I looked down at my phone and then back up at Bridget. She looked about me confused.
"What? Who is it?" she asked.
"It's Travis, again," I replied.
"Are you going to listen to it this time or delete it again?" she rolled her eyes at me.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. I had been avoiding Travis since the beginning of December, about a week after Thanksgiving, when he tried to call to tell me that Angela had been lying the whole time about her pregnancy.
"I'll delete it for you if you want," she came around to grab my phone.
"No," I pulled away from her grasp.
"Well, there you go, you have your answer. Just listen to it and see what he wants."
"I'm not sure that'll be the best decision in the world. I want to get over him. I mean completely over him. I want to forget him. I want to be in the same room with him and feel nothing for him."
"Hmm," she thought for a moment. "You and Travis have so much history. Sixteen years worth of history. That's going to be next to impossible."
"That's why I've been avoiding him. I know I'll fall into his man trap again. He hurt me so much last year. That's why I haven't had a serious boyfriend since," I told her. I could feel the tears well up inside of me again. I blinked a few times to keep them from coming.
"Well, let's forget about Travis for now. Let's wait for Emily and Jordan to get here so we can order up some room service. That's what you need, some comfort food. Eggs, bacon, toast," Bridget suggested.
"Oh, gosh, I think I'll pass on that heavy food. I still have to work out later today."
"Well, I have to be in a show in about an hour and a half, so I'm going to jump into the shower."
My aunt had booked us a suite in one of the hotels across from Bryant Park because the apartment she used to live in before she got married was being renovated. When I decided to come to New York and try the modeling business out, she offered me the apartment rent free since she bought it with my mother before she died so technically I owned half of it. Of course, I didn't feel safe living in the city by myself, so I asked Bridget to move in with me.
I went to go sit in the little breakfast nook of our suite. In one hand, I had the newspaper, and in the other, my phone. I flipped it open and shut a few times. Finally, I flipped it open and pressed the voicemail button. My finger hovered on send. Right when I was about to hit the button, the doorbell rang.
"Let us in!" I heard Jordan yell. She banged on the door a few times to be intentionally obnoxious.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" I said. I walked up to answer the door.
"Yay, Kat!" Jordan squealed and jumped up to give me a hug.
"Yay, Jordan!" I answered back a little less enthusiastically. I let go of her and went to go hug Emily.
"You looked very pretty last night," Emily told me. "We couldn't resist picking up a newspaper before heading over here and reading it on the way."
"Well, thank you." I led them to the little breakfast nook and handed them the room service menus.
"Yeah, very pretty. Too back you couldn't score us an invite," Jordan said.
"Yeah, right. I couldn't even score my Dad an invite. The only reason Stacey made it was because she's the executive buyer for Warrington's and practically one of my aunt's best friends. She gets the invites to all the best shows"
"Well, at least we get to see some of them thanks to our friend whose parents can actually get us into things," Jordan said looking at Emily. Emily's dad owns a record company among many other things. Her stepmother is a pop star, and her mom's family practically owns half of Spain, a big chunk of Europe, and a whole lot of the United States.
"Yeah, well, where's the blond one?" Emily asked.
"Taking a shower. She has a show to get to in an hour. She's doing Tessa George and Harley Kent today," I told them.
"Oh, we were invited to Tessa George," Jordan mentioned.
"We should go support Bridget," Emily said.
"Yes," I agreed. "That would be a lot of fun."
"What about you, Kat, or should I say Kate? Any other big shows this week besides Paul Carter?" Jordan asked.
"No. I signed exclusively to Aunt Kira and Paul Carter," I told her. "And it'll always be Kat to my besties."
"Please tell me you can get us into Paul Carter," Jordan asked.
"No way. I can't ask for anybody. I'm a nobody model, not some high power pop star or somebody with a rich and power family," I said.
"Well, be fine," Emily said. "We can't stay the whole week anyway. You know, some of us," she looked over at Jordan, "actually care about our grades and funny little things like that. Anyway, we should order so we don't have to rush Bridget."
"Sounds good," I agreed.
All of us placed our orders and ordered some fruit and yogurt for Bridget. After a few minutes of chatting, Bridget came out of the shower with her hair still wet and a pair of jeans and a tee shirt on. Jordan and Bridget did more squealing and she also hugged Emily. We sat and chatted for a bit more before our food came.
"So…" Bridget said.
"So…so what?" Jordan asked.
"So, Travis definitely called this morning."
"Oh, Travis," Jordan sighed.
"What did he want?" Emily asked, lifting her coffee mug up to take a drink.
"I don't know. I haven't listened to his voicemail," I told him.
"Hm, it's awfully early in California to be calling," Jordan mentioned.
"He's on the East Coast doing some sort of NFL Draft thing on ESPN or whatever. It's all that stuff they do after playing in the Senior Bowl," I told them casually.
"Oh, so you've been keeping track of him?" Bridget asked.
"No, I haven't. It's just that whenever I call home, I always get an update."
"Well, did he leave a voicemail?" Emily asked.
"Yes."
"Did you listen to it?"
"Not yet."
"So do it!" Jordan said. "I want to hear what he has to say."
"Fine," I gave in. I know, sometimes I give in way too easily. I opened my phone and finally hit send on my voicemail. I dialed the necessary numbers to access my voicemail and turned on the speakerphone.
"Hey Kat. It's Travis. Stop avoiding me and call me back, okay?"
"So should I call him back?"
"No, definitely not," Emily said.
"Well…" Bridget answered.
"What?" I asked.
"I wonder what he has to say. Aren't you the least bit curious? Even a little?"
"Of course I'm curious."
"Oh, just call him," Jordan said. "Be like, 'Hey, what's up? Why have you been calling me at least once a week since Christmas? If you want to ask, yes, I've checked all those little ESPN things to see when you're going to be on TV so I can TiVo it and drool about your sexy body—'"
"I do not," I protested rolling my eyes and blushing.
"Okay, maybe you don't, but you have to admit, he has a rocking body. Derrick made me watch this one rerun of Travis and he had his shirt off. He could so be a shirtless model. In fact, I'm going to put in a request that Travis leave his shirt off for any football team he plays for. Actually, football should be almost entirely a shirtless sport. Well, just the hot ones—"
"Jordan, stop," I insisted.
"Sorry. I'm in this long term monogamous relationship that I wouldn't trade for the single and dating life, but sometimes I like to live vicariously through my friends."
"That's great."
"Anyway, are you going to call him?" Emily asked.
"Hmm," I thought for a moment. I took a deep breath and answered, "I think so."
"Oh!" all three said in surprise.
"I know, I know. This has just gone on long enough. I need to move on with my life and if I continue to avoid him, I may never," I reasoned.
"Do it now," Bridget suggested.
"Now?"
"Yes, because you know you're not going to do it later."
"Yeah but…"
"Oh, just suck it up and do it," Emily said. "I'm tired of this. Here."
She took my phone from the table and looked for Travis's phone number on the missing calls list and hit send. "It's ringing," she said and handed me the phone.
I took the phone and stared at it as if it was a foreign object. My heart was almost beating out of my chest. I was about to shut it when I heard, "Hello? Hey Kat?...Hello? Are you there?"
"Yes, she's here!" Bridget yelled. She took the phone and held it up to my ear.
I didn't say anything for a few moments and then I cleared my throat and said, "Hey Travis."
"Hey Kat. Thanks for returning my phone call. I was starting to think you'd avoid me forever."
"I have not been avoiding you," I said with a little bit of attitude.
"Yes, you have. When my plane landed for Christmas break, you decided to take off to St. Bart's with Emily, and then right when I leave, you decide to come back into town."
"Well, St. Bart's wasn't as happening as I thought it would be," I lied.
"I'm sure it wasn't," he appeased me.
"Well, anyway, was there a reason for your phone call?" I asked.
"I could say that I wanted to hear your voice, but that would be corny."
I felt my legs moving away from the breakfast table, but I could hear the girls moving with me. When I got through my door, I closed and locked it before they could get in.
"So…" I urged him to go on.
"I miss you, Kat," he said. "That's it."
"That's nice and all, but I'm really busy right now with Fashion Week and everything."
"Yeah, Kelsey told me about that. Did you get the birthday presents I sent?" I changed the subject.
"I did, but you know I sent them back. We're really not in the position to be giving each other gifts. Or at least I don't think I should be getting gifts from you even if it was my birthday."
"Kat, before all this stuff happened, we used to be best friends."
"Well, things are just awkward and complicated right now. You hurt me so much last year, and then with Angela. I don't think I could hang out and be friends and go back to the way things used to be."
"I know, Kat. I just want to make things right between the two of us again."
"So, what do you want to do? Be friends again? Can we really do that?"
"I think it's a start."
I sighed. "I really don't know about that."
"Come on Kat. We were friends for fourteen years before dating," he said. "We had a great ten months together. This last year has been hell."
"We'll it's been hell because you've made it hell," I told him getting defensive. "I didn't do any of it. You're the one who suggested we go date, you're the one who broke my heart, and you're the one who kept breaking my heart even months after we broke up."
"I know. Look, just let me explain. Things got really hard after the injury. It was a tough time for me—"
"So you just pushed me away like I didn't even matter! I wanted to be there for you!" I screamed at him. "I would have been there for you."
"I know, Kat—"
"What do you expect from me?" I asked. I could feel my lips quivering.
"Look, Kat. I never meant to hurt you."
"Well, too bad," I muttered.
"How long is it going to take for you to finally forgive me?"
"I don't know," I told him. "I need time for myself without you. I need to discover myself before I can finally forgive you. Even at that point, I'm not sure if we can be friends again."
"I'll give you as much time as you need," he said and hung up the phone.
Author's Note: Two updates in one week. That's kind of crazy for me! Anyway, I feel a fastforward coming along!! We will just have to wait and see. Thanks for reading!!