Every Broken Piece Of You

Forty-Three

Vicky's Pov

"Hey baby, it's been forever." The air in the room seemed to get sucked out with what was left in my lungs.

"What are you doing here?" I tried to calm myself, while I tried and failed to stop my voice from trembling.

His green eyes bright and his smile as beautiful as the first time I fell in love with it. His hair was cut short and I nearly didn't recognise him, except all of the features were so beautifully familiar to me.

"I came to see you, of course, Mrs Landy, or should I call you Ms Graham. I've missed you baby." He was calm and so sure of himself that I didn't know what to do.

As he confidently takes a seat in the chair across my desk, "You never changed your last name. I must admit, as your husband, it hurt my feelings that you didn't want to take on my last name."

The back of my throat went dry, not that it was even possible at this point. My scalp prickled when he referred to himself as my husband.

"No," I whispered, shaking my head, "You aren't my husband."

He ignores my statement as he carries on, "You look beautiful by the way, you seem happy. I wonder who it is that put that glow on your cheeks. I guess it must be that guy from that band." The ringing in my ears gets louder as I realise what he is saying.

"I must say, I never took you for a cougar, but I definitely think you could've done better after me." The evil that appears on his face is almost sinister in its sincerity.

Just then he leans forward and I lean back trying to put as much distance between us as I can.

"Well let me not take up too much of your time babe, I'll be seeing you soon." As I watch him rise and leave, I'm left motionless and frozen in my place.

By the end of the day, I wasn't able to gather myself or finish my work, but I knew I had to pull myself together because Steph and I are supposed to get our stuff for the trip. Steph swings by my office before we walk down to the car. While Steph rambles on excitedly about all the things we need to remember to get, my silence only becomes noticeable once when we are in the middle aisle of the store.

"I know I'm excited, but you should be too, you are awfully quiet Vix. What's wrong with you?" When I don't reply, she grabs my shoulders, "I've been trying to ignore your pale face and lack of response so that we can be super excited, but you're not even here right now."

I force a smile as I look into her concerned eyes and before I know what is happening she is throwing her arms around me and the streaks of warm tears seem to be burning a trail down my face.

"Whatever it is sweetie, you know I'm here for you." I pull away from Steph and wipe my face with the back of my hand, taking a deep breath, as I mentally and physically prepare to tell my best friend what happened.

"Eric showed up in my office today." The look on her face must mirror my own from this afternoon and I instantly regret telling her, knowing I must have ruined her mood. I watch her features cloud with anger.

"What the fuck did he want?" before I can answer she starts ranting, "No! Like what the flying fuck! Seriously, how is that even possible?" She's fuming at this point and I grab her sleeve.

"Steph." My whisper of a voice was enough to get her attention and realise she was starting to cause a scene. The concern replaces the anger in her beautiful green eyes.

"Oh Vicky, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" My responding nod is meek if anything and I try and force a smile, which seems a bit easier now that Steph knows. "I'll be okay, let's finish our shopping, I'm sure the boys are waiting for us."

I push the shopping cart forward and recover from my mini breakdown. Steph trails behind and when I turn to look at her she's typing furiously on her phone screen, only Michael can get that kind of response from her and judging by the look on her face currently, it's not a happy text.

After Steph and I spend another 2 hours throwing things we couldn't possibly need into our shopping cart, we leave the store.

When I get back to the apartment, my mind has calmed down, some of the weight has been lifted from this afternoon and even though Steph's mood seems to have dropped slightly, she is still upbeat and often spaces out when she's typing away on her phone.

I stop before we get to the door, "Steph, I need you to please not mention anything to Luke." Since I had left my phone at home this morning, I wasn't sure what to expect from Luke and I'm currently too drained to care.

Her wide eyes tell me she's about to argue so I plead before she does, "Please."

Her mouth closes and she sighs heavily, "Vicky, you know you have to tell him."

I knew that it would come out, but I'll only tell him after the trip, if at all. "I will. I'll tell him after the trip. I hope you haven't said anything to Michael." She appears to understand where I'm coming from but still sighs.

"No, I haven't. But you have to promise me you will tell him." I smile and kiss my best friend on the cheek. I knew she wouldn't say anything.

Then she takes out her phone and starts tapping away at the screen, I turn and head for my front door. As I struggle with the key, the door flies open, lean arms wrap themselves around me, my surprise holding me in place.

"Vicky." His voice whispers my name and I feel his body trembling.

"Hey, Young Skywalker. What's up?" I mumble into his chest and feel him stiffen before he lets me go, his piercing blue eyes seem to be searching mine before he leans over and take the bags from my hands and turns to walk in without so much as another word.

I'm left confused but I walk in and greet Michael sitting on the couch who gets up and walks to Steph, winking on his way past me.

I try and push all of the Eric drama out of my mind since it's caused a splitting headache and I want to be here in the moment with the people that matter.

*Hey guys... What do we think about this whole thing? Vicky going home with Luke and then Eric shows up?? Oh, snap, I wonder what he wants. Anyway as always please enjoy, XOXO*