For the Record (Record #3)(66)
Author: K.A. Linde

“Just . . . leave me alone. I thought for a second you might be here for some semblance of comfort. Instead you just brought salt to rub in the wounds,” she said. Her hands were fisted at her sides. “Go back to your arranged marriage and leave my life out of your scheming.”

“Fine. Just remember this feeling when he tries to change your mind,” Clay said with a shrug before turning to leave.

Liz really wished that she had something that she could throw at that moment. Clay’s departure only pissed her off more, and she wouldn’t have minded aiming something heavy at the back of his head.

She sagged with the weight of her anger. She couldn’t just stand here. Liz stormed around the corner to the bathroom that she and Brady had had a confrontation in two years ago. She had thought that she liked getting to redo so much of their relationship, but she didn’t want to ever relive this feeling.

Liz walked into the bathroom and bolted the door. She leaned forward heavily on the sink and blew out all the air in her lungs. Her face was pale, but her eyes didn’t hold the sick feeling that went through the rest of her body. Her eyes looked livid. And she realized that she wasn’t actually sad or disappointed or sick . . . she was pissed.

How could he do this to her? She had given up everything for him. She had given up the New York Times, the UNC paper, her credibility, her privacy. God, she had moved in with him and spent her whole summer on the campaign with him. She didn’t even know when he would find time for this, but then again, he had found time for her.

She wanted to think that she was jumping to conclusions, but Chris’s and Clay’s remarks made her think that she wasn’t. She was clearly losing her touch as a reporter if she couldn’t even put together the most in-your-face details like this.

A knock at the door pulled her out of her thoughts. “Occupied,” she called back even though she was pretty sure she knew who was on the other side.

“Liz, open the door,” Brady said brusquely.

Liz took a deep breath and then unlocked the door. Brady was inside the bathroom in a split second with the door closed, holding up his cell phone. “This is not what it looks like,” he said immediately.

“Really? It looks like Chelsea wants you to meet her in a back room, take her to Hilton Head, and fuck her. As far as I’ve gathered . . . those are all things you’ve done before,” she said coldly.

He cringed. Brady Maxwell actually cringed. “They are, but that’s long in the past.”

“Long in the past like two years ago, when she was your date that time you flew me to Hilton Head?”

“She was my date, but if you remember correctly, I told you that she wasn’t much of a date and that nothing was going on between us. Because nothing is going on between us, Liz. Absolutely nothing,” he told her.

She wanted to believe him. She really did. But she wasn’t sure she could trust his words at this moment. “Then how do you explain those messages? That doesn’t read like absolutely nothing.”

“Those texts were completely out of line. Chelsea and I had a sort of relationship for a while. It wasn’t serious.”

“It wasn’t public? It was on your terms? You had her when you wanted her?” Liz asked harshly.

“No. Please listen to me,” he said, his voice softening. “She is nothing like you. She can’t even compare to you.”

“Then why is she sending you messages asking you to fuck her?” she yelled in his face.

Brady remained resolute. “I don’t know. Probably because she’s drunk. She messaged me at the start of the summer insinuating that she wanted to start something up again, and I told her no, that you and I were serious.”

“What about all the text messages? What about turning your phone off when she messaged you at Justin’s? What about you acting exactly the way you did when you and I were hiding something?” she demanded, crossing her arms.

“I can say it a million times if you want me to. There’s nothing going on with Chelsea and me. I wasn’t trying to hide anything. She was messaging me about work. Insistently, really, and it was annoying,” he said with a sigh. “If I was trying to hide her would I keep telling you that she was calling and have her show up at events and give you my cell phone?”

“Oh, yeah, because it’s great to know that if you really wanted to hide something from me you would be better at it.”

“I’m not saying that! God, this is all coming out wrong,” he said, reaching forward and grasping her shoulders gently. “I’m saying that I love you. I love you with all of my heart. I love you so much that when I look at you I feel completely right . . . like I’ve both found myself and lost myself in the depths of your blue eyes. I could never cheat on you, because the thought of being with another woman repulses me. You intrigued me from day one, and each day it only gets better. Don’t you remember? I’ll always be your airplane.”

Liz closed her eyes as she soaked in Brady’s words. Airplanes. Damn airplanes always did her in.

Why did he have to be equal parts charming and persuasive? Couldn’t she have fallen for someone whose career didn’t depend on being able to convince thousands of people to like him? And the hardest part was that she didn’t like him . . . she loved him wholeheartedly. She wanted to succumb to his easy words, throw herself into his arms, and forget that any of this had happened. But the ache in her chest held her.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Chelsea? I was around her this whole time. She was probably laughing in my oblivious face. You spend all of this time hating on Hayden and being jealous of a relationship that’s dead, but you don’t think that I have the right to know that I’m going to be around an ex of yours?” she asked. Her eyes fluttered open and she met his gaze head-on.

“To be honest, it didn’t cross my mind. After I told her that I no longer saw her that way, I assumed she would just move on and act professionally by never bringing it up again. I was clearly wrong.”

“How does it feel to admit that?” she asked with a harsh laugh.

“It doesn’t happen often, but I do make mistakes.” One hand slid to the small of her back and the other up into her hair. “Like letting you walk out the door two years ago and not following you . . . demanding you see reason . . . offering you the world.”

He dropped his mouth down onto hers, but she pulled back after a second with a sigh. She shook her head and walked away from Brady. Her head was still spinning with everything she’d heard tonight. All she wanted was to forget that this had all happened, but it had happened. So now she had to deal with it.