Marie bowed her head in disgust.
“I know. Ryan found the letter on the sidewalk by the cab stand,” she muttered.
“He was planning on leaving me,” I sputtered. Tears streamed down my cheeks again from the pain of his betrayal.
“No, he wasn’t!” Marie insisted loudly. “I don’t get it, Pete.” Marie groaned, questioning him with her eyes. “Taryn, I asked Ryan point blank if he ever cheated on you and he said no, absolutely not,” she stated firmly.
I scoffed. “And you believed him?”
“Well, there are other things. I can’t say - I promised. Yes, I believe him.”
“You’re right! You don’t get it! None of you get it!” I shouted, angry that my friends were siding with him.
“I saw them having dinner together! I read her little love letter encouraging him to break up with me. I found the whore’s panties on his bedroom floor. I saw him touch her and kiss her with my own eyes! That’s it, it’s over! She can have him!” My throat strained from screaming. I had no fight left in me. “Turns out I wasn’t enough after all.”
Tammy wrapped me in her arms, gently trying to shush me while I became more and more hysterical. I was shaking all over.
“Taryn, come on! You have to admit this doesn’t sound right. I mean how would some reporter find out your cell phone number?” Pete asked.
“What does it matter?” I sobbed into Tammy’s shoulder. “Feel free to go down there and break his face.”
“No way! Not knowing what we know. I agree with Marie. Ryan wouldn’t lie about this - not now. Somebody set you up… but who?” Pete pondered.
I glared at him. “Yeah, sure. There’s some big conspiracy going on.” I wiped my eyes. “What else could it possibly be?” I said sarcastically. I didn’t understand why my friends were so gullible.
“Taryn, look at this picture. Is this what you saw?” Marie pointed to my computer screen.
“Are those the pictures he sent to cover his tracks? They could have been taken on any number of days.”
“Turn around and answer my question! Is this what you saw?” Marie showed me another picture.
“Similar,” I murmured. All the pictures she showed me were taken from inside the restaurant. Why are there pictures of this quality from inside the restaurant?
“No, this is exactly what you saw. Do you see that?” Marie pointed to a long, thin block at the bottom of each picture. “Ryan said all of these are date/time stamped as they film it.”
The date and time matched when I was there. My birth date was on all of them. My pulse quickened from the shock.
“What’s that?” Marie pointed to something gray at the top of the picture. It was hard to discern what it was.
“I don’t know,” I whispered out.
“How about in this picture? Don’t look at him kissing her.” Marie covered them with her hand. “What is that?” She pointed again to something gray at the top of the picture. The elongated oval shape was more pronounced.
I gasped.
Marie turned to look up at me. “Do you see it now?” She smiled.
It was crystal clear what the gray thing was now… it was the microphone boom.
Ryan was on location filming, and the date and time stamps proved it.
“No, but why?” My vision became blurry and the room started to spin. “She left note… I read… wha? Not stupposed be filmin.”
A high-pitched tone started ringing in both of my ears and I couldn’t feel my legs. That’s when the room tilted sideways… and disappeared.
“Taryn?” I heard the familiar voices urgently calling my name. Something cool and wet was touching my face. Something annoying was smacking my cheek.
“Hey there! Welcome back.” Pete smiled, dabbing my face with a cold washrag.
“What?” I tried to sit up. “What happened?” The room was still spinning slightly.
“You blacked out. You’re okay. Here, can you drink this?” Pete held the cup to my mouth.
“Ugh! That tastes awful!” I picked a small chunk of something grainy off of my tongue.
“Tammy crushed some vitamins into a cup of water. We need to get some nourishment into you,” he gently spoke. “It’s either this or we’re going to take you to the emergency room.”
I reached for the cup. “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” I muttered. “Reporters…”
The next hour was spent quietly getting me to eat and drink, and most importantly – to stay calm.
Parts of my trip to Florida flashed through my thoughts, but I couldn’t remember all the details for some reason. Perhaps my last fragments of self-preservation and survival suppressed the memories deep in my subconscious to protect me from having a complete mental breakdown?
I remembered crying on an airplane. I remembered Kyle helping me into a car.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I whispered, staring blankly at my bowl of spaghetti. Tammy was sitting in front of me on the ottoman. She patted my leg.
“You need to eat some more, Taryn.” Tammy nudged me. “Marie will get to the bottom of it.”
I couldn’t eat. Marie was filling Ryan in on my current state of mental collapse.
“Stop it, Ryan! She is not sneaking around with Kyle behind your back!” Marie groaned angrily. “Because you didn’t see the state she was in when we found her, that’s how I’m sure!
“Ryan, what part of we had to kick your bedroom door in to get to her is unclear to you? We almost called for an ambulance – she was that bad! Believe me, Taryn is far from happy and in love with some other guy right now. Yes, she knows I’m talking to you. I’m looking right at her.”
I scoffed. Of course this would get turned around on me! My supposed infidelity with Kyle gave him an excuse.
“Ryan! Listen to me! Taryn said she found the note in your suite, and then right after that someone called her on her cell. This mystery caller guy is the one who told her where you were! He led her to believe you were cheating on her. I mean, how else would Taryn be able to find you when you were out on location?”
I watched Marie pace the floor while she talked to him.
“No, Taryn said he never gave a name. He told her that they were taking pictures of you, so I guess he was paparazzi?”
She moved the phone away from her ear. I could hear Ryan shouting.
“Ryan! Calm down, all right? Think. Who else has her number?” Marie asked.