Commitment: The Beauty in Between (A Beautiful Series Novella) Read Online Free

normal, as she heads towards the kitchen.
    “No thank you. I have some work to do,” I say and close the
door of the office behind me.
    I’m working for maybe 10 minutes before she comes in looking
for me.
    “Listen, about today, I’m sorry, ok? It was all just really
weird for me,” she informs me. I’m glad she’s recognising that I’m annoyed. But
she’s only addressing her feelings. What about me?
    “Don’t you think it was weird for me too?” I shoot back, turning
around in the desk chair to face her. “You used to love this guy. How do you
think going there made me feel? How do you think standing there while you two
caught up and had a great time felt?”
    She plays with the corner of the bookcase and drops her
eyes. “I wasn’t having a great time.” She says quietly. “I wish we didn’t go.”
    “Why do you wish we didn’t go Trina? Because it reminded you
how much you still like Elliot? Because people actually expected that you could
possibly be married by now? Or - do you wish you just didn’t go there with me?”
    “Of course not. None of that’s true. Why would you think I
wouldn’t want to go there with you? Why would you think that I’m still
attracted to Elliot? I don’t see him like that anymore!”
    “Then why did we have to go? Those people are nobody to us.
Kathy is your mum’s friends not ours. We could have just said no.”
    “But she invited us herself. We go to every other BBQ she
puts on. I didn’t think this one should be any different. I didn’t think we
should be rude.”
    “Who gives a fuck if they think we’re rude? Just admit you
wanted to see him again!”
    “It’s not like that” she argues “I promise you I don’t feel
anything for him anymore.”
    “Then marry me Trina. Let’s runaway. We’ll go to Vegas.
We’ll go to Hawaii - anywhere we can get married straight away. Let’s just go,  get
married, and fuck everybody else. Please. I’m tired of waiting.”
    “No David. I don’t want to do that.”
    “You don’t want to run away or you don’t want to get
married?”
    She hesitates a little and suddenly my stomach turns sour and,
my world starts to cave in.
    “Answer really carefully Trina,” I caution, dreading what’s
about to come out of her mouth. When she responds with an open mouth that moves
with the shapes of words she’s too afraid to say, my hand fly up and grip
either side of my head. “Oh my God. You don’t even want to get married do you?
That’s why you keep putting it off! You don’t even want to fucking get
married.”
    I start pacing the floor, completely disbelieving of what’s
going on with us right now.
    “I…I do… I just…”
    “Just what Trina?! Just what?”
    “I…I don’t know?”
    “Holy fuck! Why the hell did you even say yes then? Oh my
god. I can’t believe this!” I grab my keys off the desk and move past her. “Fuck!”
I yell as I storm out the door. I need some fresh air.

Katrina
    Shit, shit, shit . I’ve just screwed this up so badly.
    One barbecue. One stupid barbecue and everything just falls
apart. I knew we shouldn’t have gone. I should have listened to my gut.
    But why did I go? Why did we both go? I guess for me, I felt
like I had to because Kathy asked me directly. I was over at mums having coffee
and she and Kathy had played a tennis match earlier that day. Kathy was raving
on and on about how excited she was that Elliot was coming back, and that he
was bringing Paige and baby Grace.
    She said that they were going to throw a big barbecue to
welcome them home, and that she’d love it if we could all come. She even took
me by my hands and specifically said that she’d love it if I could make it. I felt
like I had to say yes – how could I say no?
    On top of that, I guess I was curious. I had only seen
photos of Paige and I really wanted to meet her. I wanted to meet the girl who
Elliot was happy to chase around the world. But it wasn’t about me. It was
never about me.
    David