Take Two

Chapter 36

-xx-

Whitney laughed as she sent the friend request. After a long talk with Piper and Eliot over lunch, she decided that Mason knew where she was, and there was no sense in trying to hide it anymore.

She also took in to account Piper's whining about not posting pictures to Facebook from their Las Vegas trip because of her social media hiatus.

As soon as she finished downloading the application to her phone and entering her e-mail and password, she found herself face to face with a picture of her and Mason. The photo was almost a year old; Whitney was never one to change her profile picture constantly, unlike Piper. She could never keep up with the redhead's ever changing photos.

Mason had taken her away for the weekend to apologize for his actions. It was the first time in almost three years that they had spent time alone together. He had been upset that she took off her bridal set and left it on his dresser. It was over that weekend that he promised he would seek help for his anger.

The changes in their relationship only lasted a few months until he lashed out at her again after a night of drinking with his buddies from work. Two months later, she was on her way to Virginia to seek shelter with Piper.

Whitney was not sure of whom the woman in the photo was; she looked so different. She always kept herself in shape, but the blonde staring back at her was too skinny. She had tried her best to conceal the bags under her eyes, and the long sleeves were to hide a bruise of Mason's handprint on her bicep.

As soon as she told Piper that she was going to refresh her Facebook page, the redhead went to work uploading photos to her wedding album. Whitney saved a photo of the two of them at the pool and set that as her new profile photo.

She battled with the decision to change her Relationship Status, so instead of changing it, she deleted the option. Whitney knew she would hear from family and friends regarding it, but if they had not checked in over the past seven months, she was not concerned with their opinions.

The final change was back to her maiden name. It was the final piece. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she went with her first and middle names.

Do you know this beautiful blonde who added me on Facebook today?

She chuckled at the text message she received from Derek, and rolled her eyes at the screen shot of her profile. The way he saw her page was much better than how it looked when she logged on for the first time since Christmas. Her location had been updated too as it wasn't a secret any longer.

She's cute. You should definitely add her, Whitney texted back with a winking face.

Reading through the random comments on her wall and browsing every thing else could wait until she got out of work. This was her first step in regaining her life, as pitiful as she chalked it up to being.

-xx-

Whitney went to work tidying up Derek's kitchen. They had ordered out for dinner, and Whitney picked it up on the way home from the hospital.

She had to smile; Derek was at work in the office upstairs finishing the paperwork he had been working on when Whitney texted him to tell him she was leaving the hospital. She had country playing through the speakers on the main floor, much to his chagrin.

It didn't feel like a task to clean up after their meal. Take out containers of the remnants of their Chinese food sat on the counter; she consolidated what she could and put them away in the fridge.

It was so easy to settle in to a nightly routine with Derek. Even as it neared nine pm, he wanted to stay on top of his paperwork from the office. He explained that it was easier to finish reports when a case was still fresh in his head. Derek promised he would be done soon, but she was keeping herself busy.

Whitney grabbed her cell phone and glass of wine from the counter top and moved herself to the kitchen island. She pulled out a stool and fired up the Facebook app.

She slowly browsed through her timeline, taking in the friendships that she had missed dearly when she completely shut herself off. New relationships, breakups, new babies and birthdays – and she had missed it all.

The blonde pursed her lips as she kept scrolling through, until she landed on a post about Mason. She could tell exactly what bar it was in; Wally's in LA was the usual hang out for him and his co-workers. It wasn't so much the photo itself that caught her off guard, but rather the comments under it.

Several women were commenting on it; it was nothing really new for Mason to add any woman that he met at Wally's to his social media. He was barely posting about their marriage and erased "Married" from his profile.

Had a great time the other night. Let's meet up for drinks again soon. Whitney laughed to herself at the words. If only these women knew what he was capable of, then maybe they would not be so interested.

"Good luck to you, Lisa," she muttered as she took a sip from her glass of wine.

"Talking to yourself?" she turned to the voice in the doorway and smiled when she saw the smirk cross Derek's lips. She shrugged. "Ah, Facebook has sucked you back in."

She placed her glass back on the counter top. "I'm not 'sucked back in'," she argued. "I'm just catching up. Seven months is a long time."

Derek pulled out the stool next to her and took a seat. "What made you decide to go off of your hiatus?"

"Piper," she said with a laugh. "The poor girl – she didn't want to post all of her vacation photos because she didn't want people to ask about me."

"Hm," Derek muttered. "There's more to it than that."

Whitney glanced to her left at the man sitting next to her. "What's the point of hiding on social media when he knows where I am?"

"Are you ready for all of the questions?" he asked sympathetically. She sighed. "Not everyone knows what's going on in your life."

She laughed softly. "And no one has asked in seven months," she pointed out. "If they really knew me and cared, they would have checked in with Piper." Whitney took a sip from her wine glass. "They'll pretend to care now because it makes them look good, but I can see right through that."

"I like the new profile picture," Derek tried to change the route of the conversation. "It's a good photo of you."

She smiled at the compliment. "I couldn't stop smiling after you showed up," she countered.

"Are you going to post your pictures?" The question caused her to purse her lips to contemplate it. "You can leave me out."

She shook her head. "In due time," she said as she reached over to place her hand on top of his clasped hands. "I'm not hiding you," she began.

Derek nodded. "I never said you were," he explained. "I'm at your mercy, Whitney Nichole." Goose bumps began to rise on her arms as he said her full name. "I told you – this is at your pace."

Whitney closed the gap between the two of them as she let her phone slide out of her hand to the counter top. The gentleness in his kiss always caught her off guard.

-xx-