#Chapter 31: Tiffany Tells All
#Chapter 31: Tiffany Tells All
Abby
I feel him tense the moment the words leave my mouth. I want to take them back as silence stretches
between us. He doesn’t seem to know what to say, and I avoid looking up at him. His hand falls off my
shoulder.
“No, but I’m guessing you do if you’re bringing it up.”
“I mean, maybe a little.”
He removes his arm from around my shoulder and moves to the side. I sit up and turn to look at him.
Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. There’s a blank look on his face, and I can tell he’s trying to hide his
emotions from me. It doesn’t take a genius to guess that I hurt his feelings.
I force myself not to play it off. This is something that’s been bothering me for a while now. If we’re
going to get married, we need to be able to talk about it.
“Go on,” he says.
I swallow. “I just… I feel like we don’t try new things,” I blurt out. “Everything is always the same. It feels
like we’re just going through the motions, working toward the end goal, when we should be passionate
and loving.”
“So you’re saying I’m not good at sex?” Adam asks, his voice beginning to sound a bit defensive.
I shake my head. “No, not at all!” I reassure him. I reach for him, but he pulls away, and I swallow
again. “I’m just saying that I’d like to try new things with you. I… I don’t know. God, I wanna feel like I’m
in a movie sometimes! Like you just can’t keep your hands off of me! I want to feel wanted, like I’m
really yours, you know?”
Adam frowns and folds his arms across his chest. “No, I don’t know,” he says. “I thought that our sex
life was perfectly fine, and now you’re saying that it’s not good enough.”
“It’s not that it’s not good enough,” I say. “I just worry that we’re gonna get married, and we’ll turn into
one of those old married couples who never touch each other.
There’s a long, palpable silence between us. Both of us can only stare at each other incredulously
before Adam finally speaks up. When he does, I can feel my heart sink.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he bites out, his jaw tense.
I wring my hands. “I just think maybe our sex life isn’t as exciting as it could be. And sex is really
important to me, so…”
“Wow, okay.” He stands up before I can finish, crossing his arms over his chest. I look up at him. This
couldn’t be going any worse. “I didn’t realize I was such a bore.”
“I didn’t say that.”
He shakes his head. “You didn’t have to.”
“Come on, don’t take it personally.”
“How am I supposed to take it?” he yells, making me jump. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him yell before,
but I clearly struck a nerve.
“You don’t need to get so upset,” I say. “I’m just trying to tell you how I feel. We should be able to
communicate about these sorts of things, right?”
Without an answer, he shakes his head and stalks out of the room, grabbing his jacket on the way. I
jump up and follow him. He puts on his shoes.
“Don’t leave,” I say, reaching for him. “It’s not a big deal, really.”
He shakes me off. “I’ll see you later,” he says. He can’t seem to look at me.
…
I hand Leah her drink and sink into the booth across from her. We’re having another girl’s night. I’ve
been in desperate need of them lately, and luckily Leah is almost always down to go out for a few
drinks. Chloe was too tired after work, but she made me promise to fill her in immediately.
“They make a good Sex on The Beach here,” she says, sipping from her drink.
I gulp down some of my sangria. “I can’t stand them,” I admit.
“You have questionable taste sometimes.”
I give a dry laugh. “Don’t I know it.”
Not only do I still need to deal with the whole Karl and John situation, but I haven’t heard from Adam
since last night. I feel bad if I hurt his feelings, but that doesn’t mean he should just disappear. It makes
me nervous, and a little frustrated. Is he going to leave me over one conversation? Should I just not
have said anything and let the feeling grow and grow until I started to resent him?
“What are you thinking so intensely about over there?” Leah asks, her eyebrows raised. I stir my drink
and shrug my shoulders. “Work stuff. Men stuff.”
“You’ve been going through it lately.”
“I know.” I shake my head and drink more. “Why does everything have to go to shit all at once? I don’t
have the energy to juggle Karl and Adam and my restaurant.”
“Franky, Karl needs to figure his shit out. Your restaurant will be fine, I promise. And something tells me
I’m missing something with Adam? I thought things were peachy. Aside from the whole boring sex
thing.”
“Well, I brought that up to him.”
“Oh?” She leans forward. “Something tells me that didn’t exactly go well.”
“Not exactly. I told him I think our relationship could use more passion. He took it pretty personally. I
think I really hurt his feelings.”
She shakes her head. “Oh, you for sure did.”
“He stomped off, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“What a prima donna.”
“Am I the asshole here? Should I have just kept it to myself?”
“I mean, you’re not the good guy, but you’re not the bad guy either. Sometimes you have to be honest
with your partner, even if it sucks.” Leah is the queen of those who can't do, teach. She’s never had a
long-term relationship, but she gives the best advice.
“That’s what I thought, too.”
“So, should I apologize?”
“You can apologize for hurting his feelings, but you shouldn’t apologize for being honest about how you
feel. Guys always take stuff about their performance in bed personally.”
“I didn’t say anything about his performance.”
“You implied it.”
I put my head in my hands and groan. “God, I did, didn’t I? I practically called him boring in bed.”
“He is boring in bed,” Leah says. “And he’s a little boring in general, too.”
I shake my head. “That’s not true,” I respond. “Adam is great. He’s sweet and caring, and he loves food
as much as I do.”
“But what else about him do you really like?” Leah asks. “What do you guys share aside from the food
industry?”
I’m silent for a few moments, thinking. In fact, now that I think about it… I guess Adam and I don’t share
a lot of common interests. He doesn’t like to read. He doesn’t enjoy going out all that much. He doesn’t
like joining me for brunch and nature walks on Sunday mornings.
“So the answer is nothing,” Leah says with a smirk.
“I never said that.”
She laughs, and I look up at her, my vision slightly blurred from rubbing my eyes so hard. “You totally
did.”
“Yeah.” I give a half laugh. “I guess I sort of did.”
“Just wait a bit. He’ll come around. He probably just needs some time to feel sorry for himself. I’m sure
he’ll get over himself eventually.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then he’s not the one for you.”
I nod. “You’re right.”
She sweeps her dark hair over her shoulder, giving me a wink. “I usually am.”
I do a double take when my eyes land on a table at the back. What is Tiffany doing at a place like this?
Out of every bar in the Capital, this is the one I’d never expect to run into her. It’s like I can’t escape this
girl.
“Excuse me,” I say to Leah. “I’m just going to say hello to someone.”
“Alrighty.”
I stand up and cross the dark room. Maybe I shouldn’t bother her, but I need to know what she meant
by calling me disloyal. I want to know exactly what Karl said to her about me. If he makes it seem like
I’m the disloyal one, I’m going to kill him. He doesn't get to leave me with no explanation, then put all
the blame on me.
Tiffany looks up as I approach, and she almost seems relieved. “Excuse me,” she says to her date. “I’m
just going to say hi to my friend.”
She stands up and links her arm through mine, leading me into the corner of the room. The moment
we’re out of sight, she drops her arm.
“Good date?” I ask.
She rolls her eyes. “Fantastic. I can’t wait to escape down those stairs when you’re done saying
whatever it is you plan to say.”
I look at the staircase behind her. “I want to know what you meant the other night.”
“Am I supposed to remember what I said?” she asks, tossing a lock of dark hair over her shoulder and Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
tilting her sharp chin up at me.
I grit my teeth. “You called me disloyal.”
“Aren’t you?” She crosses her arms and levels a hard stare at me. “Unless you don’t think cheating is
disloyal.” “Cheating?”
“Yeah, don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You cheated on Karl with the gardener.”
“I… what?” I exclaim.
She gives me a look like she knows I’m just pretending to be surprised, but I seriously have no idea
what she’s talking about.
“I never slept with our gardener.”
Seriously, is this why he left me? All he had to do was confront me about it, and we could have cleared
everything up. Instead, he leaves me and tells everyone I cheated on him.
Before she can say a word, I push past her and run down the stairs. It takes only five minutes to get a
taxi, and I hop in, giving them Karl’s address. Once we’re on the way, I call Leah. She picks up on the
first ring.
“Sorry, I had to run.”
“You left?”
“Yeah, sorry. I’m going to wring Karl’s neck.”
She laughs. “Call me when you’re done.”
“I will.”
“Give him hell,” she says, hanging up the phone.