"What!" I shouted angrily. "I must have not heard you right. You know I'd never agree to that. How did that happen?"

  Esme looked embarrassed and said, "Well, we have to head over there soon. I'll tell you later."

  "I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me exactly what's going on!" I yelled.

  "Olivia, please calm down. I'll explain everything as we head down to the lobby," she said.

  "No. You are explaining everything now." I exclaimed.

  "Fine. You heard me correct. We are going to the bar with your work crew," she said.

  "How could that be? I never agreed to that!" I screamed.

  "Please, someone will hear you. I may have told Kyle that we would join them at the bar," she said embarrassed.

  "How could that be? You don't have his number." I said.

  Esme just fiddled with her jacket and mumbled something that sounded like ,"You did".

  I couldn't have heard her right? I must have been mistaken.

  "You didn't just say that I told him that we'd go to the bar with him, right? I never told him that!" I yelled again.

  "I may have used your phone to do so," she said.

  So many thoughts went through my mind, like how odd Esme was acting this week and how Kyle seemed even more flirty than usual and the comment he made about the bar tonight. It all of a sudden clicked and I was fuming.

  "You used my phone without my permission and pretended to be me?" I said.

  "Uh, I may have done that," she said warily.

  "What makes you think you could do that!" I roared.

  "I know. It was wrong to do that, but you don't want to miss a chance to go out with a great guy like Kyle or Tyler," she said.

  "Why are you assuming that I want to go out with either guy? And by the way, Tyler likes you. Did you know he's your ex's best friend. I thought you would have recognized him," I said.

  Esme went pale. "I didn't realize it was him. I didn't make the connection at first. I thought one or both of them had a crush on you. Why didn't you ever tell me about Tyler?" she said.

  "Would you have wanted to go out with him?" I asked.

  "Well, you didn't give me the chance to figure that out. You made that decision for me," she said.

  Before I had a chance to respond, a colleague of mine that both Esme and I knew, Tina, came in and asked, "Is everything ok? I thought I heard screaming in here".

  Esme looked at me desperate for me not to reveal the truth. I sighed and said, "Why don't you ask her yourself. I'm not feeling well, sorry guys, I will have to head home and make it another time. Don't miss it on my account," I said.

  Esme thought for a moment, wondering if she should tell the truth or not. But, she saw how upset I was and decided against it. "Um, ok. If you aren't really feeling well, shouldn't I go home with you?" she said.

  "Don't miss out on the fun, on my account," I said.

  "I'm concerned about you though," she said.

  "I know, but I don't want to get you sick. Please understand," I said.

  Esme wanted to say something else, but finally settled on, "Ok. Feel better and I'll check in on you," she said.

  Tina finally spoke and said, "Yes Olivia, feel better soon. Sorry you won't be able to make it."

  "Send my regrets to everyone. I need to pack up and go the bathroom, so I'm sorry I won't be able to tell everyone." I said.

  Esme looked sad and just said, "We'll talk more later, ok?"

  I nodded and they left the bathroom.

  I finally was able to leave the building and make my commute home. I wasn't that hungry for dinner, but I decided to pick up a container of ice cream. I put on some reality show for a bit. I was holding off on watching "A Life's Journey", because I was still hoping that Esme would come to her senses and come home. I checked my phone several times to see if that was the case, but it wasn't.

  Esme's POV

  I reluctantly left with Tina and headed downstairs to meet the others. I wondered if Olivia was telling the truth when she said that she was okay with me going instead of coming back home. I rationalized my decision by thinking that she was upset and needed some space. I thought that maybe I would leave the bar early and return home to see Olivia. I told Kyle that Olivia came down with something and had to unfortunately go home. I was concerned what he would make of that. Would he think she was lying or what? I didn't expect for him to say what he did. "Poor Olivia! I didn't realize she was sick. Maybe I should check up on her," he said concerned.

  "No!" I shouted. "I mean she was very tired and may be going to sleep early. She won't be up to company now, but send her a text telling her that you are thinking of her. I bet she will appreciate that," I said more calmly.

  "Uh. Sure, I'll do that. I just feel bad that she can't join us," he said. He paused and was about to say something else but changed his mind. Tyler said, " I guess we are ready to go."

  I finally looked at Tyler. I remember now how cute he was. I wondered why I never noticed that when I met both Tyler and Colin. I was immediately attracted to Colin and that is who I ended up with. I half expected Colin to be there and I looked around for him, but he wasn't. Now, I was suddenly nervous. I had wished Olivia was here, so she would help me from being so nervous. We made the short walk to the bar. It was a bit cold, so there was not much conversation with the others before we went in. Some of the people I knew already, when I was still working at the same agency with Olivia, others I didn't know at all. Tina smiled at me and since I knew her from working with her, I went over to talk to her.

  "I'm so sorry Olivia couldn't make it. I hadn't seen much of her at work today, so I didn't realize she wasn't feeling well," she said.

  "Yeah, she seemed okay this morning. It must have come over her sometime during work," I said. Suddenly, Tina is beaming at me and I'm wondering why. I'm about to turn around before Tina blurts out, "Don't turn around!"

  "What's wrong?" I exclaimed.

  "Sorry I shouldn't have yelled, but I think Ty was staring at you. I think he really likes you," she said.

  "Oh really?" I asked.

  "Yeah, isn't he the one who was real good friends, with your ex-Colin?" she said.

  I blushed and said, "Uh, right." I didn't like to talk about Colin much to anyone, except occasionally to Olivia, because she was the only person who didn't try to make a big deal about the whole situation, which just made me feel worse. Luckily, in the past, when others asked me about what happened with Colin, Olivia was there and she was great at diverting the topic. So my great idea to kill the conversation was to turn around and wave to Tyler and call him over to talk to us.

  Olivia's POV

  As angry as I was with Esme, I felt bad about ditching her at the bar. She did know a number of the people that were attending but she wasn't close to them and I knew seeing Tyler would be awkward for her. I decided just to quickly text her to see what was going on. The first text went something like this: Esme, sorry about ditching you, but you know WHY I did that. Anyhow, how's it going there. Did you see Tyler? I waited a few minutes but I didn't get a response. I don't know if I was going to ask her if I should wait for her to watch the show, but since she didn't answer my text, I took that as an excuse to start the show without her. I walked to my room and unearthed the candy from its hiding spot and got one out. I returned to the den and turned on the tv and found the show in my DVR list. I took a candy and waited for the magic to happen yet again.

  I briefly watched a scene of the show before I found myself in a hotel room. A few days had passed since I was last in Clearview. I had kept up with the show on the TV without using the candies. I was so upset and wanted to see Kaleb, but I knew my character, I mean me Hope was still angry at him. Hope was avoiding Kaleb for the past few days and even made excuses to Candace about why she wasn't introducing him to her. 

  I found Hope's phone. I checked the time and realized it was early morning, around 7 AM. I noticed I was in pajamas, a pair of comfy pink cotton shorts and a matching top, perfect for sleeping. I recall that Hope usually went to the hospital to see Candace about 10 AM. So I had some time to kill before I had to head to the hospital. Kaleb had given me his number and I stared at it for a few minutes, debating whether I should text him. I gave up. I turned on the tv and found some show about couples trying to find a new home, apparently it was some marathon. So a few shows later, I hop into the shower and get ready to go to the hospital. When it's time, I arrange for an Uber and go to the hospital.  As I enter the lobby, I see Kaleb coming straight towards me. 

  "Hope, you are not going to be able to keep on avoiding me!" he said. 

  I blush and mumbled, "Hello." I wasn't angry at Kaleb but I knew Hope was. Would she have forgiven him by now or not. I figured I would try to approach this through some middle ground. I'd be wary but be willing to hear Kaleb out. "Yeah, how are you?" I said avoiding what he said to me. 

  "Oh no you now you will talk to me?" he said.

  "Well you understand why I have been upset at you," I said. 

  "I totally understand that, but you keep on avoiding me and not give me a chance to explain why I acted the way I did," he said.

  "What if I did give you a chance to explain now?" I asked.

  "Ok, let's have a seat in the lobby here and talk," he said. 

  I followed him to a seat. "Fine, why don't you start explaining." 

  "I did act like a total jerk the other day and you had every right to be mad at me. There was something going on that had nothing to do with you and I took it out on you. That was totally wrong," he said.

  "Do you want to tell me what was bothering you that made you take it out on me?" I asked.

  "Uh, well I can tell you some of it. The cop you saw at the restaurant was my friend, well until my fiancee and him were sleeping together." he said.

  I felt bad for him. "Listen, I'm sorry to hear that, but that still doesn't explain why you took it out on me," I said.

  "Well there is more to the story, but I can't tell you just yet. When you were trying to get me to talk about it, I was getting very frustrated because I don't feel comfortable talking about it. Nothing personal, it's not you, most people don't know what's going on," he said.

  "I shouldn't have gone on about it when you said you didn't want to talk about it, but that doesn't excuse you going off on me like that," I stated.

  "That's true. I sincerely apologize for acting like such an ass to you then. I wish you would give me a chance to make it up to you," he said. 

  "At the risk of you yelling at me again, can you please at least tell me why you don't feel comfortable sharing what is bothering you?" I asked reluctantly.

  "It's not you, it's just I always have had this problem of sharing difficult situations with people I care about, well aside from my parents," he said.

  "Wait. You care about me?" I smiled. 

  "Yes, I do. I guess I'm afraid of disappointing you when you hear what I did wrong," he said.

  "I could understand that. You don't know me well to know how I react to certain situations and all," I said.

  "True, but I couldn't even share what had happened with my fiancee. That's why we broke up," he said.