“Let’s just finish getting you clean and then we’re going to get some food into your body. You need to re-examine the situation with a fresh attitude, okay sweetie?” Marie dismissed my order.
“Promise me you won’t talk to him anymore. It’s over,” I whispered.
“I can’t do that,” she muttered.
“Promise me!” I begged, looking her in the eyes.
“No!” Marie said with conviction. “I will not promise that!”
“Then choose – right now – him or me!” I demanded with new tears in my eyes.
“Tammy? Can you get me a big plastic cup from the kitchen please?” Marie yelled over her shoulder. “Wash your stinky pits. You smell like shit,”
she fired back, rummaging through the cabinet below the sink. “Here’s a new razor.”
I took it from her hand and threw it at the garbage can. “Those aren’t mine. You can throw all of those blue ones in the garbage.”
“Listen! I know you’re hurting. And I also know you’re miserable and confused. But don’t piss me off on top of it!”
Tammy handed her a cup. Marie repeatedly filled it with water and dumped it on my head to rinse my hair.
“I made spaghetti,” Tammy informed while Marie was helping me get dressed. “That’s about all the food she has in this apartment. I’ll have to go grocery shopping.”
“Thanks, Tammy,” Marie said. “But I think it’s time that Taryn resumes her life. Tonight we’ll just relax and make sure she eats and takes her medicine. Tomorrow she is going to get out of this apartment and start pulling her life back together.”
Marie tossed a T-shirt from the dresser to me. It was one of Ryan’s.
“This isn’t mine, it’s his.” I cast the shirt aside on the bed.
“So what? Put it on.” Marie tossed it back to me. “Maybe you’ll remember all the reasons why you love him and used to trust him?”
The sobbing started again. “I don’t want to remember.” I threw the liar’s shirt at the wall. “The sooner I can forget the better.”
“Does it smell like him?” Marie asked, sniffing the cotton shirt she retrieved from the floor. “No? Well I can fix that.”
She took his bottle of cologne off the dresser and spritzed his shirt. Then she spritzed the air a few times, wafting the air with her arms.
“Stop! Don’t do that!” I cried out. I didn’t want to deal with anything that reminded me of him.
“Stop what? Stop remembering the man who loves you? Stop remembering that he exists?” Marie yelled.
“Marie!” Tammy barked. “Is that really necessary right now?”
“Yes! Yes it is! It’s called ‘tough love’ and she needs to snap her ass back into reality as quickly as possible!” Marie insisted, stabbing her finger at me. “Time is of the essence here.”
She threw his T-shirt at me. “Put it on,” she ordered - almost a dare.
“Go to hell!” I spit my words at her.
Marie spritzed his cologne in the air again. The smell of his scent permeated the air, reminding me of happier times.
“So help me God, I will kick your ass if you do it again!” I screamed at her.
“Go ahead and try! You’re so weak from starving yourself that a light breeze could blow you over,” she sneered. “Put on Ryan’s shirt.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I cried in my hand. “I flew all the way down there. I went to the restaurant that they told me to go to!” I started to hyperventilate.
“It’s over! I saw it! I saw it with my own eyes! I saw him lean over the table to kiss her and watched as he shoved his tongue in her mouth! Right there in a public restaurant! Just like Thomas. Just like a fucking coward. He’s a liar! All those rumors of him cheating on me with that whore were true. Why are you doing this to me?” I cried again.
“Because you’re wrong and I can prove it,” Marie sighed. “Come on… put a shirt on.”
She led me by the hand to my computer, where my friends proceeded to circle around me so I couldn’t escape.
“You need to see these.” Marie opened an email from Ryan. “Is this what you saw?” she questioned as she opened the files attached.
The first picture was the same view of what I saw in that restaurant window. There was Ryan and Lauren sitting at a table, visible from the street.
It was like reliving the nightmare all over again, seeing Ryan kissing Lauren. The searing pain made me look away.
“What time did you go to this restaurant, Taryn?” Marie asked.
“Why? What difference does it make? Didn’t the cheating bastard want me to see this?”
Marie asked the same question again, emphasizing each of her words.
“I don’t remember. Four, four-thirty?” The tears were streaming down my cheeks. Tammy was rubbing my shoulders tenderly.
“Why did you even go here?” Marie pointed to the screen. “The plan was for you to go from his hotel to Key Biscayne.”
A moment of total surprise slipped into my sadness.
“Key Biscayne?” I questioned her comment. “What are you talking about?”
“Nevermind,” Marie quickly dismissed.
“Wait, how do you know where I was going when I didn’t even know?” I asked.
Marie ignored my question and tapped her fingernail back on the image of the restaurant window.
“How did you know Ryan was here?” she asked a second time.
“Someone called my cell and told me that I needed to come quickly and see what was going on with my own eyes.”
“Who called you?” Marie’s head whipped around to look at me.
“I don’t know - some guy. He said I needed to know the truth.”
Marie gave Pete a dreadful look. “Did he give you a name? What did he say exactly?” She pressed anxiously for answers.
“He didn’t give a name. He said he was a reporter or something. He told me where Ryan was – even gave me the address. I had a cab drive me there.”
“Shit, Pete! Ryan needs to know this!” Marie flashed her eyes back to me. “Taryn, where did you think Ryan was?”
“I thought he was going to be at the hotel.” I wiped my eyes. “He was only scheduled to film until two o’clock. I tried calling him but his voicemail picked up. I went into the bedroom to unpack and I found a love note from Lauren to Ryan.”