Victoria's POVI had gotten through the weekend. I probably hadn’t taken the most mature approach to the situation. I met up with Alice the next Monday after work to shop for groceries and the first thing that she asked me was, “how did this weekend go?”“Jeez Alice, you could at least pretend to be interested in how I’m doing or how my day was before you go fishing for tea, you know? Like civilised members of society.”“Fine. Hi Tori! It’s wonderful to see you. Blah blah blah! Now spill!”I had not talked to her all weekend and the suspense was obviously killing her. I thought of milking it a little more but the angsty look in her eyes told me that that might not be the best idea.“It was fine. It came, it went. That’s what’s important,” I said and rolled my cart down the produce aisle.The next thing, I knew I was being yanked back by the collar of my shirt.“Ow!” I exclaimed.“I’m sorry but is that really all you’re going to give me? I need details woman!”I rubbed my neck and scow
Caleb's POVI had been living in Arizona for a month now and it had been absolutely incredible. I loved my new job. I got to make calls about how the paediatric department was run and had even managed to start some initiative that I had always thought about while I was still in Los Angeles. For example, every month, we would do at least one pro bono surgery for a kid who needed it but could not afford it.Everything from the diagnosis to the surgery and even the post surgery care would be catered for. I had expected a lot of resistance from the board of directors but to my surprise, they were completely on board with the idea and the first one had already been approved.I had settled into my new house nicely. I had gotten to know some of my neighbours and they seemed like very lovely people. My dad, Eric Gloria and Melissa had all come to my place for a ‘house warming’ of sorts. Victoria’s absence was glaringly obvious but no one commented on it. Brianna and I were doing well all thi
Victoria's POVIt was finally the Labour Day weekend. Mrs. Pullman had given me some time off which I was grateful for. I had the entire weekend to just sit indoors and be a bum and no one could say anything. To be fair, it’s not like there was anything better to do.Alice and Ben had gone to visit Ben's parents for the weekend, Sam wasn’t going to be able to come home because she wanted to spend the extra free time working on her designs for her clothing line. Mom and Gloria had gone to Prescott for the annual Stallone family camping trip so I had no one else in Sedona that I could talk to.“I desperately need to make more friends,” I said to myself for the umpteenth time.Deep down, I knew that it would never happen. The thought of having to socialize with strangers gave me so much anxiety, I knew there was no way I could do it but still, a girl could dream. I had come up with a plan for that weekend, I would stay at home and bake. Maybe read a book or two or catch up on the shows
Caleb's POVBrianna woke up first that morning. She hated waking up early so the fact that she woke up before I did attest to how badly she wanted to leave. We woke up and started to gather up our things slowly. Once we had taken everything out of our time, I instructed Brianna on how she would take down the tent.Nice she got the hang of it, I left her to go inform dad and Eric that we were leaving.I started with dad because I figured that it would be easier. He was an unbelievably light sleeper so he heard my footsteps before I even got to the tent and called out, “who’s out there?”“It’s Caleb. Hey dad, could you come out here for a second? I want to talk to you.”I heard some shuffling in the tent before he finally emerged from within it. When he got out, he saw Brianna taking down our tent and looked very confused.“What's going on?” he asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.“We have to leave.”“Oh! That’s a shame. Is everything okay? Can we help?” he asked genuinely. “Bri
Victoria's POVThe labor weekend was finally over.Mom and Tom came back from their camping trip in foul moods. According to my mom, Eric was taking everything that happened even harder than Tom was because Caleb had not even bothered to inform him that he was leaving. He just up and went. I was still peeved at Caleb but I decided to stay out of it.As defensive as I felt about Eric and the rest of the gang, I was not a Stallone and this was a family matter. I kept to myself for the remainder of the holiday and before I knew it, Tuesday finally rolled around.Over the weekend, I had done some thinking regarding my future and the plan that I had for myself. I had been working at Mrs. Pullman’s bakery for a few months now, and I loved it. I loved waking up early and spending my mornings surrounded by the sweet smells of baked goods.I loved chatting with the regulars who came in every day for their morning pastries and the joy of watching them take the first bite of their tasty treat. A
Caleb's POVIt had been a week since the camping trip and a week since I had spoken to any member of my family, excluding my mom. This was the longest I had ever gone without talking to either dad or Eric. It felt horrible like I was going against the very nature of who I was and in truth, it sucked. My family didn’t do this sort of thing. Whenever there was an issue, we never stayed mad at each other for this long.Dad had tried to reach out on the first two days but I didn’t pick up his calls. After a while, he gave up completely. Eric, on the other hand, had not talked to me at all which informed me that he was pissed. I reckoned, the next time we saw each other, he would have some choice words to say to me.In hindsight, I could have handled the whole thing better. I should have at least given my dad a chance to defend himself or allowed him an opportunity to talk to Brianna before we left. This could all have been one big misunderstanding.“Or maybe it was all a lie.” This though
Victoria's POV It was my first Saturday as a free(self-employed) woman and that morning had started out exactly like I had expected it to: with me nursing a terrible hangover from the previous night. Alice, Ben and I had gone out to celebrate me finally quitting my job, the best way that we knew how. We had initially planned to just have a few cocktails and call it a night but after Ben and his workmates showed up, that plan immediately went out of the window. They had a long day of work and all they wanted to do was to party the night away to properly usher in their weekend. Alice and I did not need a lot of convincing. The main motivator for me was definitely the fact that most of Ben's workmates were hot! Ben had warned me that they were womanizers so I knew nothing serious could come from it but it didn’t hurt to just look. Besides, I wasn’t looking for anything serious with anyone. This week has affirmed my decision to continue focusing on myself and my dream. I could not affo
Victoria's POVIt had been about a month since I had my little talk with caleb. I was worried about him. I had never seen him look so downtrodden before and it made me hate Brianna even more. No one deserved to have their spirits broken like that. I asked Tom if he had spoken with Caleb lately but he hadn’t. Caleb had apparently isolated himself from everyone.I also asked Eric if he had checked in on Caleb and the answer that I got from him wasn’t reassuring either. Eric was convinced that his brother was depressed. He had gone up to phoenix to visit him two weeks ago because he was worried that Caleb was not returning phone calls.When he got there, Caleb's house was a mess which was very concerning. He had always been a clean freak so the act that his house was messy was obviously a reflection of his mental state.I talked to Sam about the whole thing because I felt guilty and partly responsible for the part that I played in everything that happened.If I had never mentioned the pr