You Always Go And Rescue Me

I’d been flying high for a while. Nothing was bringing me down; I didn’t care what anyone had to say. I was bursting at the seams with happiness. Zach and I had been super busy, but our relationship was thriving. He had been on the road more lately but we were in constant communication.

It was a relief to have Courtney in my life again. She and I would hang out whenever Zach was out of town. She’d end up coming over my place and we’d usually end up watching ‘Friends’ dvd’s until we passed out. I didn’t realize how much I missed having a friend by my side because I had been so busy with my career and then Zach came into the equation, but I certainly did.

I knew Zach’s travel schedule pretty well because of the fact that I worked with the team. So when he got home, I knew, when he left, I knew. Whenever he would leave for any extended period of time, by the time he would get back our bodies would give in to each other like the missing piece of the puzzle was found.

Zach had been gone for a few days, he had a heavy schedule of away games and I hadn’t really seen him much for the past month. I wasn’t thrilled with the schedule, but we didn’t have a choice. I kept busy with work and thank God for Courtney, because it definitely made the time apart more bearable. I was proud of him though, because the team was on a hot streak, and so was my man, his value to the team was undeniable.

“Zach’s coming home tomorrow right?” Courtney was over, we were relaxing in our sweats and watching dvd’s.

“Yes, yes he is, and I can’t wait.”

“So…that means that Travis is coming home…too?” She was trying to be nonchalant, but I saw right through that.

“Well considering they play on the same team, yeah. I don’t know if he’s going out after they get back, but if all goes like it normally does then yes, he’ll be getting home at the same time," I teased.

“That’s cool, maybe we’ll see him.”

“Courtney?”

“Yes?”

“Do you like Travis?”

“No.” If she thought I believed her than she was really good at kidding herself.

“Courtney. Um, I know you’ve talked to Travis, because I know he asked for your number. You do realize my boyfriend lives with him, right?”

She blushed, really, really blushed. “We might’ve talked a few times, but nothing serious.”

“Court, I love you, but I just want you to be careful with him because I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

“Alright. Just be careful.”

The next day I was eagerly awaiting Zach to come home. I had a long day at work and I was pretty stressed out. I kept anticipating our night together to keep my mind from going nuts with the day I was having. I missed him. We were supposed to go to dinner, and I was in the process of getting dressed when he called me.

“Hey baby! What’s up?” He sounded a little uneasy.

“Nothing love, just getting ready for our date. I miss you!”

“Yeah, um, I miss you too. Look, we’re not gonna be home for a little while, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it. I’m so sorry sweetie.”

I immediately was confused; I knew he was supposed to be home already. I talked to him earlier in the day and he didn’t mention anything about their travlel arrangements being delayed.

“What are you talking about?” I was irritated.

“We got stuck here longer than usual and we still aren’t home yet, and I’m pretty beat, so I’m gonna have to take a rain check on tonight.”

“Okay…”

“Are you angry?”

Yes, I was furious. I didn’t understand why he waited until the last minute to tell me. “Uh, no. Not at all honey. It’s okay. These things happen.” I absolutely thought it was strange, but I tried not to let it bother me.

“Um, I have to go baby, but I love you and I’ll call you later.”

“I love you too-“ and with that he was gone. I was standing there in shock, Zach never blew me off, and I found it even more strange because we hadn’t seen each other much. I tried not to let it bother me much though, I tried calling Courtney but her phone went to voice mail, so instead I put on my pajamas and spent the night with my television.

Around eleven I got a text from Zach telling me he was home safe and to have a good night…he also said he loved me. I didn’t answer.

The next day I had a meeting and I was running around frantic trying to get everything done that I needed to. I was with my boss for a majority of the morning so I didn’t have the chance to check my phone. When I did, I saw I had about five texts and two missed calls from Courtney begging me to call her. When I had five free minutes I did.

“Hello?”

“Okay, what is so important that you had to blow up my phone?” I joked into the phone.

“I went out with Travis last night!”

“Huh?” I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear that.

“Yeah! He called me around five and asked me if I wanted to do dinner and so we met in the city and he took me out to dinner and then we went for drinks- I shut my phone off because I didn’t want to get any interruptions- but I didn’t get home until really late so I waited to call you until today!” she could barely contain her enthusiasm. I could barely understand what she was saying.

“Wait, I don’t- you went out with him last night? He was home at five? Were the rest of the guys back too?”

“Yes, why…” she didn’t understand why I wasn’t joining in on her happiness.

“Uh, no, I’m so happy for you, I just was wondering that’s all.” This entire situation wasn’t adding up. “So you had a good time?”

“Yes! He was so nice. He wasn’t anything how you described him.”

“Weird…” I wasn’t really checked into the conversation at this point.

“Sarah, what’s the matter?” She picked up on my obvious attitude. It wasn’t meant to be directed at her of course, but I had a huge pit in my stomach thinking of him lying to me.

“Nothing, uh, I gotta get back to work. I’ll call you later. I’m glad you two had such a great time last night.” I hung up immediately; I had to sort my thoughts.

I went through the rest of my day very lethargically, I didn’t get in touch with Zach though. He did text me a few times, but I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t want to argue, but I didn’t know what else to think. The evidence all pointed to him lying to me, I just couldn’t figure out why.

When I got home I made myself dinner and sat down to breathe for a few minutes. I still couldn’t logically explain what was going on. Courtney kept calling me, I knew she wasn’t going to drop the issue so I took a deep breath and answered her millionth call.

“What’s up Court?”

“Sarah, what the hell is going on?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. Zach and I were supposed to go to dinner last night and when I was getting ready he called and said that they were delayed? I don’t know he said that they weren’t getting home until real late and he was tired so he was going to sleep and then he told me he got home around eleven. So when you told me you went out with Travis last night…I obviously flipped.”

She didn’t know what to say. “Um…he said they weren’t home yet?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, that’s obviously a lie. I don’t know why he would lie about it though…or why he wouldn’t want to see you, you haven’t seen each other a lot late-“

Irritated, I cut her off. “I know Court. All those things have already run through my mind. Did Travis say anything?”

“No. He didn’t say anything out of the ordinary about Zach. I know he barely saw him once they got home, because of obvious reasons, but there’s no reason for what he told you,” she said concerned.

I let out a frustrated, loud sigh. My stomach was in knots and I couldn’t help but cry. He didn’t want me to know what he was doing, but that’s the part that was the strangest to me.

“I’m sure he has a good reason for this, Sar. He loves you.”

“Yeah…” I said in a tone of defeat as I wiped the tears off my face.

“Don’t go jumping to any conclusions just yet. Just talk to him.”

“And say what? I’m going to look like a stalker-girlfriend. He obviously didn’t want to see me, so what more is there to say?”

Neither of us had the answer. Zach, apparently, was the only one who did.

“Well, he’s going to eventually find out that you know he lied, regardless of if you talk to him or not. I’m sure Travis is going to tell him we went out last night, and he’ll know I talked to you… he’s going to have to explain himself.”

“Yeah, well, I’m leaving it to him to tell the truth. I’m not going to push it out of him, he should be honest on his own…and if he isn’t, then I don’t know. This just better be good.”

“I’ll come over tonight if you don’t see him. Let me know how it goes.”

We hung up and I shook my head in frustration. I didn’t know what to do. I’d never had to deal with this before with Zach. I never thought I would. As hard as it was, I kept my composure and I didn’t call him or anything all day. I waited on him.

A few hours later my phone went off and I knew it was him. I didn’t want to answer, but I couldn’t wait at the same time. I picked up and tried to sound as normal as possible.

“Hey beautiful, what’s up? How was your day?” He sounded pretty damn normal.

“Not much-busy day.”

“I miss you, I can’t wait to hold you in my arms.”

Ordinarily I’d be hanging by every word, but with everything he didn’t know I knew, it was making me feel worse.

“Uh huh.”

“Well we shouldn’t get back from Philly too late tonight, so regardless I’ll come over.”

They had a game in Philadelphia, but they weren’t planning on getting home too late because of the fact that Philly wasn’t too far a ride. I had completely forgotten about it momentarily because I was so upset over everything else.

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Okay, just let me know.”

Sensing the lack of emotion in my voice, and knowing I never just forgot games, Zach started to get a little nervous. “Sweetie, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be? I’m fine.”

“I don’t believe you, but okay. I love you.”

“Well, you have no reason not to believe me.” My attitude was becoming harder to mask. “I have to go…I’ll see you later. Good luck, I love you.”

I immediately hung up with him. He absolutely knew something wasn’t right, and he kept messaging me but I didn’t answer too much. He was going to be distracted soon enough anyway, so I called Courtney and she decided to take me out for a girl’s night. I didn’t want to go initially, but she dragged me out.

We ended up going to this sports bar to watch the game and have a few drinks. She knew I didn’t drink often, if ever, so I wasn’t really planning on having too many. We just sat and watched, cheering on- I guess our boys- snacking and talking.

We tried to figure out exactly what was going on. We dissected it every which way and it still didn’t make sense. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions such as him cheating on me, but why else would he lie? I didn’t think he ever would do that, especially after everything that had been happening, but I wasn’t sure what to think at the moment. After a while into the game and a couple hours of talking, I got so upset that I had a drink. One drink turned into two and after a couple, things started getting foggy. I remembered vaguely thinking at some point that it had to be extremely late but I didn’t know anything else. The last thing I hazily remembered was being carried out of the bar by a pair of arms, not sure where I was heading.