Reveal: Part 2

~~~~~

Chrissy turned on her car radio and tuned it to her local classical station. The classics always helped her calm down. As she drove home, she stopped at the grocery store and picked up some Castelvetrano olives. In her opinion, the best of the best. She usually only ate those when she had a lot of hard thinking to do. When she pulled up to her house, she was relieved to know only the upstairs neighbors, who were a cute, older couple who's children were all grown, were home. Her roommates were still, thankfully, out. She reached over to the passenger seat and gripped the olives, grabbed her purse, and got out of her car. While she walked down the sidewalk to her door, she clicked the auto-lock to her car then carefully unlocked her front door.

After she turned on the light to the living room, she opened her olives, drained them in the sink, grabbed a dish out of the cupboard and dumped them in. To her credit, she didn't have mind enough to take them with her and left them on the kitchen counter, next to the empty jar. As she did that, Chrissy decided to make brownies. She grabbed a box mix, because she was to tired to think about how much better scratch brownies are better than box brownies. Hastily, she poured them from the bowl into the pan after she mixed them up and put them straight into the oven. Sure, it was hot enough. She headed to her bedroom instead, to grab some clean clothes and a towel so she could take a shower and get rid of the campfire smell. It was only 9:30 in the evening.

Fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, not having thought anything through yet, really, but trying to numb her thoughts. With this lack of development, Chrissy decided it was time to catch up on her laundry. She gathered what little dirty clothing she had, sorted them and decided two loads was sufficient. Darks and whites. Before she could load the washer, she decided a visit to her mom and dads house this weekend would be in order so she stuffed the clothes back into her basket and brought them out to the living room and put them by the front door.

At least she was clean and her hair didn't smell like smoke any more. Smoke. Campfire. Guitar. Hillman sang. Hillman had talked her into singing, and she did the dumbest thing ever and sang some famous persons song right in front of him. Boy did she feel stupid. But what happened afterward was even more weird. He hit on her. At least she thought that's what happened. Then it got even weirder. She thought about Brad and how he had been acting these last few months. How non complaisant he had been. While she was thinking about that, she moved to the kitchen and put the dishes away. Brad just had to be busy, thought Chrissy. She wiped down the counters and table. He just had to be. There was no reason he wouldn't talk to her about any changes in his life. He loved her. They had been talking about marriage. Between the two of them.

When she noticed there were only about ten minutes left on baking time, she gathered her backpack, laundry and make up and set them by the door. She made sure to grab two pairs of shoes, a pair of pumps and her favorite sneakers. Chrissy grabbed the vacuum out of the closet and cleaned up the hall carpet and living room. Why didn't she have the same feelings when Brad touched her as when Phillipe did tonight? At this hour, she hoped her upstairs neighbors wouldn't get mad at her for vacuuming. It was kind of a noisy vacuum, but she made it quick. The timer buzzed on the oven. The brownies were done. She wrapped up the chord quickly and put the vacuum away. Chrissy removed the brownies out of the oven and turned it off. Hastily, while she waited for them to cool, she cleaned up her wet mess in the bathroom, dusted and picked up the living room, then made her way back to the kitchen to clean up her dishes. Chrissy took out a knife from the utensil drawer, found a paper-plate and cut half the pan of brownies onto it. She quickly scribbled a note to her roommates.


Chrissy finished gathering her things up, namely her phone and charger and stuffed them into her backpack. Everything was resting in her laundry basket and she grabbed her keys out of her purse. Laundry, check. Backpack, check. Toiletries, check. Phone, check. All she needed was the plate of brownies from the kitchen and some clean clothes for church. She grabbed those too and rested them on top of the laundry, balanced the basket on her hip as she turned out the lights and locked the door behind her.

When she got to her car and threw everything into the back seat but the brownies, which she placed on the passenger seat, Chrissy grabbed her phone to call her parents. The phone at their home rang five times before she left a message, "I'm coming home for the weekend. I'll be there soon," was all she said after she identified herself. She tried to make her voice sound in-involved. . .after all, she had been thinking about the last five months of her life with Brad, and the last two months she had known Everett, and how odd she had been feeling over the last three or four hours. She called her dads cell and it tripped to voice male right away, so Chrissy left the same message as she started her car and began to drive, then tossed the phone in the back, landing in the laundry basket.

Chrissy didn't immediately make the 10 minute drive to her parents house, but instead, went to Brads workplace. The Cotton Tree Inn. When she parked her car, she turned the key to off and sat for a minute. She offered a little prayer that she could be calm and not a nervous wreck, because things like she was about to do had a tendency to go horribly wrong and turn awfully ugly. Neither of which she wanted to do.

Without thinking about it much more, she knew how things would turn out. She flicked her still damp hair behind her and picked up the plate of brownies. They were still warm. She got out of her car, carefully locked it and walked into the hotel lobby. She wished she'd have worn something else besides her yoga pants and a ratty old hoodie, but it was too late for that. She had made her resolve and that was one of the things Brad had said he found endearing in her. She didn't let circumstance dictate her fashion tonight. She had always been beautiful to Brad.

The bells of the door caught his attention for the fourth time tonight. Brad looked up from his computer screen, "Chrissy," he exclaimed! "I thought yow were at the cookout." He smiled warmly and cam around the desk to give her a hug and a kiss. . .on the forehead.

Chrissy forced a smile. Why did he have to be so good looking. He was wearing a tan oxford shirt with a silver tie. He bought that tie when she wouldn't relent on a date some time ago. He was still wearing it. That was a good sign. "Hi Brad," she said. "I brought you some brownies." She put them down on the counter. This wasn't a busy night at all. She'd been there before when guest after guest kept showing up or there had been a line to check in. Tonight, there had only been three check-ins since nine o'clock.

"And they've all been reservations. Let's go sit down," he said as he picked up the plate of goodies and let Chrissy to the continental breakfast area. She noticed that the microwaves had been moved and the coffee makers were in a different place too. Brad asked as they sat at a table close to the front desk, "Why did you come so late? I thought you had a test in the morning?"

"I do." She said. "I just wanted to see you, that's all." She smiled and shrugged her shoulders as she looked around.

Chrissy pushed the goodies over to Brad and he took a bite of one. "Box brownies," he said. "You must have been tired. You usually make them from scratch."

She notice that he paid close attention to the way he chose his words. More selectively than usual. "Brad, I was wondering, "she started.

"What?"

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and sighed, and counted in her head really fast, one,two,three, "when were you going to tell me your feelings changed?"

He stopped, mid bite. She could only assume so he could formulate his words more carefully, because as he stopped, he looked into her eyes. Just as he took a big breath, the bells of the front door rang and he sighed a big sigh of relief, got out of his chair and went to check in the person waiting at the counter. It only took two minutes. Not long enough to him. He walked back, trying not to act suspicious, but knowing he failed anyway. Anxiously, he sat.

"Um, well," he paused, hoping to be saved by the bell again, but it didn't happen. "I promised Jake I'd watch out for you." He almost sounded like he was trying to defend himself in an argument.

"Sure. No need to be cranky about it. I only asked a question, but when did your feelings change?" Chrissy asked, her voice sounding more urgent now.

"I can't pinpoint it," he started.

"When?" Chrissy pressed again. "Two weeks ago? A month, Two months?" She was trying to keep control, but her voice obviously was getting frustrated. She like to think the man she was so taken with was honest with her, but now, she could see differently.

There was nothing Brad hated more about Chrissy than to see her get hurt, and now, he was the cause of her hurt. He had been her protector, her champion, her friend. He couldn't say anything. Plenty was going through his head, but he just couldn't say it.

"And furthermore, Bradley Wayne Johansen, when were you going to tell me? Don't you owe it to yourself to be honest with your fellow human beings? You're an Eagle Scout. I'm not, but I do know that a scout is honest. Be honest with yourself, let alone me." She felt two tears come out of her eyes and pool in the rims, and surprisingly, she was able to keep her voice cool and collected.

Brad was breathing deeper now and looking past her out the window. Chrissy wasn't crying as much as he would have expected her to when he would have gotten around to telling her he no longer loved her. She was merely sitting calmly, with her hands in her lap. Even though her eyes were nearly closed from exhaustion, he noticed she was amazingly calm. It was almost eerie, he thought. And unnerving.

"About three months ago." He looked into her eyes, then looked at the plate of brownies, trying not to notice how beautiful she was with damp, wavy hair. Her red hair shined in the light. He always did have weakness for a gorgeous red-head. But for some reason or another, he failed to identify why he held no interest in her any more. Actually, there was no reason. No other woman. He simply didn't love her any more.

"Three. . .Oh." She raised her eyebrows and looked down to her lap. "and you thought it was a good idea to lead me on?" Chrissy maintained perfect control throughout the dialogue they were sharing.

Brad could have done a better job though. "I couldn't lie to myself about how I felt any more."

"So you thought it was a good idea to lie to me? The person whom you were supposedly in a relationship with? The one who you've been talking about getting married with?"

"Oh," was all he could say. Objection came over his face. "Listen Chrissy," He started. "I thought if I cut things off gradually--"

"You'd what, Brad?" She let annoyance fill every syllable, but never raised her voice. It nearly made him sick to see all the control she displayed. He knew she was really hurt but the next thing she said stung. "It's too little, too late." She said as she wrinkled her nose and looked straight into his eyes. Another tear fell from her eye.

They were making direct eye contact now. Chrissy seemed to be relaxed, despite the threatening water works, her hands in the pocket of her hoodie , head slightly tilted to the side. Brad was leaning on his elbows on the table, trying to plead with her for forgiveness without saying anything.

Chrissy picked up on this rather quickly. "Usually Brad, to get forgiveness, one usually has to say 'sorry' first, but I forgive you." Chrissy hesitated for a few moments and then asked, "why?"

"I don't have an answer."

"So you figured it was okay to lie to me instead." Chrissy said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Brad just looked into the air with no focus. He had no answer.

"Good bye, Bradly Johansen." Chrissy said as she stood up, "I'll see you around." She pulled her keys out of her pocket, turned and left the building, not looking back, and he let her go.