Datalie - if the world was ending

Chapter Thirty Seven

Natalie was blown away at the support her and David were getting. All the messages and edits of them were enough to confirm what Natalie already knew. That going public was the right choice.

Her and David were having a busy week. They didn't seem to stay in the same place for more than a day. Monday was spent in LA, Tuesday in New York, Wednesday in Chicago and Thursday back in LA. It was safe to say they were both exhausted.

Natalie was sitting up in bed working on her laptop with David sleeping beside her when his phone lit up with a text. His phone was laying on the bed in plain view and Natalie saw the message light up the screen.

Liza: still good for dinner tonight?

Natalie reread the message multiple times. She went from mad, to panicked, to sad, to stressed, to anxious in a matter of seconds. She got out of the bed and began pacing around the room.

Why wouldn't David tell her about going to dinner with Liza? Why are they going to dinner in the first place? Did she want to get back together? David said he didn't want to get back together with her but what if that was before he knew she wanted to get back together?

A million questions flew through Natalie's mind and she slowly exited David's room and made her way to her own. Natalie would like to think that she was confident enough in her relationship with David to not feel threatened by him and Liza having dinner. That even if Liza did want to get back together, David would say no. But in that moment all she could think was the worst.

She sat on her bed and pulled her knees up to her chest. She became lost in her thoughts. Worrying about every possible outcome that could happen. Natalie wasn't even sure how much time had passed when she decided to shower and hopefully drown out some of her thoughts.

David woke up from his nap alone in his bed. He saw Natalie's laptop beside him with a half finished email, and looked around for her.

'Nat?' He called out but was only greeted with silence. He ran a hand over his face and sat up more in his bed. He reached for his phone and went to answer all the notifications he had received.

He replied to the group chat, agreeing that everyone should come over in about an hour, and then saw the next text.

Liza: still good for dinner tonight?

David: ya sounds good.

David let out sigh. He didn't really want to go to dinner with Liza but she had texted saying it was important and she never really reached out to him anymore. He figured something must be wrong for her to try and get in touch with him now.

When she had first texted him asking to have dinner David was surprised. He hadn't talked to Liza in months, and he hadn't thought about her in almost as long. David thought back to when he first got the message, he immediately turned to tell Natalie about it but she was fast asleep beside him on the couch. If he was being honest, David had completely forgotten about this arranged dinner until he saw that text.

David spent some time scrolling through social media before standing up and going to find Natalie. Once he entered the hallway he could hear her shower running, he made his way into the kitchen to get a snack when some of their friends started showing up.

'Hey man!' Jason said as he walked through the door with Jeff and Todd. David greeted them as more of their friends piled into his house. David noticed the shower in Natalie's room turned off but when she hadn't made her way into the living room twenty minutes later David decided to go check on her.

Natalie sat on her bed in a big sweater, crying. Her hair was dripping wet, and her face red and splotchy. She had come to the worst possible conclusion after seeing Liza's message to David and worked herself up about it. Natalie was convinced David wanted to get back together with Liza and that her and David were going to break up.

A part of Natalie knew that she should just talk to him. And a part of her knew that David loved her and would never do something to hurt her. All the reasonable parts of her brain were pushed away by the doubt and jealously and sadness overtaking her.

Tears were silently streaming down her face, and she could hear her friends in the next room  laughing and talking. There was a quiet knock on her door that she chose to ignore.