"Come on, don't be like that."
"Raina, wake up," Randy's voice reached her as he shook her awake.
She opened her eyes and looked at him with that scared look he had seen way too many times.
"It was just a nightmare," he said and hugged her.
It had been a while since she last had that nightmare but now that she was back with the company and had seen Roman again yesterday, it had suddenly come back to her.
"Same as the last time?" He asked, still hugging her.
"Yeah," she answered.
He leaned back out and looked at her.
"You wanna come down for breakfast?" He asked.
"Not really," she said.
It wasn't that she wasn't hungry. She could feel her stomach hurt. She just knew who else would be down there and she wasn't ready for that.
"Go take a shower. I'll fix a plate for you and bring it up here," he said.
"Thanks Randy," she said.
Roman looked up as someone sat down in front of him. He met Randy's hard eyes and frowned by the sight of the man he had wanted to beat up all through the night.
"What do you want?" Roman asked, his voice filled with disgust.
"I wanna talk to you, dumbass. Why else would I sit down?" Randy answered.
"Isn't it enough that you took her from me and kept her hidden for all this time? You just have to rub it in my face, huh?" Roman asked.
Randy leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, his eyes never leaving Roman's.
"I didn't take her from anybody. She came to me," he said.
"Why do you even want her? You can have almost every woman out there but you had to go and steal mine," Roman said, tears starting to press in his eyes.
He blinked fast to keep them from falling. Randy's eyes softened and he leaned forward again.
"There's nothing between me and Raina. We're friends. I know you don't trust me but you can trust her," he said.
"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one who's been going out of your mind for six fucking months," Roman said, having a hard time controlling his voice.
"She called me that night, practically begging for me to help her. I had no idea it would go on for that long. I promised her not to tell anyone where she was," Randy said.
"But why? Why did she call you? And why did you do it? You and her were nothing. You barely said hello when you passed each other," Roman asked confused.
"She called me because she knew the thought of her being with me would never cross your mind. And I said yes because I thought it would be a fun little secret to use against you on a later time. I'm not gonna lie about that. We both know I love doing stuff like that. However, knowing what I know now after being with her for this long, I've changed my mind about that," Randy answered.
"And what do you know?" Roman asked.
Randy sighed and his entire body seemed to get tired all of the sudden.
"I can't tell you that," he said.
"Of course you can't," Roman said and rolled his eyes.
"Hey, don't give me that. You need to talk to her and hear what she has to say. It's not my place to tell you these things. I'm already crossing the line with this conversation," Randy said.
"But she won't talk to me!" Roman raised his voice.
"Then make her!" Randy raised his voice too.
The two men stared each other down for a couple of seconds.
"Look man, you need to talk to her. She's heartbroken. Always talking about how bad she feels about what she did to you and that she wishes she could go back and do it differently. I know you can get through to her somehow but it's up to you to figure out how," Randy said.
He stood up.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I promised to bring her some breakfast," he said.
He walked over to the table with food lined up.
"Hey! She likes apples in the morning," Roman called out to him.
Randy turned his head and gave him a little smile.
"I know. I bought more apples the last six months than I've done my entire life," he said.
Roman played with the napkin on his plate for a few seconds before looking up at Randy again.
"Thanks," he said.
Randy just nodded. No more words were needed to be said between them.
She was all dressed once Randy returned to their hotel room. He handed her the plate of food before nervously pacing the room. She watched him, just waiting for him to start talking since clearly something was on his mind.
"I talked to Roman," he finally said.
She put the plate on the nightstand without saying anything, just waiting for him to continue.
"I told him certain things," he confessed.
"Like what?" The words came out of her mouth in a cold tone.
"I didn't tell him that. Don't worry. I would never break your trust like that. But I kinda hinted there was something he needed to know," he said and scratched the back of his head.
"Hinted? Or told him directly?" She asked.
She knew him too well.
"Alright, I told him directly," he admitted.
"You have no right getting in my business like that!" She raised her voice and got to her feet.
He basically ran across the room to put his arms around her.
"You need to talk to him. He needs to know," he said.
"He doesn't need to know shit!" She spat.
"You're gonna continue running into him now that you're back. You can't avoid him forever," he said.
"Of course I can," she said, knowing it was a lie.
She pushed her way out of his arms and walked over to pack her suitcase.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Leaving," she answered.
"But why?" He asked.
"You agreed on keeping your mouth shut when I decided to go back on the road. You promised!" She was yelling at this point, feeling angry. "I trusted you! You're no better than..."
"Don't you fucking dare compare me to that slimeball!" Randy shouted.
She immetiately shut up. She knew she had crossed the line and he didn't deserve it one bit after everything he had done for her over the past six months.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"It's alright. Your nerves are outside your clothes now that you're back. I understand," he said.
"I'm still leaving though," she said and closed her suitcase.
"I know. I kind of figured it would happen soon, just not this soon," he said.
He walked over to her and hugged her.
"But not like this, okay? Call and make a reservation at the next hotel and we'll still drive there together. We'll be travel buddies like we agreed on before you came back but you'll sleep wherever you want. I'm not throwing this friendship out of the window because of a little fight. I love you, cupcake, you know that. I need you to annoy me on a daily basis and keep track of me so I don't mess up," he said.
"You mess up no matter what," she said with a chuckle.
"Imagine how much worse I would be without you," he said and kissed her cheek.
"Fine, you win. I'll call the hotel. And thanks for putting up with me and my shitty mood changes. I love you too, you know. I couldn't have asked for a better friend," she said.
He walked over to his own suitcase to pack his things.
"You still need to talk to him though," he said.
She tensed up for a second before dropping her shoulders again.
"I know," she said.