A/N: My long author's note is at the end so I'll keep this one short. Thanks for not stoning me after how I ended last chapter. I promise things will work out in the end.
My readers are the best. I love you all.
It was Wednesday morning and Damon had yet to hear anything from Elena.
True to his word, he didn't contact her any further on Sunday. He tried to give her time to sort things out. He even ignored his natural inclination to call her repeatedly on Monday. When he still didn't hear anything on Tuesday, he broke down and called her. She sent his call to her voicemail. He emailed her right afterwards, but she never replied.
Now he was packing to fly to New York with the guys to do an interview on the Tonight Show. He'd be gone until Friday and he was really hoping to leave Roanoke on good terms with Elena. In one last ditch effort, Damon picked up his phone and typed out a quick text.
The guys and I are catching a flight to NYC in an hour. You can call me whenever you need me. I love you. – D
He tossed his phone into the top of his duffel bag and zipped it closed.
Elena's phone buzzed again. She glanced at the screen and read the text, but didn't reply. Honestly, she didn't know what to say.
As she sat at her desk working on one of her smaller design projects, a new email came into her inbox. It was regarding the kitchen island she'd ordered for the remodel of Damon's apartment. It seemed that there was a reminder of him at every single turn for the past few days.
Without fail, every single time she got in her car there would a song by The Ravens playing on the radio. Some Kind of Wonderful was playing on television more than she ever thought possible. As if that wasn't enough, Matt had suggested tortellini for dinner last night. It was like the universe was taunting her, refusing to give her any reprieve from those piercing blue eyes.
Elena would be lying if she said that the thought of pretending Damon had never returned hadn't crossed her mind since Matt got back. Theoretically, if she never said anything else to Matt and she never told anyone else about Damon then she could go back to her simple life. She thought maybe she owed it to Matt to really let go of Damon this time, to really give her marriage a fair chance. She thought briefly to herself on Saturday night that there was a reason she married him in the first place, right?
But those thoughts were fleeting. Truth be told in the sober light of Sunday morning, Elena immediately peeled herself away from Matt and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She was so disgusted with herself. As if having this affair to begin with wasn't bad enough, now she had been completely unfaithful to both of the men in her life. It was the worst feeling in the entire world.
"Knock, knock," Bonnie sounded as she walked into Elena's office and plopped herself into the empty chair.
Elena didn't really look up from her computer screen. Her mind was someplace else. "Do you happen to have the number for Darren's Cabinetry? I need to call about something I ordered from them and I'm afraid that if I do it through email, they won't get it processed in time."
"Well hello to you too, stranger!" Bonnie replied before standing up and closing Elena's office door. Surprisingly, Katherine was actually in the office today and it wasn't like she needed to know all of Elena's business. "What is going on with you? You barely spoke to me last Thursday. You took Friday off of work and didn't even tell me. I didn't hear from you all weekend. Did I piss you off?"
Finally, Elena diverted her attention from the screen and glanced up at Bonnie. "I pissed myself off."
"Okay?" a confused Bonnie quirked an eyebrow.
Elena took a deep breath in. She hadn't even said anything yet, but she could already feel the tears pooling in her eyes. "Did Jer tell you that Matt came home on Saturday?"
"He didn't. Isn't that a little early? What happened when you told him about Damon?" Bonnie questioned.
"That's the thing. I kind of didn't yet."
"Elenaaaa," Bonnie whined. "When are you going to tell him? You have to tell him."
"We slept together when he came home," Elena admitted. She winced a little at the memory.
Bonnie dug down as deep as she possibly could to avoid raising her voice to her best friend. Even though she would always support Elena, some days were a little more difficult than others. Today was one of those days. Elena had been her best friend since childhood, but Matt was her friend now too and it just wasn't fair to him.
"And where do things stand with Damon?" Bonnie bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from lecturing Elena.
"I don't know. I don't know if I should tell him. I don't know how he'll react if I do tell him. One thing I do know is that I can't go back to how things were with Matt. Even if Damon never speaks to me again, I can't stay married to someone I don't really love."
"You should tell Matt tonight," Bonnie encouraged.
Elena looked unsure. "I don't know. Damon is supposed to help me move into an apartment he found for me. I'm not even packed yet. The timing isn't right."
"You're making excuses. You just need to do it. Pack a bag when you get home with enough stuff for a couple of days and come crash with Jeremy and me. You need to do this."
A knock on the door interrupted the two of them from their conversation as Katherine poked her head inside.
"Elijah's taking me to Cape Cod tomorrow and we'll be gone until Sunday so I'm counting on you two to hold things down here. Can you do that?" Katherine glanced to Elena and then to Bonnie.
"Of course!" Bonnie forced a smile.
"Great. I know it's early, but I need to pack so I'm headed out for the day. I hope you both have a great weekend."
"Enjoy the cape," Elena replied. "Don't worry about things here. We have it handled."
Katherine nodded and shut the door to Elena's office.
Bonnie brought her attention back to Elena. "This is a perfect opportunity, Elena. You can go home early to handle things. I'll stay here and man the phones."
"Fine," Elena said as she began to pack up her bag. "I'll do it."
Elena wasn't surprised to see Matt's car in the driveway when she pulled into her driveway. What she was surprised about was the other car behind it. She didn't recognize it as anyone that she knew.
She fumbled with her keys before finally shoving the correct one into the doorknob and opening the front door. Quickly kicking off her heels and hanging up her jacket, Elena sighed to herself. This was not a conversation she looked forward to having, even if she knew Bonnie was right and it was necessary.
"Matty?" she called out, but received no answer.
She made her way into the living room, but didn't see him there. She checked the kitchen and as she was about to check their bedroom, she noticed the light was on in his office and the door was closed. Elena raised her knuckles to the wood and lightly tapped them on the door before opening it.
"Matty?" she whispered it this time, not wanting to disturb his concentration in case he was in the middle of writing.
As the door opened, she was met with the sight of Rebecca sitting on the edge of Matt's desk as Matt sat in his office chair with his laptop open. They seemed to be laughing and joking with one another.
Matt noticed that Elena had walked into the room and cleared his throat a little to get Rebecca's attention. Rebecca quickly hopped down from Matt's desk and smoothed out her sweater before turning to face Elena.
"Angel!" Matt exclaimed, standing up from his seat and walking towards her.
Elena had to take a deep breath to calm herself down. Matt only called her that when he needed something or when he was about to tell her a lie. It was one of his tells. Matt was never a great liar and it was one of the things that she liked about him. Times like this though, Elena kind of wished he had a better poker face.
"Rebecca was just here to talk about the concept for the second book. The first one is selling like crazy so we're trying to capitalize on the popularity before it dies down." Matt took Elena into a hug and then pulled back to kiss her on the nose. That was another one of his tells.
She knew that he was definitely being untruthful to her, but Elena had to remind herself that it would be completely hypocritical of her to be upset with him right now for it. Instead, she played along. Glancing down at her feet, she quietly replied, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just got the afternoon off and I thought we could spend some time together."
Rebecca had yet to say anything and Elena was kind of glad for it. It was no secret that she couldn't stand Rebecca. Every interaction she'd had with her had been a combination of Rebecca giving her backhanded compliments and Elena passive-aggressively telling her to get a life.
"Oh, don't mind me!" Rebecca finally spoke. "I can let myself out." She grabbed her purse from the chair in Matt's office and sauntered out the door past both Matt and Elena without so much as another word.
Ignoring every inkling in her body to further press Matt about what she'd actually just walked in on, Elena took his hand and led him into the living room. It was now or never.
"Elena, what's going on?" Matt questioned.
"I think this would be better if you were sitting." She pointed to the couch and Matt hesitantly walked over to sit down.
Elena began to pace back and forth a little, trying to prepare herself. Suddenly there it was again, the nausea from Sunday. She sprinted down the hall and locked herself in the spare bathroom before emptying her lunch into the toilet. As she held up her hand to flush the toilet, she sat back and leaned herself up against the wall.
Matt knocked on the bathroom door. "Angel, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Bad sushi. That's all." Elena lied. "I'll be out in a minute."
She heard his footsteps walk away from the door and sighed in relief. She knew she could do this. She had no choice. Maybe she just needed a little bit of encouragement first. Reaching into the back pocket of her jeans, she scrolled through her contacts and dialed the only person she knew could help her right now.
After two quick rings, his velvety voice answered. "Lena?" He sounded so relieved to finally hear from her after so many days of radio silence.
"I'm about to tell Matt and I'm so scared, Damon. I'm so terrified of what will happen after." Elena started to hyperventilate a little as the words left her mouth.
"Shhh, shh, my sweet baby. Try to just calm down for me. Everything is going to be fine. You are so strong, you know that? You are so brilliant and you will be able to handle anything that comes after this. And as if you even need it, you will have me there to support you every step of the way." Damon soothed her and Elena felt the tension in her shoulders dissipate as her breathing returned to normal.
She heard muffled voices in the background and a loud ding. "They're telling me the plane's about to take off so I have to get off the phone, Lena. Are you going to be okay?"
"I got this," she nodded to herself, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
"You got this. I love you so much." She could hear the smile in his voice.
Elena hung up the phone, stood up, and placed it back into her pocket. She stared into the mirror and silently repeated Damon's pep talk. After splashing some cold water on her face, she was ready to do this.
Matt was sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table when Elena came back into the living room. He looked like he was playing a game on his phone.
"Sorry," Elena interrupted.
Matt locked the screen to his phone and shoved it into his front pocket. "You sure you're not getting sick? Do you need to lay down?" he asked.
"I'm not sick," she abruptly responded.
Taking his feet down from the coffee table and placing them flat on the floor, Matt nervously rubbed his palms on his jeans. "Right, okay. What did you need me to sit down for?"
Elena slowly walked over to the couch and sat down next to Matt. He turned towards her and looked into her eyes and in that moment, she almost caved.
No excuses. You are strong. She silently encouraged herself.
Elena took the biggest breath in her entire life before spilling out the truth. "I know I told you how I had a thing with Damon Salvatore. I wasn't entirely truthful with you, Matt. I still love him, a lot actually. I want to explore these feelings and I think that it isn't fair to you for us to be married anymore." That was the best way she could have phrased things.
Finally taking in what Elena confessed, Matt scooted away from her on the couch. "Did you see him? While I was gone, did you see him?"
Elena bowed her head, trying to keep the stinging feeling in her eyes from overtaking her. "Yes."
"Did you sleep with him?"
Elena couldn't audibly reply this time. She was merely able to give a weak nod of her head.
Matt stood up from the couch and now it was his turn to start pacing the living room. It was quiet for several minutes, save for the sound of his footsteps on the hardwood floor.
Elena remained seated on the couch, her gaze fixed on her lap before finally breaking the deafening silence. "Bonnie said I could stay on her couch for a little bit until I figure things out. I'll go pack some things and I'll be out of here before you know it."
Matt immediately stopped pacing and had begun to chuckle to himself a little. "You know the funny thing? The most fucked up part of all of this? I was out of the country with Rebecca, sharing hotel rooms with her for weeks. She was constantly coming onto me and I kept telling her that I couldn't go there, that I was a happily married man, that my wife would kill both her and me if something happened. All the while, you're back here reliving your groupie days with some guy who probably doesn't even remember your name!"
His words were harsh, harsher than Elena had ever heard him sound before. Instead of lashing out at him in retaliation, she thought it was best to let him get it all out.
"Stupid me, here I thought with you being sick on Sunday and then just now, I thought you were pregnant. I thought I was going to be a dad. I sure hope to hell you aren't pregnant. How would you even know whom it belongs to?" He scoffed before storming off into the kitchen.
As soon as Matt left the room, Elena let the tears that had been prickling her eyes finally fall. She buried her face into her hands and sobbed for what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes.
After awhile and much to her surprise, she felt a warm hand on her knee trying to comfort her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean most of that. Here, you need this." Matt had taken a seat across from her on the coffee table as he handed her a glass of water and two anti-nausea pills.
"It's okay," Elena wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I deserved it. I know I did." She took the glass of water and medicine from him before consuming both.
"It isn't okay. Over a year of marriage and I have never spoken to you like that before. I don't want to be known as the ex-husband who made you feel like shit. I just called Tyler and he said I could stay with him for a few days. You don't need to go anywhere right now."
Elena smiled half-heartedly in response. "Thank you, Matty."
Matt frowned at the nickname. "I don't think I want you to call me that anymore."
"Okay," she nodded.
"I'm going to pack and then I'm heading to Tyler's." Matt stood up and headed down the hallway to the master bedroom.
Elena grabbed the throw blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around herself. She was exhausted, physically and mentally. After finally having the weight of her lies to Matt lifted from her shoulders, she drifted off to sleep.
The shit storm had officially started and the worst was yet to come.
A/N: And that's over with! Finally!
What do you think Damon will say when Elena tells him what she did with Matt? If you think this conversation went terribly, just you guys wait. But hey, don't we all love Delena because we're masochists who relish in the angst of it all?
Also, I know Elena was pretty sickly this chapter but I want to nip it in the bud that she isn't pregnant right now. It's all just crazy anxiety and nerves. I love love love DE baby stories so much. Believe me. There's just so much going on right now already. I don't think Elena could handle a baby too!
Give me feedback, share your theories, or just tell me how much you hated it!
