Falling for my Ex-Fiancee’s Best friend

Nathan and Demelza spent the night in bed, cuddling. They had not talked about anything because Nathan wasn’t sure that Demelza wanted to talk and Demelza didn’t know that she knew what to say. So they had both just lain there, holding each other for comfort.

Dawn broke in on the room, saturating it with golden sunlight. Demelza turned sleepily on the bed, and muttered, “good morning, Nathan.”

But Nathan wasn’t there. Surprised, she jerked awake. Nathan wasn’t on the bed with her. She wondered where he had run off to. She padded out of the bedroom, thinking that she needed water when she almost bumped into Nathan who was coming into the bedroom with a food tray.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed. His eyes ran over her whole body. She hadn’t been wearing anything but a large shirt the night before because her skin was clammy and she still felt fevered hot. Her fever had run down now, but Nathan continued to stare with bright eyes.

“You look edible,” he murmured.

“What?”

“I made breakfast. Come eat.”

He led her back to the bed even though she wanted to protest that she had just woken up. He made her sit and told her that he was going to take care of her. She thought it was funny that he was suddenly being all sweet, but she let him feed her. They ate for a long time because Nathan continued teasing her, and just when it seemed as if the only thing left to do was to take off their clothes, Demelza’s phone rang.

She was so grateful for the interruption, because as much as she wanted to have sex with Nathan, she also didn’t want to have sex with him which was confusing because it felt like being torn in two. Then there was the whole drama of the week…

“Hey, mum,” Demelza said into the phone. “How are-”

Demelza froze. Nathan looked on conspiratorially. He couldn’t overhear the conversation, but he could hear a nonstop stream of static from the other end, so he assumed that Demelza’s mother was saying something. Slowly, though, he noticed, Demelza’s mood began to change.

“Everything alright?” Nathan asked after the call had ended, but Demelza said nothing. Her face still looked worried. She suddenly jumped up and dashed straight into the bathroom. When she came out, she had showered. She threw on clothes while Nathan watched in astonishment.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?”

Demelza turned to him, sadness in her eyes. “That was my mum. My father’s been hospitalized. It’s a family emergency and I need to get there as soon as possible.”

“Oh, well, I’ll drive you there.”

Demelza looked at Nathan who had a Kiss The Chef apron tied around his mostly naked self. “You haven’t even taken a shower.” She pointed.

“Fine.” Nathan grinned and went into the bathroom. When he came out, Demelza was gone. There was a note on the bed that said that she could not wait and needed to rush down to the hospital.

Nathan put the note down and got ready for work.

It was later in the evening, after he had tried her line a while, to which he kept getting no answers, that he decided to call Demelza’s step-mother. He didn’t want to panic or raise an alarm, but it was odd that Demelza had been gone the entire day and she had not called. Most worrisome was the fact that he had no idea where she was.

“Hello?”

Nathan adjusted his collar and leaned deeper into his chair. “Hello, Harriet, how’s it going with you?”

“Nathan?” Harriet, Demelza’s step-mother inquired. “Is that you, Nathan?”

“Yes, it’s me. I’m trying to get to Demelza. I haven’t seen her all day since she rushed off to the hospital. I wanted to confirm that she was alright. She’s not been picking my calls.”

“Demelza?” Harriet sounded worried, even over the phone. Nathan’s senses tingled. “I thought she was with you all day. I had called earlier to inform her about her father’s current condition, but I’ve been unable to get to her since morning.”

Nathan stood up slowly from his chair. “Since morning? Are you sure?”

“I’m positive.”

“But Demelza told me she was coming to see you at the hospital.”

“Well, she’s not here. I would have known if she was.”

Nathan paled. He said what he didn’t want to think out loud. “If Demelza didn’t make it to the hospital, then just where is she?”

Harriet shrugged over the phone. Nathan ended the call and fell back into his chair. He had no idea what was going on. Demelza didn’t know any friends that he knew of, which was why he was so worried. It was not too difficult to get to Demelza on the best of days, but if you couldn’t reach her by phone, she was practically a ghost.

Suddenly, he remembered that Demelza had one best friend. He fumbled through his phone, praying that he still had the number stored.

There it was. Katherine!

He dialed the number immediately. Katherine answered on the second ring.

“Hello, Katherine!” he garbled.

“Um, hello?”

“Do you have any idea where Demelza is?”

“Uh… who is this, please?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s Nathan. I’m trying to get to Demelza, but she’s not picking up; her mum hasn’t seen her either.”

“Oh, hi, Nathan. I didn’t have your number saved, so it was a very big surprise to hear you asking about Demelza.” Katherine added thoughtfully, “I haven’t seen her. She hasn’t come her in a while. Is something the matter?”

Nathan felt very confused but he could not exactly say that Demelza was missing because he had no concrete evidence. “Ah, no, I just wanted to know if she was there with you.”

“Nope.”

“Alright then, please let me know if she comes around.”

“Sure thing, captain.”

The call ended.

Now Nathan was confused and frustrated. He had exhausted all the options he knew with which to reach Demelza. He wondered if he should drive around the block in search of her. But what good would that yield? He didn’t know the hospital where she wanted to go, and he had forgotten to ask Harriet too.

He rubbed his eyes and groaned. His employees had gone home since the office had closed. There was nothing else for him to do but to also head home. So Nathan drove home, carefully so that he could take a look at every possible place as he drove.

Still no sign of Demelza.

When he got home, he hoped by some happy accident that she would be back here, but after he called out a few times, he realized that he was blindly hoping and simply wishing. He trudged, broken-hearted to his bar.

There was too much on his mind. He started drinking. Then his phone rang. Nathan ignored the phone for a while but picked it when the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. He looked at the screen, but the number was a private number.

“Nathan Storms.” He said into the phone.

“We know who you are.” The voice on the other end said.Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

“Great. What do you want?” Nathan was not too drunk, but he was past caring. He just needed something to clear his head.

“We have something you’re probably searching for,” the voice on the other end said. Then Nathan heard scratching noises and eventually, a feminine voice. “Whatever they ask for, Nathan, don’t give it to them. These sick bastards haven’t had the-”

The phone was wrenched away from the woman’s mouth, but Nathan knew who it was. He would know that voice anywhere.

Demelza.

“Let her go!” Nathan growled.

The abductors on the other line simply laughed. “You’re in no place to make demands, Mr. Lawyer. We’ve got your little girlfriend. I told you we know who you are.”

Nathan thought about going to the police. They could trace the call.

“Don’t even think about going to the police. We have eyes and ears everywhere. Unless you want your precious little thing dead.”

Nathan blew out a breath. He knew what he had to do.

“What do you want?” he said feebly. The abductors laughed. “You have something that we want. We’ll call you in a short while to tell you exactly what her ransom is, and how you’ll get it to us. If you so much as breathe a word of this to anyone, your little Demelza dies. This isn’t a threat.”

The call ended.

Nathan stared at his phone for a long time. Then he screamed.

“Fuck!”