Chapter 11

"Hey mum." I picked up my phone on the third ring, contemplating whether I was in the mood to talk.

Conversations with my mother tended to be draining, which is probably why we didn't do it all that often.

"Oh good, I thought you were going to let me go to voicemail again." She complained. "There's something I need to tell you."

I was intrigued, and slightly worried.

"What's up?"

"There's no easy way to tell you this, so I'll cut to the chase. Your father and I are getting a divorce."

My mouth fell open, and I sat back down on the sofa feeling weak in the knees. Did she really just say divorce?

"What? Since when? Why?" I asked away as the questions flooded me.

A divorce was not even on the list of things that my mind could fathom right now.

"Elena, stop being dramatic." My mother sighed with near exasperation, which was a typical reaction from her.

Only in this instance, it was a bit unwarranted in my opinion.

"We've been separated for months now. So, we came to the conclusion that there's no reason for us to be together anymore." She finally offered a limited explanation, which left me even more confused.

"You do realise that I had no idea about any of this?" The shock was evident in my voice.

"Well, maybe if you visited more often than you would know more."

A snicker escaped me, as I sat there befuddled, shaking my head. You could probably guess by now why I didn't visit more often or why I chose to go to a college half away across the country.

"What made you decide to split up?" I tried to get the conversation back on track.

Their marriage never struck me as unhappy. My parents were two of the coldest, distant people that I knew, which is sort of what made them a perfect couple. So yeah, this was news to me. Also, totally not appropriate for a telephone conversation. Any normal parent would prefer to tell you something like this in person, but clearly not mine. Maybe I wasn't a child anymore, but this was a 35-year-old marriage falling apart, how could I not be shocked?

"I met someone new."

The uplift in my mum's voice was almost too blatant, and I suddenly struggled to keep down the contents of my stomach.

"You cheated on dad?"

"Don't be silly." She brushed off my allegations with a laugh. "We agreed that it was okay for us to see other people during the separation. Your father knew. I guess you kids call it non-exclusive nowadays."

"Oh, how modern of you." I muttered, more so to myself. "What about dad? Is he okay with all this?"

"You two can catch up in your own time. But yes, Grayson is behind this decision just as much as I am. So, I trust that you will pass this on to your brother?"

"You want me to tell Jeremy?" I repeated, once again baffled.

"Don't make a fuss out of it, it's not like he's a child. Besides, we can all talk about it in person when you two come to help us pack up the house."

"You're selling it." I stated the obvious.

For some reason this had more of an effect on me than the actual divorce. The house that we grew up in was a place that held some decent memories, even if my parents weren't a part of most of them. It was still our childhood home. The one place that I loved.

"It doesn't make sense to keep it." She reasoned like it was nothing. "We'd need you to come over for the weekend. You and Jeremy can see if you want to keep anything. The rest we'll just sell or throw away."

"Sure." I'd switched off sometime mid-sentence, the words running through me like water.

All that I got from that was tell Jeremy, fly over for the weekend, pack up your things. There was also something about going out for a family dinner, probably one last time. This was weird, right?

You'd think that being a grown adult, it wouldn't affect you as much. Maybe it wasn't the divorce, but the way that my mum seemed so nonchalant about it. Packing up a relationship that long must have had its toll on them, or maybe I was just different. I had an urge to call my dad and see how he felt about all this, but we rarely spoke and it angered me that he didn't even think to speak to us about it.

"Everything okay?" Enzo gave me a questioning look from across the room.

Lost in thought, I'd forgotten to put the phone down. I practically sat still all this time even after hanging up.

"My parents are getting a divorce." I responded absentmindedly.

The word felt foreign in my mouth.

"Oh, shit." He looked shocked. "Did they say why?"

I shrugged. "I kind of switched off after hearing non-exclusive. She wants me to tell Jeremy, can you believe it?"

"It's Miranda, so I'm gonna say yes." Enzo remarked casually and sat down next to me, taking my hand into his. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." A small sigh left my lips. "It's just a lot to take in. I'll need to go over there next weekend to save some of my stuff before it ends up at the dump."

"Oh, sorry love. I won't be able to go down with you." Enzo grimaced. "I've got to travel to Chicago for work."

"Again?"

The trips were becoming a monthly ritual. Sometimes I enjoyed the alone time, but more often than not the days extended into weeks and I felt out of place. It made me crave our regular life back. Only nothing about it was regular anymore.

"You know that it's not up to me, babe." He dismissed, as usual, and squeezed my knee as he got up. "Want a ride to work?"

I figured I could use a ride; I was too distracted to concentrate on the road. "Give me five minutes."

Today was one of the days that I needed to be in the office. We had a rebranding of the website, and the Instagram shop was going live, so I was comforted by the fact that I'd be too busy to focus on life outside of work, at least for the day. Recently, I'd spent far too much time dwelling on the fact that it had been nearly two weeks since I gave Damon my number.

There had been too many days of glancing at my phone every chance that I got and being ultra-sensitive to any text messages and calls from unknown numbers. None of which were Damon. I was surprised that he didn't text. Not disappointed, just surprised. Maybe I'd given him an incorrect number? I shook my head, shutting that thought process down right away. I was not that girl anymore.

My life would not fall apart just because he didn't make contact. Damon was great at breaking promises, I'd known that for years. So, why did I let it get to me?

"Do you like it?" Caroline came round my desk with a steaming cup of coffee.

I'd spent the last couple of minutes skimming through our new website, which was about to go live in the afternoon. We had a new logo, one that I designed myself during one of my sleepless nights. It turned out great. The navigation of the website had also changed and there were some photos of our most recent campaign, which I hadn't seen yet.

"I love it." I confirmed, taking the drink out of her hands. "The campaign turned out amazing."

"Yeah, as soon as the photos went up on our social media accounts the inbox was flooding. I'm pretty sure this collection is going to be a hit." Caroline had a smile from ear to ear. "I'm still in awe that our little baby is getting recognition."

"Who would have thought that a drunken idea could actually turn into a prosperous business." I laughed. "But on a serious note, we need to look into switching the distributor, we'd had a couple of late deliveries and they just don't seem to care about deadlines."

"I'll give them a call today." Caroline declared eagerly, eyes narrowing.

I was afraid I'd awoken the dragon, but in all honesty, Caroline loved to give people a piece of their mind and she usually ended up getting her way. In this instance, our way.

"You're the best." I winked at her and returned to the paperwork.

I might have known that she'd handle it right away. In my defence, Caroline was much better at handling difficult conversations.

"Oh, one more thing!"

I looked up. "Yeah?"

"You are going to love me forever." She mused excitedly. "I got Katherine to schedule an appointment for us at that really fancy bridal salon. They have the most beautiful wedding dresses!"

"Who's Katherine?"

"That's what you got out of that?" Caroline looked unimpressed with my reaction. "We go to Pilates together, and she just happens to work at one of New York's finest bridal salons. So, I pulled some strings and thanks to me, you'll look like a princess."

"Thanks Care, that sounds great." I smiled, trying to match the enthusiasm. "When is it?"

"Monday, next week. I'll pick you up at 9 on the dot." There was no debating. "Lena, you could try to act happy about it."

"I am happy, I'm just a mellow person." I defended my awkwardness. "And thank you for doing that for me. I'm sure I'll find something perfect." I walked over to give her a hug. "And I already love you forever."

We both laughed, but it was true. Caroline could be over the top and a bit tiring, most of the time, but she was also your ride or die type friend.

"Good. You know, I'd love to get married again." Caroline sighed dreamily and then saw the confused look on my face. "Not to another man, duh. To Tyler, of course. Just one more time, so that I can relive it once again."

"I'm sure Tyler will be more than happy to renew his vows in a couple of years." I suggested with a chuckle.

"That's a great idea!"

The rest of the day zoomed by, I even forgot to go out for lunch, so when late afternoon rolled over, I was starting to feel the hunger kick in. I could have wrapped up my things and headed straight home, but Enzo was going to be working late and I didn't feel like being by myself for the evening with nothing to do.

So, I took my laptop and went into Soho to grab something to eat and crack on with some of my projects. The perks of living in a city so devoured by people in suits, always looking to fill the extra time with work, meant that you had your pick when it came to cafes or hubs designed for remote working.

Since the day that Tyler brought up his tattoo, I've been inspired to draw again for the plain pleasure of the process. I loved designing pieces of jewellery for Varese and doing the odd bits like vamping up the logo, but that was now a job, not so much of a hobby as it used to be.

The idea to get sucked into the world of creativity that posed no limitations sparked up in my head overnight, and the next morning I was at a checkout till of an art store that I hadn't been to in years. I walked out feeling proud and with a genuine smile plastered on my face, and shopping bags full of sketch books, pencils, brush pens, pastels.

For a brief moment I worried, thinking that I didn't have it in me to draw inspiration from the simplest of things around me, but the minute that my pencil touched the blank canvas, I was submerged into a fantasy world in which ideas never ceased to be born.

"Thank you." I said to the waitress when she brought me the food and smoothie that I ordered.

I chose a simple salmon salad with some avocados and vegetables in the mix, which should have been enough to fill me up. When the girls and I went on a small shopping spree the other day, I noticed that my usual jean size felt a bit loose on the hips and thighs. With that observation, I started paying attention to other parts of my body and I'd come to the conclusion that I lost some weight. The revelation was hardly world breaking news, but somewhere amidst the chaos and stress I've completely neglected myself, and I was determined to get back on track.

Then my phone lit up as I received a new text message, and my appetite went away completely, as a wave of anxiety kicked in.

It was Damon.

Can you do today, at 5? D

The bluntness and lack of explanation for why it took so long to get in touch should have gotten a rise out of me, but it didn't. I was overcome with relief and excitement at the prospect of seeing him again. This was a perfect example of how my world came to a sudden halt whenever he was in the vicinity. What happened to being rational?

Where? I typed back after a considerable amount of time.

He didn't need to know that I was on the edge of my seat. I almost wished that I didn't know, maybe that way I could still have an ounce of self-respect.

Valentino Pier

If I didn't know any better I'd think this was a date. Snap out of it, Elena.

Like the good fiancée that I was, I tried to calculate the distance between Enzo's office and the pier, so that I wouldn't run into him when I was at a secret meeting with my ex. Gosh, I felt like I was in a bad soap opera. Taking the risk, I decided that it was unlikely that he would venture out to that part of the city.

Okay

And just like that, I was wrapped back in.

I was running late, and I hated being late. There was no time to prepare myself and pretend that I'm all casual about it. Since Enzo dropped me off at work this morning, I didn't have my car with me, and I'd forgotten how much of a nightmare it was to catch a cab at this time of the day. So, I had to take the subway, which was a bad decision on my part. But I made it, and Damon was still there, waiting.

"I was starting to think that you changed your mind." Damon greeted me with a low chuckle.

I used to love when he did that, it was easily my favourite sound in the world.

What was it that I wanted to talk to him about?

"Funny you say that." I cocked an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I know that I kept you waiting." He seemed sincere. "It's not that I was deciding whether I wanted to see you or not, I just had to gather my thoughts."

"I thought that I was supposed to be the nervous one." I cracked a smile because we clearly needed to break the ice.

His lip tugged upwards, and his eyes softened. Maybe it worked. "You look nice."

That couldn't be farther from the truth, I didn't even have the time to check my reflection in the mirror before I got here, but I was convinced that I looked a mess.

"You're going to have to stop saying stuff like that." I responded all flustered.

"I'll stop saying it when I stop meaning it." He smirked at me, and I swear that my brain cells began to shut down, one by one.

Flirty and playful Damon was not one that I had prepared myself for, and truthfully I could only handle so much.

"Are you ready to go?" He lured me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, we're not staying here?"

He shook his head. "There's a quiet place around the corner."

My legs moved of their own accord, and we engaged in casual small talk like a couple of old friends. I guess that I did have it in me to pretend and somehow the initial awkwardness of the conversation faded away. We did always get along, even before there was anything between us.

The place was just around the corner as Damon had said, it was a delightful little Bistro with a front patio surrounded by a wall of plants from the outside, and small fairy lights that added to the overall effect of privacy, and cosiness. I wondered if this was a place that he brought Andie to. Well, that was neither here nor there.

We picked a table in the far corner, away from the rest of the guests. I settled for a glass of water, knowing that I wouldn't be able to keep anything down.

"This feels eerily similar." Damon made the observation, hinting at the last time that we met in a cafe.

"Feels like a lifetime ago." I said wistfully.

"Two months."

"Have you been counting?" I teased with a smile, surprising myself.

"Something like that." He chuckled. "I'm not going to lie; I'm scared shitless of talking to you about this."

"Do you not want to do this?"

"No, I do." Damon reassured me. "Like I said, you deserve to know the full story. I'm just… angry, with how I handled things back then."

"You can't take it back, Damon." I tried to be understanding, and I hoped that I conveyed that with my tone. "My angry days are long over. I need to know this, because lately it's been difficult for me to fully close that chapter. It's not easy being around you like this." My voice broke off towards the end.

I could feel myself growing more vulnerable.

"I know." He muttered with a nod. "So, where do you want me to start?"

"That night." I nudged, biting my lip. "What made you break it off at that moment?"

"Do you remember when my dad was taken to the hospital with suspected heart failure?"

I nodded. It was one of the most stressful days of my life, of course I remembered.

"After a series of tests, the doctor confirmed that it was a heart disease. DCM, to be more precise." Damon sighed. "It developed over a couple of years before my dad felt any symptoms, which he then ignored anyway, so by the time the diagnosis was made he was in a pretty rough shape. They prescribed a ton of medication, and had him signed up for surgery, he needed an ICD put in."

A lot of that made no sense to me, I virtually had no knowledge on heart diseases and how they were treated. So, whilst I had many questions, I kept them to myself, for now.

"That surgery… it happened right after you left. They said we couldn't put it off, and that it wasn't safe for my dad to take a nine-hour flight back home. So, I had to stay with him, at least for a couple of weeks. My mum and Stefan had to fly back to the US, he couldn't miss school and she had a job to get to, especially considering that my dad was about to be unemployed."

"You told me that everything was fine.." I interjected with tears filling my eyes.

It was only now that I realised how little I knew back then and how much Damon had kept from me when we were still together, and it absolutely broke my heart.

"It took weeks for it to sink in, I was convinced that my dad was going to die any day, any minute. I didn't want to get you involved in all of that." Damon added remorsefully, eyes looking away. "He had a manual job, Elena. We knew that he wouldn't be able to work for a couple of months, and then we'd have to figure something else out. My mum was just an eight-grade teacher, she couldn't support the entire family with one pay check. I came up with the only solution that I could at the time, and I didn't go to college. Instead, I got a full-time job as a bartender when we got back to Georgia to support them."

"But I thought that you went to college to study architecture." I pointed out, my voice was strained.

"I did, a couple of years later." He brushed it off. "When you left to go to college, I had every intention of us being together. Long distance or not, I wanted to be with you." His empty stare pierced through me, causing an ache within me.

There was so much pain under the surface just waiting to be unravelled.

"What changed?"

"Before I met you, I didn't know what my future was going to look like. I never had a plan until this mystery brunette, the most beautiful woman that I'd ever laid eyes on, bumped into me at a bar, in a town that most tourists haven't even heard of." He broke a subtle smile. "And suddenly, all the pieces started falling into place, because of you. But as soon as you left, everything crumbled down."

"As far as I knew I'd have to put college off for at least another year until my dad got back up on his feet. But that wasn't a given, he could have needed further treatments, maybe even a heart transplant if all else failed. His medical insurance didn't even cover the bulk of it. I had to put my life on hold, Elena. And that included you.."

I blinked away the oncoming tears, despite trying my best not to cry.

"I could have helped you." The argumentative side got the best of me. "I would have done anything to make it easier."

"You had an entire life waiting for you, a whole future mapped out. I couldn't have stopped you from living it, having you wait around for me, putting everything on pause." His distant words echoed all of my thoughts. "I knew, everyone else knew that you were far too good for me. I wasn't gonna pull you down with me."

I sat there, shaking my head in disagreement. "You should have told me."

Everything would have turned out differently. Everything.

"Do you think that I didn't want to? Up until then you were my oasis, I ran to you at every sight of trouble." He sounded frustrated. "But this was too much, I knew that you'd be on my doorstep the minute that you found out. You'd give up everything for me."

"Of course, I would, I loved you Damon!" I finally shouted out all that I'd wanted to say. "There were so many different options, if only I'd known back then. Gosh, my parents were sleeping on money, they could have helped, it wouldn't have made a difference to them."

I guess my angry days were not completely over.

"I didn't want your parents' money; they didn't even know about my existence."

"What did it matter where the money came from if it could have helped your family, maybe even saved our relationship?"

It was a futile question, but it was eating at me, and I had to put it out there.

"It's genetic.. The heart disease." Damon blurted out quietly.

That put out the anger and frustration right away.

"Oh," I breathed out, feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach.

I knew that this was Damon's way of telling me, and my first reaction was to make sure that he was okay, that he was safe, that he wasn't going to die like Giuseppe. Suddenly, I didn't care about anything else.

"I'm fine, Elena." He added softly, as if he could read my mind. "I'm looking after myself. But back then, I didn't know what that meant for me."

"So, instead of being honest you decided to tell me that you just didn't love me anymore?" I brought up the final conversation that we shared.

Damon nodded hesitantly. "I thought that was the best thing that I could have done at the time, I needed you to believe that we were over for good."

"Oh, I believed you just fine." I mumbled.

Having buckled up and listened to everything that happened, I was dumbstruck by it all. I needed time to process these emotions, and I was sure that I'd need to have a good cry, or two, but at this very moment I was drained. Right there was the story of why my life turned out the way it did, and it was just now that I realised that the decision process was stripped away from me.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I regret a lot of the things that I did, but I was a stupid kid."

"I need a drink." I declared, ignoring the apology.

"Right now?" Damon asked with an arched brow, taken aback.

"I had a hell of a day." I stood up and grabbed my bag. "Are you coming?"

Damon could probably use one too.

"Where are we going?" He implored as we left the bistro.

"I know a place."

"I didn't know that you were one for bars like this." Damon remarked, eyes glancing around the place.

The bar was hidden behind an unassuming metal door, with the interior being quite spacious and alluring. The dark wood and plush leather seating made you feel as though you were drinking in someone's old library. In a way, it was the perfect place to drown your sorrows. I stumbled across it a couple of years back on some random date with a guy that turned out to be a complete waste of time, but at least I got myself a drinking spot for years to come.

"There's a lot that you don't know about me." I countered with a small chuckle. "What's your poison?"

The laid-back atmosphere of the place and the consuming task of picking out the best drinks had proven to be quite a nice distraction. We tried a couple of different cocktails, gushing over the different ingredients and talking about their weird names like the Drunken Sailor, which was totally disgusting, or Sand in the Sand which was surprisingly tasty. I think we both needed a night off.

"Are you sure that you can hold all the liqueur?" Damon teased as I finished up another Manhattan.

"I'm not a lightweight, Salvatore." I gestured at the bartender to come over. "Well, not anymore. But I was 18, so that doesn't count."

"Not that I was complaining."

I swirled around on the stool, facing him. "I do get pretty brazen when I'm slightly drunk."

"I guess I do know something about you, after all." He chuckled and downed the contents of his drink.

"Tell me something about yourself." I challenged, nibbling on my lip.

"You know a fair share."

Back then, maybe I did.

I placed another order when the bartender showed up, and then turned my attention back to Damon.

"I imagine some things have changed over the decade."

He gave it a thought, and then looked right at me, his eyes sparkling. He looked so damn good.

"I have a pilot's licence."

A huge grin appeared on my face. "No way, that's so freaking cool! So, you just fly wherever you want to go?"

Damon laughed, clearly enjoying my reaction. "Sort of. I don't do it all that often to be honest. I flew to Mexico a couple of times last year, but sometimes it's just easier to be a passenger."

"Uh, I could use a vacation." I sighed with content at the mental picture of a beach, clear water, and a good book.

"You wanna talk about it?" He prodded carefully.

"About what?"

"Earlier on you said it had been a hell of a day, and I guess I'm not the only reason behind that."

"I forgot how intuitive you are." I half complained.

"And I'm also good listener." He reminded me with a wink. "So, what troubles you?"

I burst into laughter, shaking my head. "Are we really doing this?"

"I don't know what made you think that I was joking."

Our drinks showed up almost on cue.

"My parents are getting a divorce."

I didn't know why I decided to open up, but this time it felt good to say it out loud.

"Sorry to hear that." Damon gave me a sympathetic look. "Must be weird, huh?"

"It's fucking strange to say the least." I played with the mini umbrella in my glass. "How does someone just wake up one day and decide to pack up their entire life, relationship? They've been married for over thirty years."

"People fall out of love."

"Just like that?" I asked quietly.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe they were never in love to begin with."

"So why would they get married?"

"Sometimes the next best thing is better than being alone."

I felt like he chose his words deliberately.

Now I was even more confused than before. I took a long sip of my drink, and then placed the cold glass back on the bar.

"Do you ever think that it's fucked up how our lives ended up like this?"

"More often than I care to admit."

Our hands momentarily brushed when he reached for his glass; it was like a jolt of electricity shot through my body.

A/N: Hello, back with another one! I'm so excited to hear your thoughts about this one, it was fun to write :) Thank you so much for your reviews, favs, follows - it means the world. How do we feel about Damon, now that he shared his side of the story?

We'll be continuing with Delena's meeting in the next chapter, so if you're interested in reading more, please leave a review - they make my day!

Love you all, Kaya xx