me, because that’s what she’s doing. She’s running from me.”
“I think you’re forgetting one thing.” Dougie crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s engaged.” He was quiet for a moment to let that sink in. “Maybe she’s gone home to talk to the guy. How do you think she feels?”
“Man, I don’t know. But it makes me wonder whether last night was a mistake.”
“You sound like a woman.” Dougie smirked and ducked when Adam threw an apple after him. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t a mistake. Not the best timing, since she’s in a relationship, but maybe she needed that to realize what makes her happy?”
Dumbfounded Adam looked at him. “When did you get so wise, Douglas?”
“When you weren’t looking.”

Rylee took a deep breath once she’d closed the door to her apartment behind her. God, how would she face Ben after this? What would she say to him? How would he react?
She didn’t have time to think about this anymore, because he suddenly stood in front of her, looking more pissed off than she’d ever seen him.
“Where have you been? Why didn’t you come home last night?” His voice roared through the apartment. Ryle shrank back against the door.
“I’m sorry.” She sputtered. “I don’t even know when it became so late, so I thought it better to stay the night.”
“What? You stayed at that guy’s apartment?” The anger in his voice and in his face scared her so much that her hands started trembling.
“I wasn’t the only one. The others stayed as well.” Lie. It was the only thing she could think of to maybe calm him down a little bit.
“Jesus. You’re an adult, not a kid that has fun having sleepovers. You’re a respectable woman, so get your shit together and start acting this way.” He grabbed hold of her wrists and pulled her against his body. “You are going to be MY wife and I can’t allow you to let me look foolish in front of anybody. You can’t just stay at random people’s houses for the night. Have you thought about what that will look like to other people?” He tightened his grip around her wrists. “Don’t make a fool of me, woman.”
He crashed his lips down on hers hard, drew back again and let go of her. She felt dizzy. What was happening in her life?
“I have to go to work. I’ll see you when I get home.” He grabbed his coat and was out the door without another word.
Rylee found herself fighting back tears. This was not where she wanted her life to go. Not with this man. He didn’t love her and she didn’t love him. To him she was merely an accessory. A woman who had to smile all the time, do what he wanted her to do and be a good hostess to their guests. This was not her life.
She brushed away the tears and headed for her bedroom. She took a suitcase out and dragged it to the wardrobe. She had to get away, think about her situation, about what she wanted without anybody interfering.
She took all her clothes, the ones that really belonged to her, that she’d bought with her own money, and put them into the suitcase. She turned off her phone and went to her office. There she took everything she’d need for work and put it in the suitcase as well. Her next stop would be the airport to get a flight home to her parents.