Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,131

he said to Cole, “you are so much better at this shit than me!”

Cole laughed and then locked the door again as Stephen went back to the office.

“Baby...you really need to stop doing this to yourself, you know.” Cole said as he returned to where Elise was sat and hunkered down in front of her. “Maybe you should just be on your own for a while? If you’ve decided to leave Dale then that is going to take all of your energy so perhaps you should just try to forget about Vaughn for a while. Let him make his own mistakes with Olivia, if that is what he is doing, and then when you’re all sorted out, maybe you two can get things back on track.”

Elise listened and looked down at her best friend, thinking how much easier things would be if he was the man she had fallen in love with. His advice made sense, and the rational part of her brain registered that she needed to take a step back from everything and just concentrate on one thing at a time. The problem was that Vaughn was in her heart now and she was being stabbed with jealousy at the thought of him being with anyone else – especially Olivia. She couldn’t stand back and let that happen – no way in the world would she do that. Perhaps she could forgive him for this weekend if he had been with Olivia but then, if he had, how could she ever trust him again? She would be right back to where she started.

Elise looked down at Cole and grabbed onto his hands. “I love him, Cole,” she said simply, “I don’t think I can let him go.”

“But maybe you’re going to have to. As difficult as that is going to be, you have to think about everything else as well. I mean, if you leave Dale, where are you going to live? Have you thought about that? Then there is the whole issue of a divorce - what are you going to do about that? Are you going to go for separation or straight for divorce for unreasonable behaviour? If you do that, then the whole sordid truth will come out and that will have a direct impact on Vaughn and anyone else that’s in your life. You also don’t know how Dale will react – what’s to say he’ll just let you go? He might decide that the relationship isn’t over for him and make it very difficult for you to move on. You need to think about all of these things, Elise, and you can’t do that when you’re worrying about someone else that you may or may not be in love with.”

“I am in love with him Cole.” She said fervently, “There are no ifs, buts or maybe’s. I’ve never felt like this, not even in the early days with Dale. I know it’s sudden but I know that it’s the real thing.”

“Okay, Elise,” Cole said calmly, “I understand that you say you are in love with him and I understand that you want to be with him but don’t you see – you have to think about everything else too. You can’t just expect to pick up with someone totally new without sorting out all the other things first. I would be the first person to help you leave Dale, you know that and you know I’ve wanted you to leave him for a long time but you can’t just pin all your hopes on someone who you’ve only just met, of whose feelings you are unsure and who you don’t even totally trust. For heaven’s sake, Elise, you’re not even sure he’s being ‘faithful’ to you!”

“I know Cole, I know. That’s why it’s all so bloody hopeless!”

She huffed out a sigh and put her head in her hands; this was all so completely messed up it was almost laughable. She wished that Vaughn was here now so that she could ask him about the weekend. She would know if he was lying. That way she could decide if they had a future and whilst that wasn’t relevant to what was going on with Dale, she would at least have one of her ducks in a row and then she could hope that the rest would follow.

But he wasn’t here and she had no way of contacting him. Suddenly she remembered the presents that she had set on the table after Stephen had given