And so it's the chapter we've all been waiting for, Tyler's secret revealed.
I'll just meet you guys down at the bottom because I'm super nervous.
Thanks Gail for the beta job :) And assuring me that it made sense :) *smooches*
Humming quietly to herself, Caroline perused through the aisles of Whole Foods. It was a Sunday afternoon and she was gathering groceries for dinner with Tyler. Things between them were...okay.
Truthfully, ever since they had the big argument and she went out with Katherine to Donovan's, things have felt kind of off. Either he was incredibly distracted, or she just didn't seem to care anymore. However, she decided to at least attempt to recreate the magic one last time. If this didn't work then...maybe her relationship with Tyler wasn't as fairytale as she always liked to think. It had been rather difficult trying to spend time together. They were both so constantly busy, Jenna having her on scut work since the Mikaelson article bomb.
Jenna was pissed.
Honestly, Caroline didn't care about what Jenna thought. Her reputation and conscience were saved, and strangely her friendship with Klaus was growing stronger every day. He was helping her get some amazing interviews as of late.
Speaking of Klaus...
Her phone let out a loud ring, startling her and making the package of noodles she was holding drop out of her hand.
"Shit," she hissed, grappling for her purse.
She undid the clasp hurriedly, reaching for the loud, protesting device. With a small smile tugging at her lips, Caroline lifted the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello, love-"
"Ahem," Caroline interrupted.
"Caroline," Klaus finished, his voice filled with amusement.
She grinned back at the receiver, propping it up between her ear and shoulder as she leaned down to pick up her groceries.
"Hey," she replied. "How was the press conference?"
Klaus scoffed through the receiver. "What do you think?"
"Hmm, let's see, The Mayor actually didn't show up and yet again, his poor secretary was yet again regaled to being harassed by a room full of journalists with deadlines to meet?"
"You are straight on, love," he replied.
She giggled to herself, pushing her cart further down the aisle to the sauces. "I feel bad for the poor girl. This is the third one he's missed in the past month because he's on vacation."
"At least I procured that interview with him that one time," Klaus chimed in. Caroline rolled her eyes, pushing through the glass bottles of sauce.
"Yes, we all know. Mr. 'I have no idea what happened to your press pass love,'" Caroline mimicked, shuffling her phone to the other ear as she picked up a jar.
Klaus just hummed into the receiver in response.
"So, those notes," Caroline began, biting her lip in concentration as she read the back of a tomato sauce jar.
"Have already been forwarded to your email account," he finished, the amusement apparent in his voice.
"If you say so," she absently replied, placing the jar back on the shelf.
"Don't you trust me love?" he asked teasingly and she arched her brow at that.
"We've been friends for like five minutes after years of fighting and you asked me if I trust you?" she shot back, only half teasing.
"Check your email," he sighed.
She took her phone away from her ear and clicked on her email, verifying that he was telling the truth.
"Okay, thanks. You're off the hook for the rest of the night," she smiled playfully in the phone. "Hey do you like cooking?"
He was quiet before he responded, his voice slightly unnerved. "I enjoy it from time to time, yes."
"Can you help me with something? What kind of pasta is pesto better on?" she asked, frowning at the jar in her hand and the package of noodles in her cart.
Cooking was confusing.
He chuckled lightly. "Why? Happen to have a scandalous date with your TV?"
She rolled her eyes, placing the pesto jar back on the shelf.
"Shut up, it's for Tyler," she swore she could hear Klaus suck in a low breath at her mention of her fiancé.
"Scandalous date?" he repeated, his voice tight with something she couldn't decipher quite yet.
"You could say that," she shrugged.
"What are you trying to make?" he asked. She could almost hear the annoyed expression on his face.
She sighed, leaning up against her cart. "I'm trying to find something to make for dinner tonight. It's been awhile since we've had time to see each other and I want it to be good...and romantic," she finished hesitantly, her stomach turning because the last thing she wanted to talk about with Klaus was Tyler.
Klaus didn't say much, but her phone beeped up against her ear.
"I just emailed you my recipe for chicken penne ala vodka," he stated. "It's easy, delicious, and a real crowd pleaser."
Caroline blinked surprisingly, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Thank you."
"Anything for you," he quipped. Her heart stuttered at his simple statement, him unassuming of the effect he's starting to have on her.
She blushed slightly at her body's actions, before rolling her eyes at her school girl reaction.
"So big plans for tonight?" she asked, clearing her throat.
"Mmm, probably going to Donovan's," he mused, Caroline's palms growing sweaty as she flashed back to the infamous night at the club weeks ago.
She's reminded of the smooth way his body rhythmically moved with hers, the feel of his rough hands on her bare back. From the awkward silence on the other end of the phone, she can tell he's probably picturing the same thing.
"Oh?" she asked, distractedly fumbling with her purse to pull out lip balm for her suddenly dry lips. "I thought you hated the club scene."
"I do, but Matt gives me free drinks now that he knows I'm Rebekah's brother," Klaus stated. Caroline giggled into the receiver. "He has a slight crush on her, not that she'd notice with Enzo so far up her arse."
"And you didn't even have to flirt with him," she teased, playfully smiling at her receiver.
"Just a tad, lo-Caroline," he said playfully, correcting his misspeak causing her grin to grow.
"Well, I better get going," she started, sighing slightly.
Truth is, the last thing she wanted to do was hang up, but she really did need to get going to make dinner for Tyler.
Tyler. Her fiancé.
Klaus let out a long-suffering sigh before conceding to her point. "I guess so. Have a good night, love."
"You too," she murmured into the phone, barely registering the pet name.
She hung up the phone, and checked her email, finding the recipe he had thoughtfully sent her. She looked at the ingredients, unease settling in her stomach.
Why did the thought of making dinner for Tyler with Klaus' recipe bother her so much?
It felt strange.
"Stop reading into things," Caroline muttered to herself, pushing the cart down the grocery aisle as she went to gather the ingredients.
Humming to herself, Caroline pushed her key into the lock of Tyler's apartment and twisted it, letting herself into the foyer. She was surprised to find that it was already unlocked. Tyler was unusually paranoid about people breaking into his apartment so he kept the door locked at all times.
"Tyler?" she called out, slipping her shoes off.
There wasn't a response, and she wrinkled her forehead in confusion. She had just gotten a text from him saying that he'd meet her at the apartment a few minutes ago and his shoes were right next to the door, like usual. She placed the groceries on the floor, walking into the living room to find it empty, same with the kitchen.
Her heart began to pound as the thought of someone really breaking into the apartment and attacking Tyler went to the forethought of her. He didn't live in the south side of Chicago, but still. She fleetingly thought about grabbing a fireplace poker or something, but didn't want to make any sudden movements. Plus, she was the sheriff's daughter in her old hometown so she was pretty good at protecting herself.
Or she could always scream bloody murder.
She went over to his bedroom, blinking confusedly at the shut door. Placing her hand on the handle, she twisted it and flung it open.
"Oh my God," she gasped.
Tyler looked up from where he was sitting on the bed, his elbows propped up on his knees.
"You scared me," she laughed, coming to sit down next to him. "Didn't you hear me?"
Tyler uneasily nodded, nervously chuckling. "Sorry babe, I was lost in my own thoughts."
"It's okay," she smiled. "Hungry?"
Tyler shook his head. "Not really. I've had a long day. I was thinking about going to bed."
"Lame, come on. I bought some groceries and have an awesome recipe I want to try," Caroline responded, tugging at his hand.
Tyler shook his head, continuing to stare at the ground. "I'm good. I'm not hungry."
Caroline sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face. "Seriously, come on Tyler. It's been weeks since we've had a real dinner together. Just do it for me."
"I said no!" Tyler blurted out, jumping off the bed.
Her eyes narrowed and expression hardened as she stood up to face him.
"What the hell is your problem? Seriously? All you ever do is work, and when you aren't, you want nothing to do with me!" Caroline yelled, propping her hands up on her hips. "You're my fiancé, the man I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with and you can't even sit through a damn dinner without finding an excuse to leave."
Tyler didn't say anything, his dark eyes staring straight at her. Tears began to fill Caroline's eyes at his impassive nature.
"Are you cheating on me?" she gasped, a tear trickling down her cheek.
"What? No!" he protested, turning away.
"Seriously? You've been canceling on me for weeks, the case lasting longer than most, you're always getting mysterious phone calls," Caroline continued, her lip wobbling. "It makes sense."
Tyler turned around to face her, his hard eyes softening at her distress. "Caroline, I'm not cheating on you. I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a cheater."
Caroline shrugged, wiping away a tear. "Then what's going on?"
He sighed, his shoulder's slumping dejectedly. He reached out and pulled her over to him, sitting down on the bed.
"Can you honestly tell me that you're ready to get married?" he asked, his brown eyes searching hers. "That I'm the man you want to spend the rest of your life with?"
"Yes!" she said defiantly. Tyler looked at her, narrowing his eyes at her defensive nature. "I mean, nobody can't ever be 100% percent sure."
It's true. She thought that Tyler was her one and only for so many years. But in all honesty, she'd never felt so disconnected to him as she did when they got engaged. She stopped caring about him canceling on her all the time, used to it. She spent more time thinking about work (and other...things) than she did him.
Tyler sighed, falling back on his bed. "I thought asking you to marry me was the right thing to do."
"What like it was a chore?" Caroline snapped, her eyes glittering with angry tears.
He looked confused. "What? No!"
"Then explain it to me. What the hell is going on?"
Tyler looked at her before gazing at the wall. "I'm scared."
"Of what?" she asked, utterly confused. "Me?"
"No," he replied hastily. "I don't….I just don't think I'm ready to get married. To you, or anybody."
Caroline blinked, tears rapidly falling down her face. "So you've been avoiding me and lying to me-"
"Because I don't want to get married," he answered simply. "Not now, maybe not ever."
Caroline let out a shaky breath, watching her years of white-picket fence dreaming come crashing down.
"Can you honestly, look me in the eyes right now and tell me that you want to marry me?"
Caroline looked at his defeated expression, his warm brown eyes that used to send her reeling, now left her cold and empty. She searched her thoughts for a moment to find something, anything that would bring her to say yes.
"No," she murmured. "I don't."
Tyler sucked in a tight breath, her words hitting him harder than he expected. She wiped at her eyes with shaking hands.
"We're breaking up aren't we?" he muttered.
She nodded her head, fiddling with the ring that adorned her finger.
"I can't see how we can get past this," she whispered. "We're not the same people we were five years ago."
Tyler placed a hand on her knee and she recoiled at his touch. His touch used to be soothing, electrifying, but now all she wanted to do was shake his hand off her.
"Don't touch me," she hissed. "I can't believe you."
"Caroline, I didn't mean to hurt you," Tyler began.
She chuckled sardonically, wiping at her face. "You should have thought about that before proposing to me just because it was the 'right thing to do',"
Tyler looked back at her, seemingly a loss for words.
"I worried for weeks because I didn't understand why my fiancé didn't have time to be with me," she continued, all of her insecurities bubbling to the surface. "But the truth is, you didn't want me."
"I still want you, Caroline," Tyler pleaded.
She shook her head frantically. "I don't believe you. And if I'm being honest, I don't want you either."
Her confession stunned him, his mouth shutting with a snap.
"When did the trial end, Tyler?" she asked. "Or was that something else you were lying about?"
Tyler looked at her, the guilt plastered across his face. "At least a month ago. I liked being able to go out with the guys from time to time, so it was just easy to say I was working."
Caroline gasped quietly, the anger welling in her stomach.
"I'm done," she whispered, shaking her head.
"I think we ran our course a long time ago," Caroline continued., running a shaking hand through her blonde curls.
"I only wish I let go of the dream at the same time," she finished.
Tyler continued to be silent, the intensity of the moment seemingly weighing him down.
"I can't be here anymore," Caroline whimpered, sniffling. She went to get up, yanking her elbow away from Tyler as he went to stop her.
"Care-"
"Please," she bit out. "I can't be here."
Tyler stood there in front of her, his shoulder slumped as he looked up at her. She sniffed, reaching for the ring on her finger, hesitating before tugging it off. With shaking hands, she placed it in his palm and he wrapped his fingers around it.
"I'm sorry," he managed to get out, his throat tight with tension. Caroline shrugged, letting out an unsteady breath.
"Me too," Caroline said, her voice breaking slightly at the end.
Tyler winced slightly, his hands falling to his side.
Feeling another tear trickle down her cheek, Caroline hastily wiped it away, whirling around as she let herself out of the bedroom. She cringed as she heard the ping of the ring hit the wall after Tyler must have thrown it against the wall.
She stared dumbfounded at the groceries next to her shoes in the entry hall, shocked at the sudden change of events. Gathering up her bags with unsteady hands, she stumbled into her shoes and out the door. She leaned up against it once out in the hall, freely letting the tears roll down her face.
As heartbroken as she was with the breakup, a part of her felt so...relieved.
Everything seemed to make sense. He had began pulling away from her from the beginning. Waiting so many years to ask her for her hand, working constantly afterwards, distant, no desire to start planning, more concerned with work than her.
He was not the only one to blame. She played a huge part of it. Somewhere along the way, she stopped fighting for him. She stopped caring. She'd been so in love with the idea of marrying Tyler, that she'd forgotten the most important part: being in love with him.
Wiping at her face, she sighed. Looking down at her groceries, she scoffed as she felt the desire to go throw all of them into the garbage. She began the long walk to the elevator, fully prepared on sitting on her couch and eating ice cream all night.
Pulling out her cell phone, she scrolled down to Katherine's number before hesitating. Caroline vaguely remembered her best friend saying something about a hot date with Elijah and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin her best friend's night with something as depressing as a broken engagement. She finally made it down to the lobby and hailed a cab, numbly giving the driver her address.
As she rode through the Chicago streets, the lights illuminated her face as she tipped her head back against the seat. Her heart was so conflicted. She felt so guilty for letting it get this far, but relieved that for once, something seemed right. It felt so off for the longest time, but now, it felt so right.
In the most devastating kind of way.
The cab driver dropped her off in front of her apartment, offering to help the miserable blonde with her bags. She thanked him with a kind smile, but she really couldn't fathom interacting with anybody else at the moment.
Caroline made her way into her apartment, dropping her bags with a sigh. She looked into the hallway mirror, gasping in horror at the reflection that stared back at her. Her curls had fallen, mascara dripped down her face, her skin was blotchy from crying, and there was a black stain on her shirt from her eyeliner. That alone made her cry all over again and she slumped her shoulders, falling onto her couch.
Her phone dinged with an alert and she miserably lifted her eyes to it. It was from Klaus of all people, reminding her about setting the chicken out before baking it. Her heart thudded painfully, due to the reminder of her ruined dinner but it lifted at seeing his name. Scoffing to herself, she threw her phone on the couch and folded her arms across her chest. She inwardly berated herself for feeling anything but sorrow.
Although..
She cast another eye down at her phone, remembering his plans of going to Donovan's after they got off the phone. She could really use a drink, but running into him was the last thing she should be doing. He would probably taunt her of her failed engagement, reminding her of all the signs she missed.
But, that was the old Klaus, not the new, improved, friend-Klaus.
And she did need a friend tonight.
Her friend was kind, thoughtful, friendly, incredibly helpful, undeniably attractive.
Her face crumpled a little as she reminded herself that she was now single and didn't have to hide those secret dirty thoughts about him anymore.
"GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?" Caroline screeched, throwing her pillow across the room.
She was devastated about Tyler in one moment and then accidentally lusting after Klaus in another.
But there was one thing she knew, she couldn't stay in this apartment any longer. It was filled with too many memories of Tyler and too many thoughts of Klaus.
Shaking her head, she stood up and made her way to the bathroom. She cleaned up her face, placing some fresh eyeliner and mascara on her eyes. She fluffed her hair, sniffling as she brushed a comb through it. Before she knew it, she'd changed into a simple black dress and was heading out the door, destination to be determined.
Walking aimlessly down the street, she found herself down the road headed to Donovan's. Sighing loudly to herself as she muttered under her breath, the passing pedestrians gave her an odd look as she decided where to go from there. Against her better judgment, she hailed a cab for Donovan's. Mentally berating herself for even presenting the idea of going to see Klaus, she fully intending on sitting in a private lounge by herself to drink away her misery.
Numbly, she walked into the club, the music pumping and the liquor flowing. Making a beeline for the bar, she smiled at Matt, the owner as he sidled up in front of her.
"Where's your sidekick?" he teased, pulling out a glass.
"Hot date," Caroline smiled back weakly.
Matt's eyebrows rose as he nodded thoughtfully. "And you?"
"Recently dumped so give me the hard stuff," she sighed, plopping down in the bar stool. Matt winced slightly as he pulled out a bottle of vodka.
"I'm sorry," he continued, pouring her a shot.
Caroline downed it before he barely finished pouring it. "Yeah, me too."
She cringed at the burn, licking her lips as she pointed down at the shot glass. "Hit me."
He eyed her uneasily before pouring another shot. "Okay, but after this, you're on fruity drinks."
She grimaced before slamming back another shot. He placed a glass of water in front of her and an amaretto sour next to it.
"Oh come on, Donovan, don't you know the lady loves a good wine?" A smooth, familiar, heart twisting voice came from behind her.
She swiveled around to see one of the people she'd been drinking to avoid thinking about.
"Hello, Caroline."
She licked her lips and looked down his profile, unconsciously checking him out. He was devastatingly handsome, wearing fitted jeans and a tight white henley that showcased his multitude of necklaces. On his face was a wry grin that would melt the iciest heart.
He was intoxicating.
"Klaus."
Sooo, story breakdown. I have a feeling some of you will be let down by Tyler's lack of secret, he wasn't really doing ANYTHING, but avoiding her. Funny enough, this happened to a girl I went to college with, Her ex proposed ot her because he thought it would "fix" everything, but they ended up breaking up just like Forwood here. It's very realistic, and Tyler is super immature and I hope you guys totally get why Tyler did what he did.
So thoughts! Please review! I was nervous about this chapter since reviews went kind of down in number last week, so I hope you guys liked this. But I promise a HUGE TURNING POINT for Klaroline in the next two chapters. I'm talking MAJOR.
Until Next Time
Kaitlyn (find me at she-walked-away on tumblr for any additional questions, comments, whatever :))