Heart of Stone (Parts I & II)

I. Chapter 16 | Part 1 - Aubree

Song: "Killing Me Softly" by Fugees

----

Aubree feared she had made a mistake.

At the time, she was so caught up in the moment that it was impossible to say no.

Her parents couldn't have been happier.

Of course, Dan had asked for their blessings beforehand, even went so far as to admit that he initially planned on proposing during the fireworks display, but the moment the sun fell behind the skyscrapers of Chicago, casting a warm, angelic glow around her, he said the moment felt right.

Stone didn't flicker in her mind until after she said yes. Only then did remorse, like a snake, capture her heart and squeeze, slowly tightening its hold little by little.

The sensation stayed with her all night and she struggled to fall asleep. Tossing and turning, she fought to suppress the constant constricting within her chest to no avail.

Her mind kept racing with thoughts of Stone. His breath against her face. The way her hand felt in his as he brushed his lips against it. The touch of his cheek against her fingertips. The racing of her heart when he was so close it made her breathless and weak in the knees.

Those thoughts made her choke back a sob, while Dan slept peacefully beside her. How could she even have these feelings stirring up when she had Dan? Everything she felt around Stone intensified to heights she'd never experienced before.

She loved Dan, but something kept pulling her closer to Stone. In those brief moments when her gaze met Stone's, she couldn't understand the overwhelming emotions that gripped her. They scared her at first, but now she wondered why they had scared her so much? Was she scared of him or was she scared of the deep-seated, inexplicable pull she felt toward him?

"You have no idea."

What did he mean when he said that at the mall?

He always looked so conflicted. Was it because of her? Why? He was always telling her to leave, and yet, she could sense his attraction to her.

Damn, he was confusing!

Forget him, she told herself as she tossed over again in bed. You're marrying Dan, for Christ's sake!

But she couldn't. Not while her heart ached and her restless soul refused to sleep.

She didn't know when she finally succumbed to sleep, but even then, she dreamt she was running in a sea of blackness. Just running and running. When she tripped and fell, hopelessness swallowed her into a bottomless pit.

She woke to Whiskey licking her hand and whimpering at her bedside. Turning her head, he licked her face. Only then did she realize the moisture on her cheeks.

Groaning, she glanced at the digital alarm clock on her bedside table. Even though it was seven o'clock in the morning, she decided to get up and take Whiskey for a walk.

If anything, she needed the walk more than the dog.

Getting up, she washed her face, threw on a light sweater and sweatpants, and stepped outside, hoping the fresh morning air would clear her head.

By nine o'clock, she didn't feel any better. Dan sent her a text, wondering where she went. Flooded with guilt, she headed back home. She was starving by then and decided to stop at a café on the way and grab a muffin and a coffee.

She sat outside on one of the patio chairs eating her muffin when Whiskey started growling.

"Hey, what's wrong, boy?" she asked, brushing her fingers through the fur around his neck.

When he didn't let up and got to his feet from his former sitting position, his growling intensified.

"Hey," she said in a louder, more authoritative voice. "No. Stop it."

She tugged sharply on his leash in an attempt to get him to pull back.

He sat back down but he remained alert, huffing occasionally.

Aubree looked around but with all the pedestrians and traffic, she couldn't make out what was bothering him. More likely than not, it was another dog, but Whiskey only ever got upset by another dog if it looked aggressive and lunged at him first.

Finished eating, she threw out the muffin's wrapper and set out with Whiskey's leash gripped firmly in her right hand, and her half-full coffee in the other.

Whiskey seemed more guarded than usual and walked more briskly. She knew he was determined about something, and he was just as stubborn as she was sometimes.

She was in no mood to argue. If he wanted to hurry home, then so be it. Her head was pounding now from the lack of sleep and her racing thoughts.

She chewed on her bottom lip. Dan was at home. Her chest tightened again.

How much longer will she have to endure this pain?

Shaking her head, she told herself, the sooner you forget Stone, the better.

The walk home was quicker than she would have liked it to be and soon she was walking up the two steps of her parent's front porch in the suburban neighborhood she grew up in.

She looked up at the red-brick house, built some forty years ago, and took a deep breath.

Home would never be the same anymore, and something told her that soon she'd have to move on with her life and leave everything she knew behind.

It was time to start fresh, build her own life with Dan, and think about the future. She didn't know what the future held for her, but she knew that she had to make the most of every day.

With Dan.

Whiskey huffed at her drawn-out pause and nudged the back of her leg with his wet nose.

"Hey." She jumped a little in surprise. Twisting down a bit, she scratched him behind the ears and grinned. "Pushy, huh? What's there to be pushy about? I'm leaving again in a few hours, you know?"

Whiskey's eyes rolled back in his head momentarily as his tongue lolled out while she continued to scratch him a little longer. He was mostly black, but his chest was brown with a little bit of white mixed in. When she stopped, his large brown eyes looked up in hers and sadness fell over her again.

"I wish I could take you with me, boy," she whispered.

She gave his ears a quick final scratch as she straightened back up and opened the door for Whiskey to enter.

----

Dedicated to IVelez1 

*Copyright Jo Lee Hunt (Joflower) 2015*