A/N- Yes, I'm still alive.
"Tyler…Tyler, darling!"
Tyler winced and kept his head down, hoping his mom would spot him quickly and then head over to the table.
No such luck.
"There you are!" she announced, as if they had been separated for hours or even days.
No such luck.
She came around the table, bending down to give him a kiss on the cheek and he resisted the urge to flinch.
A few tables away, he sees a young woman glance up from the newspaper, snort disdainfully and turn her attention back to her reading.
He doesn't need to confront her or study her for long to understand what she was thinking.
'Mommy's boy, no thank-you.'
He scowled and hid his face in his breakfast, devouring the too-soft bacon until he could handle his mother.
It wasn't that he didn't love her, it was just that he hadn't spent this much time around her non-stop since he'd moved out of home for college and it was hard being within shouting distance twenty-four-seven.
He needed a break.
One he probably wasn't going to get on his honeymoon-turned-family vacation.
But every moment his mom was prattling on, remarking on every single thing she noticed or flirting with the waiters that kept her cocktail glass perpetually filled, he felt his nerves fraying until he wanted to shout at her to shut up.
Except doing that in a public space would probably get him tackled by some social justice warrior ever on the lookout for an abusive asshole to boot stomp.
So, he wolfs his breakfast down as quickly as possible, ignoring his mother's pointed looks and quiet suggestions to slow down,
"Hungry." he offers as an excuse, before standing, and telling her he was headed down to the beach, leaving his plate for the waiters to clear and clean.
Caroline had been the one to choose their honeymoon and had declared this resort 'perfect' in terms of price, amenities, distance from the local shops, cafes and restaurants, and the stunning beachfront location.
So far, Tyler had spent most of his day on a lounge chair, mellowed out on painkillers and the endless cocktails the staff brought him.
It interrupted his thought processes enough that he could distract himself by playing games on his iPad or staring out at the water and not think about how his wedding day had panned out.
At least until he sat up suddenly to receive his next drink and felt the twinge of pain from his pelvic injury.
Thanks to that stupid slut Katherine Pierce.
Liz had actually let her get away with it too.
He couldn't believe it, the son of the former Mayor but apparently, he couldn't get justice in this world.
Worse, it was because of her that everyone knew why he and Caroline hadn't got married that day. If she'd just kept her dumb mouth shut, Tyler could have played it off as a medical emergency, Caroline's appendix had ruptured or she'd got a stomach ulcer or something, but no, now everyone knew he'd cheated on his wedding day.
And yeah, it was kind of bad that he'd done that, he wasn't saying it wasn't, but one last hurrah before a lifetime of monogamy wasn't the worst crime in the world.
Imagine if he and Caroline had lived in one of those countries where women weren't legally allowed to leave the house without a guy or could have acid splashed in their face.
In comparison, was what he had done really so bad?
After all, he'd been feeling slightly nervous and on edge leading up to the big day, frustrated by Caroline's constant complaints about his mom 'interfering' with the organizing and 'offending' Bill and Steven with a few non-pc jokes, and Jules had really helped him get his head in the right place.
Standing in that hotel room, he'd realised that he could totally see himself spending the next twenty or thirty years of his life with Caroline if he wanted to.
Being with her was so easy.
But now, now, he was logging onto the resort wifi and checking his social media to see that he had hate-mail from Katherine Pierce (obviously) spam email about erectile dysfunction and penis enlargements and he's going to assume those came from Katherine Pierce as well.
Weirdly enough, he has messages from some of his old football buddies, along the lines of 'Sorry you got caught, man' or 'Dude, massive game!'
Somehow, seeing that he had the approval and respect of the guys who had never left Mystic Falls and in their heads, hadn't ever moved on from their high-school glory days didn't do much for his sense of self-worth.
He also has some voicemails from Jules, and some sexts which have him shifting in his lounge chair and then wincing as he remembered the pain.
And the fact that his mother is in the lounge chair next to him.
So, deciding to check Jules' messages later, he turns to Facebook and sees that he's been tagged in a post by Caroline.
Nervously, he puts the phone down, finishes his drink, stands up slowly and walks down to the water's edge, letting the waves wash over his feet a few times before returning to his phone and reading the notification.
'After a busy weekend, Tyler and I are not married and are no longer in a relationship. I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and thank everyone for respecting our privacy. Those who would like their wedding presents returned can speak to Carol Lockwood, who picked them up from the hotel.'
Okay.
Simple, dignified and without blaming anyone, exactly what he would have expected from Caroline Forbes.
He reads over it a few times before processing it in its entirety.
'No longer in a relationship'
What?!
He scrolls to her personal information and sees that she had in fact changed her relationship status to single.
Was she actually serious?
They hadn't even spoken since her bitch of a best friend had put him in the hospital but she'd just decided that they were over? She wasn't even willing to talk it through with him?
This was just like her, the control-freak, having to decide and organise everything because she didn't think anyone else could do the job properly.
And then she got annoyed when he didn't offer to help but what was even the point if she just took over anyway?
Yeah, he'd made a mistake but was she really willing to walk away from a ten-year relationship just like that? All couples had their issues, they worked through them.
Caroline Forbes had written him off and was probably already on a dating app, searching for the guy who met all her criteria.
As if he even existed.
She had ridiculously ambitious standards for a woman only a few years away from thirty.
Well, if she was going to just move on and throw away their years together as if they'd been nothing then there was nothing stopping him from doing the same.
Jules doesn't pick up the first time he rings, but by the second, he's at his hotel room and she's answering halfway through the first ring,
"About time," her voice filters through the phone and he chuckles in surprise at her impatient tone,
"I missed you." She adds, her apology both sincere and somehow sexy.
"Missed you too," he offers, even if it wasn't a hundred percent true, "Sorry I haven't contacted you, things have been crazy for me."
"Totally," she murmurs sympathetically, "Do you wanna talk about it?"
Actually, he does, and not with his mom, because she kept making it all about how it affected her and neither Matt nor Stefan had been in contact with him since his wedding day.
He just wanted someone to talk to. And perhaps the girl he'd fooled around with wasn't the best person in the world to be a part of this conversation, but she was the only one offering at the moment.
"Everything has just been crazy, you know?" he begins, "Caroline has just completely cut me out of her life, thanks to her reaction and Katherine, literally everyone knows what happened and I'd invited my boss to the wedding so he'll probably have a terrible opinion of me and…" he groans as that sinks in,
"I can probably kiss any raise or promotion goodbye for the next financial year, maybe even longer if he has a really good memory, and I had planned to nominate Tremaine Events to host our Christmas party and show off my connections and now that's off the table…"
He stops and runs a hand through his hair, "I'm rambling."
Jules makes a little noise on the other end of the line, "So ramble, baby, I'm still listening."
She was too, just listening and not constantly interrupting him with solutions to his problems but just letting him vent.
Caroline had never done that, she'd always been too proactive, couldn't never hear of an issue without wanting to grab a legal pad and pen and list out all the ways to resolve it.
He'd never realised before now just how irritating that was.
"And I'm going to have to find a place to live when I get back…" he continues.
"And move all my stuff in before I go back to work."
Katherine Pierce in a private message to Caroline Forbes
From Katherine: Is Bonnie alive?
From Katherine: Genuine question
From Katherine: Haven't heard from her in days
From Caroline: Have you tried calling her?
From Katherine: Who uses their phones as phones anymore?!
From Katherine: Genuine question
From Katherine: Did not know that was still a thing
From Caroline: How about I call her?
From Katherine: You do that
Caroline had to roll her eyes at the string of messages from her friend, she did love Katherine, but she was the first to admit that despite everything, she was a little spoiled. Not that her own family had been overly indulgent, but where they had failed to cater to Katherine's every whim, the rest of the town had gladly stepped in. Shop assistants giving her discounts and waiters giving her free food and drinks, teachers letting her off easy when she handed in homework late or taking time out of their free periods to offer her one-on-one tutorials, bosses not reprimanding her when she came into work late.
As such, she was a weird amalgamation of fierce independence and expectation that life would always work out for her, with someone usually there to help her out.
Or someone to do the simple tasks when she couldn't be bothered.
Like making sure Bonnie was alright.
Caroline Forbes in a private message to Bonnie Bennett
From Caroline: Hey, how are you?
She sent the message and checked the time, making a mental note to call her friend if she hadn't responded in an hour and panic if she couldn't contact her in two. At one point, she had tried to convince all her friends to go on one of the many device or friend locator apps but the idea had never got off the ground. Either because it had the potential for a severe privacy violation or simply because getting half a dozen adults with their own lives and responsibilities to do anything without much planning prior was damn near impossible.
And yes, admittedly it was a little control-freak-on-crack for Caroline to be able to want to find her friends in situations like these, but if they'd had the app on her would-have-been-wedding day, they wouldn't have been nearly as panicked…
Oh wait, she hadn't had her phone.
Never mind.
She gives herself a little shake and focuses her attention on the program in front of her where she was trying to amalgamate nearly every Disney Princess, and recent Barbies into a nine-year-old girl's birthday party in a way that was both fun for the child and met the expectations of her parents. The parents simultaneously wanted it to be the biggest, most entertaining event outside of a theme park or musical, but without hitting four figures in the expense bill.
She manages a few options, collating the data into colourful reports which would eventually be packaged and sent to the parents for them to read over, pick apart and argue with her about the price.
Still, she's checking the time every fifteen minutes and when she's had no response from Bonnie, she takes a deep breath and logs on to social media.
Occasionally, Caroline's friends liked to wander off- Katherine- or go on random adventures- Enzo- and forgot to let anyone know beforehand. Thankfully, one of the benefits of having such an attractive friend group is that people were always taking photos of them, so tracking them down via the internet wasn't too hard.
There's nothing on Facebook, Snapchat or twitter, but on Instagram she finds Bonnie tagged in a photo and pulls it up, studying it carefully.
Her friend is definitely at a commercial kitchen, bits of flour on her arms and laughing at something off camera, looking happy and not like a hostage, which is some relief.
So, having found out that Bonnie wasn't being held in an underground dungeon, she makes an educated guess and pulls up her contact information for Marcel Gerard.
Caroline Forbes in a private message to Marcel Gerard.
To Marcel: Hi, this is Caroline Forbes, don't worry there isn't an emergency, but can you please tell Bonnie to check her phone?
From Marcel: Okay.
From Marcel: She's just washing up, give it about twenty minutes
Twenty minutes?
Really?!
"You owe me so much right now," Caroline crows when Bonnie finally calls her,
"Seriously?! You had sex in a public building with windows that large? How are you not under arrest this very second?"
Bonnie doesn't immediately answer, although Caroline can hear her friend trying to find the words for a solid minute,
"You should have been a private investigator," she eventually grumbles, "It's just weird how good you are at this."
Caroline snorts, "Please, I just do enough baking to know that it doesn't take twenty minutes to get food off your hands."
"For what it's worth," Bonnie continues, "We weren't having sex anywhere near the food, we were in his office."
"Details!"
"No," she answered firmly, "Marcel is sitting like three feet away from me, I'm not a monster."
Sighing, Caroline checked her calendar, "Then how about drinks tonight?"
There's some communication off the phone, Bonnie putting her hand over the receiver as she confers with Marcel and Caroline tunes out, sending her documents to the printer as she waits.
"We're actually hitting a nearby bar," Bonnie tells her, "It's supposed to be really…"
"I'm not third-wheeling a date," she interrupts, firmly, "I'm not that hopeless, yet."
Bonnie scoffs, "Please, you'd make any date awesome, but this is actually a group thing, I've convinced Marcel to turn his company as green as possible and I'm going to try and network with the owner of the restaurant."
Bonnie had started her own company where she came up with plans for small to mid-sized businesses to become as sustainable and energy efficient as possible, sourcing them the necessary products or putting them in touch with the best installation companies and taking a commission for herself. Her laptop was her office, so she set her own hours and had a small network of temps she hired when needed.
"What's the name?" she asks, her fingers poised over her keyboard until Bonnie answers and she giggles,
"I know the place, that's where Klaus took me on my wedding day,"
"His sister-in-law runs the place." She adds, and she can almost hear the light-bulb ding as Bonnie gets an idea.
"Marcel's inviting him now," she tells her, "So it'll be you, me, probably Katherine, Klaus, some guy he works with…some other people who'll join up…"
"Who knew public humiliation would do such wonders for my social life." Caroline deadpans as her laptop dings with instant messages as she's added to a group chat.
"This'll be fun," Bonnie offers, "Large group setting, no pressure to meet a guy, safe environment…"
Caroline checks her watch and finds herself wondering how Klaus would respond to the idea of their friendship groups hanging out together.
He'd been so adorably pissed off with Rebekah and Kol friending her and their mutual following across most social media platforms, but Rebekah was sweet and Kol took really good photos.
Caroline Forbes in a private message to Klaus Mikaelson
To Klaus: There are some really interesting Kool aid recipes online.
From Klaus: There's some really interesting deprogramming articles online.
From Klaus: I can send you links to exit strategists that offer a discount if we can convince them that you're escaping a religious cult.
To Klaus: So, I'll see you tonight?
From Klaus: Of course, love
From Klaus: I'll be the one trying to alert the authorities using Morse code.
To Klaus: Great, see you there.
A/N- Thanks for reading!