I Try

Chapter 11 - Intimidation

Lauren’s Point of View

I slid open the door to my balcony while the other dialed the number I had dialed and re-dialed millions of times in the last year. I slid the door shut and took a seat as I heard the ringing on the line. 

"Hey beautiful." I heard his voice as soon as he picked up, and for a second I was rendered speechless. It was surprising to me how much I missed him already, and I had just seen him a short time ago. 

"Hi handsome." I returned, smiling, "Guess what?" 

"What?" he sounded happy, and when I closed my eyes I could picture his beaming smile - the one where his eyes would hold my gaze, sparking with pure joy. 

The smile that I fell in love with. 

"Lauren?" he prompted, and I realized with a start I had let my mind wander off into Zackland. 

"Sorry!" I blurted, but he only chuckled, relaxing me again. 

"It's okay, bunny. Just tell me what, now that you've gotten me curious." 

"Well, Nash and I have a plan-" 

"You and Nash." Zack stated flatly, "You and your fiancé have a plan." 

"Yes, Zack, Nash and I have a plan." I stopped because I wanted to say the words that would really comfort him. I wanted to tell him I loved him. But it wasn't coming out, the words were stuck. 

"Go on." he said, as if he were fighting to stay supportive of me. 

"Oh. Okay, we want to stop the wedding. So I can be with you and Nash can be with his mystery girl." My heart dipped as I waited for his response. Jealousy had laced his voice when he hadn’t let me finish what I was going to say. He thought that Nash and I had something that Zack and I didn’t. And it was sort of true, but not in the way he was assuming. 

Nash and I understood how it felt to be expected to do the right thing all the time, when the both of us were perfectly capable of doing and acting on whims. I got pregnant and fell in love, also in that order. 

Nash was raised by an alcoholic and lost his mother just as I did. He was heir to a trillion dollar company that he had no interest in and was caught in the spotlight. In many ways we were very alike - but I had no feelings other than possible friendship toward him. We loved different people, and that was perfectly natural. This wasn’t medieval times, children didn’t need to be told who to love, we found it on our own. 

“We can be together?” Zack asked in an unsteady voice, “you want that?”

I swallowed as my throat closed. We were such nutjobs, getting emotional over the phone together. I wanted to do everything with him. “Yes, I do.” My eyes glazed over the view from the balcony, settling on the moon. It glowed against the sunset, and it sparked a fire inside me.