Indelible Love - Emily's Story Read Online Free Page A

yet.
After all, we hadn’t been dating too long and this was the first
time I’d opened my heart in a long time.
    “You seem to have a way of wrapping
men tightly around your finger,” Peter noted.
    “Yeah, some good that does me in the
end,” I retorted. I heard a low chuckle coming from everyone at our
table except Max and Jennifer.
    Dinner was truly uncomfortable. We sat
in a round of ten—Peter, me, an empty seat, Sarah, Charlie, James,
Will, Christie, Max, and Jennifer. Dinner was served. The roasted
tomato soup went untouched. A cold, crisp beet and apple salad,
nibbled. Filet mignon, new potatoes, and sautéed veggies, a waste
of money, as I only finished the vegetables before having Peter
finish the rest of my plate. I consumed some dessert and coffee,
along with two glasses of wine. It was no wonder my system wasn’t
feeling well.
    After dinner, everyone started to
mingle and dance again. Jennifer excused herself to use the
restroom while the rest of our table, except Max, went to dance.
Dreading the alone time, I got up to go anywhere and do anything
but talk to Max.
    “How come you barely touched your
dinner, Em?” Max pulled me back down with a caring yet guarded
voice.
    “I wasn’t very hungry,” I answered
softly.
    “You’ve lost so much weight. Are you
OK? Have you been ill? You still look…beautiful.” His voice sounded
wistful.
    With an intense glare I
saw Max read my face. It was hard to hide anything from a man who
had known me intimately for four years. No, I am not OK. You left me eighteen months ago without good
reason and now I’m sitting here watching you with another woman.
How can I be OK?
    My eyes teared as I saw the sadness in
his eyes and I chose to turn away from our silent conversation.
Muted, awkward distress, surprisingly couldn’t suppress the
friendship, fondness, and love that had lived between us for so
many years. Even now, my heart felt glad to be here with him. My
mind continued to dissect my heart. I couldn’t free my mind of the
way it felt to be held by Max while we danced. His touch brought
back so many wonderful memories. There was a part of me that wanted
to be held by him again.
    Still, I was angry with Max for
kicking me out of his life so unexpectedly. How could a man who
dumped me after four years of dating, sit here and feign to care
for me? He didn’t care anymore, and neither should I. I had Jake,
and deep inside, I knew we would make this relationship
work.

Chapter 2 The College Years
     
    Hot and humid weather greeted my move
into my college dorm. Florida, in the middle of August, had to have
been more pleasant than this day. It was never this hot in Los
Angeles, especially so close to the ocean. With ten stories and 381
rooms, I lived in one of the oldest dormitories on campus. It even
required an old-fashioned key card to open up the heavy doors into
this secured building. The usual meeting area and common rooms were
all located on the first floor, and the dining hall looked like any
other well-stocked cafeteria. It was a glorious first year in
college.
    My room was all of two hundred square
feet. In it were three beds, three desks, three chairs, and three
small closets. I couldn’t figure out how I was going to get all my
clothes in this locker of a closet. Arriving in the dorm room
before any of my roommates, I picked the only bed that was the
bottom bunk. There was another bed above me and directly across my
way, the third bed was perched up high with a desk, chair, and
locker-sized closet all neatly positioned underneath it. That was
my entire room. Needless to say, there wouldn’t be much privacy
during my first year.
    Max and I met in the cafeteria on the
first day of school. Catching him smiling at me from a table
nearby, I was quickly smitten. He and his roommates came over to
our table and introduced themselves to us. We all took turns at
small talk and then paired off to go explore the campus. From day
one, our chemistry was undeniable.