A month had passed since Brad dumped her and broke her heart more than she could have ever thought possible. She had tried numerous times to catch him at the office building he was turning into his new business, but the workers always told her that Brad wasn’t there which was a lie since his car was parked out front.
However, true to his word Brad made Lee finish up his part of the interview with her and the camera crew was going to start taping the entire Drace family in two weeks which gave her time to get her voiceover parts done in time for Christmas Eve when the Shades of Love special was going to air.
It was hard for her to stay focused because she had been feeling horrible since Brad kicked her out of his life. She hadn’t been able to sleep or keep anything down. Even Tiffany noticed and told her to take some of her vacation time.
At first, she had declined because work was the only thing she had going in her life. Working long hours again had given her something to do to replace the pain that losing Brad had caused.
How could Brad to this to her? He made her fall in love with him and she had given him everything she had only to have it all tossed back into her face. Is this pain the reason Nick and Brian had done what they did to themselves?
After her high school boyfriend Nick, and her college boyfriend Brian had both committed suicide after she had broken up with them, it tarnished her belief in love and made her terrified of getting involved too deeply with any man. It made her feel like if she ever loved a man he would get hurt and she was right. She’d confessed her feelings to Brad and he’d dropped her ass like a bad habit.
Never in her life had she expected to fall for someone like she had with Brad and now he was gone from her life because of something Richard mistook as her cheating on Brad.
After Brad had accused her of cheating on him, she had thought about going and confronting Richard…but why should she? She hadn’t done a damn thing wrong. Instead of running off to Brad, Richard should have come to her instead and asked about the scene in the restaurant.
God, she didn’t want to tell anyone about what she had been doing for Brad just in case Ivan didn’t get in contact with Brad. Ivan was one of the top male tennis players in the world and if Brad knew about Ivan, he would have been waiting for the tennis pros’ phone call.
What if Ivan didn’t call? Brad might have taken Ivan’s dismissal personally and stopped pursing his dream. No, she had to keep quiet and hope for the best.
Ivan was supposed to be Brad’s foot into the door with the career he loved so much. She had only tried to help the man she was in love with, but it turned out horribly wrong.
Rubbing her hands across her eyes, Alicia thought about fixing herself something to eat, but in the end changed her mind. All she wanted to do was crash in bed and stay there for a couple of days.
Alicia was dumb. She knew that she had been burning the candles at both ends for the last week or so; this might be her body’s way of telling her that she needed a break for a while and get away from here.
Tomorrow she would call Chloe and see if she could crash at her place for a day or two maybe a week at the latest. New York was a far cry from where she lived and it wasn’t like anyone here would be missing her anyway.
Hopefully, Chloe wouldn’t try to force her to try and see their parents because her answer would still be the same. She wasn’t in any mood to hear her parents complain about her lack of personal life or meaningless job.
All she wanted to do was relax a little before the Christmas holiday hit. It was the busiest time of year at the station.
Christmas was usually her favorite holiday season but she wasn’t too sure about this year. She might just pull the covers over her head and sleep through it on the days she wasn’t scheduled to be at work. She never would have predicted that breaking up with Brad would be this hard on her.
God, what was she thinking? She never thought about truly telling Brad about how she honestly felt until he pulled it out of her with his love and understanding.
Alicia blinked back the tears that suddenly filled her eyes. Shit! She wasn’t a crier and she hated that she was doing it now, but it seemed to be happening a lot now. It was probably her body’s response to the lack of sleep that she had been getting.
Okay, now she really was going to call her sister and see about coming for a visit. She couldn’t keep feeling like this from lack of sleep and nerves.
Going over to the couch, Alicia sat down and picked up the cordless phone. She was going to call her sister, but she had to go something first and it would be the last time she would make this call.
Her fingers quickly dialed a number she knew by heart and probably would for a while. She waited for the message to come on and her heart skipped a beat at the sound of Brad’s voice.
“This is Brad…you know what to do after the beep.” A second later the beep buzzed in her ear.
“Brad, this is Alicia. I just wanted to let you know that I finally understand now that it’s over between us. So, I won’t be trying to contact you anymore. Bye.”
Alicia pushed the end button as tears poured down her face. Well, she’d done it. She let Brad know that she was done with him. She was the type of woman who once she committed herself to something would not likely change her mind. Her life worked out better that away and it would be extremely hard for her to go back to her old way of living, but she could do it, because she had no other choice.
Taking a deep breath, Alicia brushed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand and got herself together so she could talk to her sister. Chloe was very observant and would be able to tell right off the bat if something sounded off in her voice.
She dialed the number. The phone only rang once before Chloe picked up.
“Alicia, what’s wrong?” her sister asked immediately.
“What? Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. You have never called me after midnight before. So, I know there is something going on with you.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Alicia answered too quickly and she knew it.
“You know that I don’t believe you right? So, you might as well tell me the truth or I won’t stop asking until I get it out of you.”
Alicia knew her sister and Chloe was right. She wouldn’t take anything but the complete truth. So, she retold Chloe what had happened between her and Brad and the pain was just as bad as the first time.
“Do you want me to come there and give that idiot a piece of my mind? No, better yet, let me have a conversation with that stupid brother of his. How dare he spread lies about my baby sister,” Chloe shouted.
“Chloe, calm down,” Alicia said. “All I want to know is can I come and stay with you for a couple of days.”
“Of course you can. Now, I won’t be here because my job has booked me on several seminars, but use the key I gave you. The condo is yours for as long as you want. I’ll let the security guard know you’re coming. When are you booking your flight?”
“I was hoping to do it tomorrow and leave on a later flight the same day,” Alicia answered.
“I’ll be gone when you get here. My flight flies out today. Everything you need is here and don’t worry about anything. Everything will turn out better than you think it will. I need to go, but I’ll call you once you get to New York to make sure you arrived safely,” Chloe told her before hanging up.
Sometimes Chloe got on her nerves being so overprotective and bossy, but that was how her sister’s personality was and despite all of their fights over the years, she loved her sister and even her brother who she only saw maybe once every three years.
Well, she didn’t have time to sit there and waste. She had a lot of things to do before she left on her much needed trip.
Tossing the phone on the table, Alicia got off the couch but instead of going to her bedroom she made a detour to the kitchen. It seemed like since she decided to leave town for a while, she had gotten her appetite back and a turkey with bacon sandwich was sounding really good to right now.