For the Record (Record #3)(43)

Liz was both excited and nervous for her parents to meet Brady. They weren’t thrilled that their daughter was in the newspapers for having an affair with a congressman. No matter how much she told them that it wasn’t like it was in the news, her father still had reservations.

Logging on to her computer, she opened her email to spend a few mindless minutes on the computer before her weekend was taken over by graduation. One email caught her eye. She opened it and just stared at the words.

“Accepted,” she whispered.

Her article had been accepted. She had submitted a few pieces anonymously online to editorial columns. Nowhere too big or fancy. She knew that most would require her name to publish, but she had found some strictly online sites that allowed her to write without tipping off the editor that she’d had a stint or two in the papers herself.

The email went on to ask for her contact information and to discuss freelance payment for the column in question. She nearly jumped out of her seat she was so excited. It wasn’t the New York Times or even Raleigh News, but her article on education policy reform had still been accepted and was going to be published in an online magazine. Her own ideas and words in print once more!

Liz grabbed her phone off of her nightstand to call Brady, and saw that she had a text message from Hayden.

Hey, when and where are we meeting today?

Oh yeah, she had never given him an answer. She bit her lip and jotted out a message back.

I don’t think we should.

After a short pause, her phone dinged again.

Please let me try to make it up to you. I hate how everything ended.

No. I’m sorry. I can’t.

She sighed, feeling bad, but she knew it was for the best. She had said Brady was her past, present, and future and she meant it.

A second later her phone started ringing. Hayden. This wasn’t going to be fun.

“Hey,” she mumbled.

“Hey. I thought we were going to get coffee,” Hayden said.

“I said maybe, and now I’m saying no.”

“Why?”

“It’s not a good idea,” Liz said. “You didn’t like me seeing him when we were together. You should understand.”

“Yeah, but you did it anyway, and I doubt you’re going to kiss me. Unless I’m missing something.”

Liz shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“Then what’s the big deal? I’m not asking for anything except coffee. I just want to make things right.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t even know what that means,” she told him. She was gripping the phone tightly in her hand.

“It means that I’ve felt terrible about what happened and how we ended. I want to know that we can salvage what happened even if we can’t be together.” He sighed heavily. “You meant . . . mean so much to me. I don’t like the idea of us being on such bad terms, even if it is my fault.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Hayden, but it’s over between us.”

“I’m not trying to get back together with you!” Hayden said, exasperated.

“I believe you,” she said. Sort of. “I’m just saying if you want things to be right between us then, fine. Things are right. But this is the end of the road for me.”

“You really think everything can just be better like that? Just by saying they are?”

He sounded disbelieving, but she knew that she was making the right choice.

“I think the more you dwell on it, the more obsessed you’re going to get with the notion that you have to make this up to me. You can’t. You betrayed my trust,” Liz told him flatly. “But I’ve moved on. I’m happy. And it’s not worth potentially hurting him to make you feel better about the fact that you sold me out.”

“So . . . I’m wasting my time here?”

“I guess. If you want to make things right, then just let it all go. I’m in a good place in my life. I know we have some good memories in our past and I’m thankful for them. They’re just in the past, though. My new memories are going to be with Brady.”

“What you’re saying is he doesn’t want you to see me,” Hayden guessed with a biting tone.

“He doesn’t and you can’t blame him for that. But this is my decision. I told him he would have to accept whatever decision I make whether I see you or not. I decided not to.”

“Nothing I can do to change your mind?”

“I’m sorry. No.”

He blew out his breath heavily. “All right. Well . . . I hope he really is the one then.”

Liz hung up the phone after that and sighed. She knew that she had done the right thing. Trust was hard earned once lost, but closure was as easy as shutting the door and being willing to move on.

She felt kind of drained, so she just jotted out a text to Brady letting him know about the article. He would get back to her later when he was out of his committee meeting.

Deciding that she would be better off with some exercise while she waited for Brady, Liz grabbed her racket and drove over to the tennis complex. Easton was just striding into the lobby drenched head to toe in sweat with a doe-eyed high school student when she arrived.

“Liz! I didn’t know you’d be in today. You here for lessons?” he said, waggling his eyebrows up and down.