Reunited Read online

  Copyright © 2020 Anastasia Austin

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ASIN: B085ZVYJNF

  Cover photo licensed from: https://depositphotos.com/272355198/stock-photo-young-sporty-man-posing-studio.html

  Cover design by: Anastasia Austin

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Copyright

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  Acknowledgement

  About The Author

  CHAPTER 1

  "Oh, Lia. You look like shit."

  Lia pulled Haley in for a hug in front of their favorite coffee shop. The place she and Haley had come for coffee every day since they first met in English 101, their first semester of college.

  "Remind me why we're friends again?" Lia asked releasing Haley before they joined the line inside the cozy cafe.

  "You love me for my honesty," Haley said hooking her arm around Lia’s elbow.

  "Being honest doesn't require you to be cruel."

  Haley stuck her tongue out at Lia who did the same in return.

  "But seriously," Haley said as they moved up the line. "Are you okay?"

  "I made the mistake of bringing marriage up with Grant last night."

  She shouldn’t have. But she’d been patient for so long. And she’d waited as long as she could after Haley and her boyfriend of no more than three months announced they were getting married no more than six months ago. Last night, she couldn’t wait any longer. Lia and Grant had been dating for seven years without a hint at marriage from him, even though Lia had made it clear that’s what she wanted. It shouldn’t have but it had taken Grant by surprise when Lia asked him if he’d given any thought to marriage.

  He’d said a lot, but nothing that made much sense. And the night had ended with no clear understanding of what their future looked like together.

  Not surprising then, that Haley noticed something was up. Lia should have been bubbling over with excitement for her best friend’s big day. But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t bring herself out of the funk after failing to secure her own big day.

  "What's his problem? You two are practically married already."

  Lia shrugged then stepped up to the counter and placed her order.

  She could have bitched about it but it wasn't likely to have made her feel any better. And it was for her and Grant to work through, not her and Haley.

  "Everything all set for the weekend?" Lia asked while they waited for their drinks.

  Getting Haley to talk about the wedding was a sure-fire way to stop talking about her own wedding-related failures.

  "I have no idea. I thought it would be nice having a wedding planner take care of things but I can't stand not knowing every little detail. From what she tells me, it's all good but who the hell knows."

  The barista called their order. The two picked up their drinks and sat in their usual spot on the couch by the front window.

  Lia just loved the way the morning sun spilled through the picture window giving the brown floors and walls inside a golden glow. Not to mention the comforting warmth, even in early summer, as they sank into the beat-up leather sofa.

  "I can't wait," Lia said making more of an effort to be excited. Because she was. Who wouldn't be excited to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Cancun to see their best friend's wedding? "Please, thank Damien again for paying for us to go."

  "Well, he already had to pay my family’s way. No way could they have gone if he hadn't. And there was no way in hell I was going to leave you behind."

  Haley had told Lia she would have been her first choice to be maid of honor, but she had three sisters, who demanded she stick with the tradition of only having each other as bridesmaids. Lia didn't mind. It meant she and Grant could go and just enjoy themselves. And, hell, maybe the wedding would set the mood. Give him the push he needed to pop the question himself.

  "Oh, I keep forgetting to tell you," Haley said after they sat awhile sipping in silence. "I got a friend request from that old high school friend of yours."

  “Who?”

  “The guy. You never stopped talking about him when we first met. I want to say, Aaron? Andy?”

  "Avery?" Lia asked.

  "Yeah. Him. After I posted the pictures of our engagement announcement. He probably clicked the wrong button or something. I still accepted it. Though, I don’t know why. He doesn’t post much. And no pictures. Which is a bit weird, if you ask me."

  Lia huffed a laugh through her nose as her cheeks and shoulders flamed. She hardly thought about Avery anymore but when she did, a strange sort of longing ate a pit in her stomach and she had to clear her mind so she wouldn’t cry. She missed him and it sucked because he lived too far away to visit and they’d grown too far apart for a visit to make sense anyway.

  "Ugh," Haley grunted looking at her phone. "My sister. You'd think since they forced me to make them my bridesmaids they would give me a break now."

  "What's wrong?"

  "They hate their dresses. Honestly, I think they're just trying to give me the full experience. God forbid they just let it be easy." Haley stood and Lia joined her hating to cut their morning short.

  "I'll see you tomorrow?" Lia asked hugging her goodbye.

  "Of course."

  After Lia saw Haley off, she drove to work completely incapable of getting Avery out of her head.

  They had been the best of friends in high school before they went completely different directions after graduation. Avery had promised no matter how much time and space came between them, they'd always be friends. That when they met again it would be like they'd never been apart.

  But after eight years...

  Even social media hadn't been enough to hold them together. It wasn't time and space they had to worry about. Life was the reason they never interacted beyond the occasional post like and the form birthday message every year. Which she'd failed to send a couple of times.

  Parked in front of the School of Music building, Lia pulled out her phone. She scrolled through Avery's minimal posts with Haley's voice pinging the corners of her brain. Followed by the question... What if they hadn't lost touch?

  "Damn it, Haley!" She shoved her phone back into her purse.

  The question was pointless. Avery was long gone and she loved Grant and her job. She was exactly where she wanted to be.

  Smiling to herself, she took her phone out again and sent Grant a message.

  Lia: Miss you
  It was likely she wouldn't get a response until lunchtime. His job was far more demanding than hers. Still, she waited a moment, just in case.

  Her heart fluttered when the line below her message changed from "Delivered" to "Read."

  Then stilled and sank after a minute or more passed without a resp
onse.

  Shaking off the hurt, telling herself he had a good reason, she told him she'd talk to him later and told herself to stop worrying.

  CHAPTER 2

  With all the late nights, trying to get as many of her vocal music students as possible in for lessons before the wedding, Lia was relieved when the last two for the day canceled.

  Wanting to savor those two hours a little more, the last thing Lia wanted to do when she got home was cook. But since Grant still hadn’t answered her texts before she left campus, Lia picked up burgers and a six-pack on her way home.

  Leaning against the elevator wall, she sighed. Two more days. Only two more before they left for a much-needed break. Where they would walk on the beach. Drink a lake of margaritas and maybe start a new chapter of their life. Fiancé. Wife?

  Lia straightened. They could elope. In Cancun. How romantic would that be?

  After a short elevator ride up three floors, a long walk to the end of the hallway, and nearly dropping the bag of food, Lia finally entered her apartment. Buzzing, her mind stuck on the possibility of walking back into this apartment in a few days as Mrs. Grant Northrup, she unloaded the armload onto the dining table inside the door and called, “Soup’s on.”

  No answer.

  Odd. He had to be here. She’d parked right next to him.

  Lia checked the bedroom thinking he fell asleep after showering. It wouldn’t have been the first time. When she found the bed and bathroom empty she stood by the table again wondering if maybe she’d been wrong about his car.

  After weaving through the space between the upright piano and the couch and peeking out the balcony door to find their cars paired in their usual spots, Lia stepped back and looked around. Then, when her eyes paused on the kitchen sink she remembered, he was probably across the hall. She headed for the door.

  Their neighbor had been having trouble with her garbage disposal for a month or more. She complained about it every time Grant and Lia bumped into her in the hallway. She’d contacted the landlord but he was a known deadbeat, so Grant had offered to help when he had time. Maybe they’d finally been able to make it work.

  Lia knocked on the door across the hall. Smiled when she heard Grant’s voice, muffled, on the other side.

  “It’s about fucking time, we—”

  Grant and Lia stood on opposite sides of the threshold, both with their mouths hanging wide open.

  “What the—”

  “I can explain,” Grant said, standing there in nothing but his boxers.

  Just then the woman who lived there came out around the corner tying the belt of her silky pink robe around her waist. “Oh, shit.”

  “You can go straight to hell, is what you can do!” The words boiling in her throat became lava in her veins. Lia turned and marched back to her apartment.

  “Lia, wait,” Grant said following her.

  She didn’t stop. Walking straight into the bedroom, to the closet, she pulled out handfuls of his clothes, still on the hangers, and threw them out onto the bedroom floor.

  “Can we talk about this?” Grant said but she couldn’t even bring herself to yell “no” at him. No wonder he hadn’t cared how late she stayed at work. No wonder he hadn’t bothered to answer her text messages. No wonder he hadn’t been thinking about marriage…

  With the last of his clothes in her fists, she spun on him, “how long? You know what? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. You’re a fucking dirtbag.”

  “Lia, I made a mistake. We can move—start over.”

  “Get out.”

  He didn’t listen. He just sat on the bed hunched over like she’d change her mind and feel sorry for him.

  Fuck that.

  Lia scooped the clothes up off the floor and carried them out of the bedroom, down the hall, opened the front door and tossed them into the hallway. Then, after grabbing one of her dining chairs to prop open the door, she walked around the apartment grabbing everything of Grants and threw it all through her open door and against that bitch’s door across the hall.

  “Stop, Lia,” Grant shouted, blocking the door.

  “Don’t you fucking dare,” she hissed when he put his hand on the chair. She threw another shoe out the door, narrowly missing his head as he ducked out of the way.

  “How could you do this to me? You knew how I felt. You said you loved me. Let me tell you I loved you.”

  “I do love you, Lia.”

  Lia laughed through the tears spilling from her eyes. “Fool me once, Grant. Only once.” She walked over to the door then, shoved him into the hallway, where several neighbors were now peeking around open doors to see what the commotion was all about, then she slammed her door in his face.

  After latching the chain, Lia fell back against the door and slid to the floor. Burying her head in her arms and folding her knees against her chest, she sobbed until she couldn’t catch her breath. Until her stomach rose to her throat and she bolted for the kitchen sink losing her lunch down the drain.

  How had she not seen it? How could she have been so blind? How could he do this to her? What had she done wrong?

  No matter what she asked herself, she couldn’t come up with an answer. She’d been attentive but not smothering. She’d never left him unsatisfied, though he’d left her with the female equivalent of blue balls many times. Many… many times…

  “My God, I’m such an idiot.” He hadn’t cared enough to apologize for it either. And never offered to make it up to her.

  Selfish prick.

  When she was sure she wouldn’t be sick again, Lia cleaned up the kitchen then went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. After stripping down, she stood under the scalding hot water letting it soak into her hair and sting her skin. Forcing her mind to focus on a different pain for a few minutes. Long enough to realize she no longer had a date for Haley’s wedding. A plus one that had already been paid for.

  Whether he’d let her or not, she’d have to insist on paying Damien back. Eventually. As much as she loved her job at the college, it didn’t pay the greatest. It would take forever.

  She had to find someone.

  But who? Everyone she’d have wanted to go with was already going.

  If she’d had more time, she’d have ignored the problem for a while. Let her brain process the break up for more than two seconds.

  Suddenly aware of the damage the water was doing to her body, Lia turned the shower off. She patted herself dry and threw on her knee-length terrycloth robe.

  Standing by the dining room table again, Lia took her phone out of her purse and scrolled through her contacts. It couldn’t be just anyone. It had to be someone she could stand to be around for more than a few hours at a time.

  She thought she had more friends. But she had none that weren’t shared with the bride.

  Except one.

  No way.

  Eight years with little to no interaction and she was just going to call, out of the blue, and ask him to go on an extended weekend stuck sleeping in the same room in another country? And with only a couple of day's notice?

  No way.

  Still, she thought slumping down on her couch staring at his number, he’d promised when they saw each other again, they’d be able to pick up like no time at all had passed. And she would have loved to go to Cancun with past Avery. They would have had a blast and gotten into so much trouble. If he’d meant it… If they really could pick up where they left off…

  She wanted to believe it.

  Lia jumped when her phone buzzed in her hand.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” she spat when she saw who the text was from.

  Grant: I’m sorry. Please, Lia. I love you.

  Lia stared at the message for a long time. Long enough for her stomach to settle and remind her she hadn’t eaten yet.

  “Fuck you, Grant,” she told the screen as she blocked his number before setting the phone on the coffee table and vowing not to pick it up again until she was sure she wouldn’t give in to
how much she missed him.

  CHAPTER 3

  Lia hit the snooze five times before finally crawling out of bed the next morning.

  Standing hunched over the bathroom sink, she hadn't dared to look in the mirror. She couldn't face herself. Couldn't confront the hurt still burning her eyes.

  Lia's phone buzzed on the counter beside the sink.

  She’d fought with the stupid thing all night. Not keeping the promise she’d made to herself to leave it on the table. But in the end, she’d won. Grant remained in phone jail.

  And would.

  For life.

  For this reason, she didn’t worry about checking who the message came from. And it came as no surprise when she saw Haley’s name over a message wondering where the hell she was.

  Lia snapped an elastic tie around her chocolate brown ponytail. It was already going to be a shitty day. Even worse having to do it without a shower or her favorite cup of coffee.

  Lia: Sorry. Overslept.

  Haley: You never miss coffee. You sick?

  Haley: OMG! Please don't be sick! You can't miss my wedding! Who will keep me from killing my sisters?

  Lia: Calm down. I'm not sick. I just had a rough night.

  The three little dots chased each other across the screen. Lia stopped short of the door out of her apartment to cut Haley off before she tried to make a joke about rough sex or something else Lia didn’t want to dodge.

  Lia: We can talk about it later.

  The dots disappeared.

  Lia: I'm already late for my first class.

  Haley: I get off work at six. You wanna have dinner?

  Why Haley still worked eluded Lia. After all, her fiancé had more than enough money to support a small country and she hated her job. Receptionist for one of the three local dentist offices. A week had yet to go by without her bitching about one of his clients chewing her out because their insurance had screwed up somehow.