For three days Liberty spent as much time as possible with Ezra. On Saturday she took her five year old half brother, Jackson, to the zoo and on Sunday she had a relatively okay meal with her mom and step dad.

She talked to Dom every night at the predetermined time and although he missed her like crazy, he assured her that he as glad she was having a good time.

Billy, who was checking on Dom at intervals during the day, noticed that he’d become less of his sunny self and more of a hermit; he sat at his apartment eating take out and watching old movies on the television. He didn’t voice this to Liberty, as he didn’t want her to worry, but he did consult Viggo and Sean on the matter. Both of them just told him to give it time, that Dom would come around eventually, he was just suffering from separation anxiety or some such psycho-babble. They both said everything would be fine when Liberty and Dom reunited. Sean even went as far as to say that every couple who are madly in love go through this the first time they’re apart for a long period of time.

Of course, Billy reasoned, they’d been apart plenty of times before but never had this outcome. Viggo said this was because Dom hadn’t been in love then, as he so undoubtedly was now.

Raya and Orlando were set to return from their honeymoon on Monday; they had contacted Billy to let him know and he’d said, “Glory Hallelujah. I need some help with Sulky Knickers.” Raya seemed concerned at this; Orlando, however, did not. He was more concerned about the baby getting enough fruit. He’d been shoving random fruits down Raya’s throat at mealtimes. She’d consumed more papayas, pineapple and kiwis in a week than she had in her entire life.

Anaka, who was living in London in her glamorous flat, had been in contact with Dom, wanting to make sure he was alright while he was “by his lonesome.” He assured her he was fine, but apparently she didn’t believe him, as she’d taken to showing up at his place several times a day bringing gourmet food. Often Billy was there and shooed her out. Sometimes, however, Billy was not there to dismiss her; she’d sit on the sofa beside Dom, who would be wrapped up in a blanket Liberty had given him for his birthday, and feed him soup. He didn’t think this odd, but Raya told Billy she’d put a stop to it as soon as she got home.

However, that proved to be too late to stop impending doom, as Billy would say.

It had been ten days since Liberty and Dom had last seen each other, and eleven when he showed up randomly in Michigan looking like a bum and wearing a backwards baseball cap of Elijah’s. He hadn’t slept in two days, distraught with guilt and he hadn’t told anyone else what was going on.

Liberty opened the door after the bell had rung seven times and grinned larger than she could ever imagine grinning. Dom was standing there on her doorstep. Alexia and Kate were out, working, and so the apartment was silent except for the low hum of the television which was set on an infomercial. Liberty had been sorting through her clothes, which were strewn about the room haphazardly, before she’d been interrupted. She was currently wearing black pants, jean shorts on top of that, a white t-shirt and a blue tank top on top of that. She had been trying things on to see if they fit. Her hair was in a messy bun at the top of her head and she looked well rested and healthy, the exact opposite of her boyfriend.

“Dom!” she yelled happily. “What are you doing here? We weren’t supposed to see each other for at least another month!” She made a move to hug him, but then she really saw him and she stopped.

Dom’s eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with tears; Liberty’s smile slid off her face and she took a step closer to him, but he held a shaking hand up. “I need to tell you something.” His voice was weak and shaky and it scared her to see him like this.

“What’s going on?” She asked, wanting to reach out and pull him into a hug and not let go.

He closed his eyes, swallowed and then looked back up at her. “I’m so, so sorry, Liberty.” Her eyes narrowed in confusion and her brow furrowed as she contemplated what he could possibly have to feel sorry about. “I was really, amazingly, completely and utterly drunk. Pissed drunk.”

“When? Dom, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Remember you called me last night…you left a message and you sounded worried as to where I was, because I wasn’t home at the designated time. Well, I…I wasn’t home.” She wanted to reply, “Obviously,” but held back, chewing on her bottom lip as she gazed at him through frightened eyes. “I had gone out, for a few drinks by myself. I was gonna just go to a pub, watch the match, then get home in time for your call.” He swallowed again and it looked like it pained him, but for some reason she couldn’t feel sympathy at the moment because she knew something was coming; something dreadful and life-altering. Something that would ruin everything. “But she kept buying me drinks and practically forcing them down my throat and before long I couldn’t think straight. I…I thought she was you.”

Liberty inhaled sharply, her heart pounding against her ribs painfully as her throat closed up. She didn’t respond, couldn’t find the words and couldn’t get her voice to work even if she’d wanted to.

Dom took a deep, steadying breath and said, “We went back to my flat…I don’t know how it happened. I didn’t mean for it to, honestly. I’m such a fucking bastard. I’m so sorry, Liberty. I’m just so sorry.” The tears flowed freely from his eyes now, blurring his vision; sobs raked his body and though she was feeling pain inside she had never felt before, she wanted to console him, to tell him it was okay. Even though it most certainly wasn’t.

“Who was it?” She demanded using a voice she didn’t recognize.

Dom wiped at his eyes and sniffed, unable to meet her gaze, “It was Anaka. I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what I can say---” he reached a hand out to her, but she slapped it away and took a wobbly step back, backing herself against the cold wall.

She looked as if he’d physically slapped her. “How---why---” she shook her head, trying to clear it of the images she was receiving of Dom and Anaka in bed together. “You fucking slept with ANAKA!?”

He didn’t need to affirm this by doing anything, his eyes told her all she needed to know. Shock wasn’t a strong enough word for what she felt; amongst anger, she felt hurt, betrayed and sad all at once. She wasn’t sure what to do, what to say. All she knew was that she couldn’t look at him at that moment and that hurt more than anything. Liberty took a step back into the room and closed the door on him before turning on her heel and running to the bed and collapsing onto it, in a fit of hysterical sobs that didn’t stop for hours.

Liberty’s eyes were tight when she opened them several hours later, it was bright outside suggesting that she’d not only cried half the night, that she’d fallen asleep at some point. She realized why she’d awoken when she heard the phone ringing from the bedside table. She didn’t make a move to answer it. Instead she rolled over and pulled the covers up over her head, drowning the world out.

*

“You know I haven’t seen him in three days?” Billy asked, stepping into Orlando and Raya’s flat without so much as a hello or how have you been or how was the honeymoon. “I’ve been to his place fifty times and he’s not there, his car’s gone. He isn’t answering the phone. Where do you think he’s gone?”

“Probably to see Liberty,” Raya replied; she was sprawled out on the couch reading a book on pregnancy. Orlando had been going over lines beside her in the leather recliner. “Did you try ringing her?”

Billy threw himself into the empty loveseat which had been a wedding present, “Yes. Her phone’s off the hook or something. Disconnected probably.”

Raya sat up suddenly, looking perplexed. “It shouldn’t be. She has flat mates. That friend of hers and some other girl are living there. She’s just staying with them for a bit and packing up her stuff.”

Billy and Raya were looking at each other in confusion; Orlando was standing beside the couch eating a cookie and wondering what the hell they were doing. “What’s the verdict?” he asked after a few moments of contemplative silence.

“Maybe they’ve gone off on a romantic getaway without telling us?” Billy suggested, though he sounded unsure.

“No,” Raya fully sat up now, sitting on the edge of the sofa with her head resting on her hands. “Where’s Anaka?”

Billy and Orlando exchanged looks and then shrugged. Raya picked up the phone from the coffee table and punched in some numbers. She ran a hand anxiously through her mass of immaculate curls and stood, pacing the room.

“I’ve never seen her pace before,” Orlando commented in a sidebar to Billy.

“Something’s wrong. She can feel it.”

“It’s her connection to The Force.”

Billy‘s brow furrowed in confusion, “What’s she doing?”

“Calling in the Jedis.”

*

Alexia and Kate came home at five o’clock that evening, talking and laughing; thankful for the release after their stressful days at work. Alexia was taking night classes, working toward a degree in law and Kate was doing weekend classes (she liked to be free at night for parties), trying to get a degree in an unknown subject.

They found Liberty laying on the couch, tissues all around the room mixing with boxes of clothes and piles of purses and shoes, flipping idly through the television channels. Alexia dropped to her side, seeing her tear-stained face. She smoothed her hair out of her face and said, “God, Liberty, what happened?”

“Did someone die?” Kate asked tactfully; Alexia shot her a look and Kate shrugged and went into her bedroom.

“What did that bastard do to you?” Alexia asked, taking the controller out of her hands and turning the TV off. She forced Liberty’s wet brown eyes to look at her straight on.

“He cheated on me,” she replied stonily.

“Your step dad cheated on you? What the fuck does that mean?”

“My step dad? No. I haven’t seen him.”

“Who the hell cheated on you, then?” She paused, realization dawning. “DOM!? Dom cheated on you!?”

Liberty‘s voice was humorless, dry and practically void of life, “Apparently, you’re as surprised as I am.”

The phone rang then, and Liberty cast a disdainful look at it, as if it had caused her the pain she was now feeling. Alexia stood up and answered it. “Hello? No, this is Alexia. Who is this? Raya? Raya who? Bloom? As in Orlando? OH! You’re his new wife! Yes, hi. She’s here. Uh-huh. No, you’ve left messages?” Alexia wondered over to the answering machine which was blinking the red number 10. “How many did you leave? Well, it says ten. Dominic? Oh, Dom. Yeah. I don’t know. I haven’t listened to them. No, she’s been here all day. What’s wrong with her? She’s just told me he cheated on her. I haven’t gotten the facts yet. No, I was about to. Talk to her? Hang on.” She cupped the receiver and turned to Liberty with a fretful expression on her face. “Raya would like to speak to you.”

“Tell her I’m dead,” Liberty replied, flipping herself over so she was facing the back of the couch. She pulled her duvet over her head. “Tell her Dom slept with the devil.”

“The devil?” Alexia repeated in confusion. She the phone to her ear. “She says Dom slept with the devil. I don’t know what that means. Oh. Her. Yes. I was told about her a while ago, Liberty called me once from New Zealand regaling me with the wonderful tale. No, I don’t know. Let me ask.” Alexia cleared her throat and walked closer to the couch, leaning towards her covered friend. “Have you seen Dom?”

“He came here to tell me in person,” Liberty replied, her voice muffled and shaky. Alexia repeated this to Raya. “Hasn’t she talked to him?”

“No. No one’s seen him for three days. Billy’s a blubbering mess, apparently.” Liberty jumped up from under the blanket and grabbed the phone away from Alexia, who sighed and flopped down onto Liberty’s vacated spot.

“Dom’s missing?” Liberty asked Raya, sounding scared.

“Missing is such a strong word. Misplaced, maybe. Lost, probably. Wallowing in self pity. Quite possibly.”

“Oh God,” Liberty moaned, pacing the room much as Raya was at her place; the tears fell freely from her eyes, and she didn’t try to stop them. “If anything’s happened to him---Do you think he’s staying with Anaka?”

Raya laughed a mirthless chuckle. “No. She hasn’t seen him since it happened. Liberty, she practically raped him. I got the whole story out of her after much prodding and threatening. She confessed he was calling her Liberty and she didn’t correct him. Apparently she’s dyed her hair and she had it up, and---” she broke off. “I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

“No. No, I’m not all right.”

“Well do me a favor. Play your messages and if there are any from him, for GODSAKE, call him back at whatever number he gives you. I know you don’t want to talk to him, or look at him or anything right now…but if he’s hurt, you’re going to regret it if you could have stopped it. If you won’t do this for him, then do it for me.”

“You hate Dom,” Liberty responded, fingering the answering machine, running her index finger around the play button.

“I don’t hate him. I’m pissed at him right now, but I don’t hate him. Do you?”

“I could never hate him.”

“I know.” Her voice hardened, “Play the messages. Call me back.” With a click and a dial tone, Raya was gone.

Liberty gently pressed the end button on the phone and then laid it beside the machine. “What’d she say?” Alexia asked, walking up behind her.

Liberty shook her head and pressed play. The first message was from her mother, the second from Ezra, the third from Elijah; none of them knew what had gone on. The fourth message was a hang up, the fifth another. The sixth began with the clearing of a throat and then the voice that made Liberty’s knees go weak; whether from fright or lust, she couldn’t tell.

“Liberty?” Dom asked hesitantly, his voice ringing around the apartment. Alexia grabbed Liberty’s elbow and led her to a stool at their bar. “It’s me. I know you don’t want to talk to me, but I need you to know how sorry I am. If I could take it all back, I swear I would. I fucking hate her for doing this to us. I promised you…and I promised myself that I wouldn’t let anything ruin our relationship. I can never forgive myself for what I’ve done. I’m sorry, love.” There was a pause in which Dom exhaled very deeply and shakily. “I love you.”

Alexia looked down at Liberty who was shaking on the stool. She wrapped an arm around her and turned back to the machine. “Where were you when he called?“

Liberty shrugged. “Asleep probably. I slept most of the day. I wouldn’t have answered, anyway.”

The seventh message clicked on and Billy’s voice filled her ears. “Libs! It’s Billy! Pick up if you’re there!” He sounded falsely cheery and Liberty knew he was trying to pretend he didn’t know what had gone on. “All right, well I guess you’re not there. Call me back. I’ll be home.”

The eighth was another hang up, the ninth was from Alexia’s mom. The tenth was another from Dom, who sounded rather inebriated. “Liberty. It’s me again. Dom. I really want to talk to you, so if you’re there, could you please pick up? I’ve come by several times, but I couldn’t get the courage to come up and talk to you. I was afraid you’d slam the door in my face again. Listen. I’m in Michigan now but I’ve got a plane out to London in the morning. If you don’t want to see me, I understand…but would you at least call me and let me know you’re all right? I don’t care what time it is. Just call.” He proceeded to give the name of the hotel he was staying at, his room number and the phone number. “I love you, you know. You must know that. I never meant for any of this to happen.” The message cut off and Liberty sank to the floor, her head in her hands, crying uncontrollably. Alexia dropped down beside her, consoling her and rubbing her back.

But nothing cured a broken heart.

*

It was early afternoon when Alexia returned home the next day, having taken a half day off from work to make sure Liberty didn’t “drown herself in her own miseries.” Alexia was an understanding girl, having been cheated on several times herself, but she didn’t really get it. She’d never truly been in love and been hurt so much by it that it repeatedly felt like someone was punching you in the gut constantly. Raya had alerted Liv of the situation and Liv had called offering to fly to Michigan to be with her, but Liberty wouldn’t allow it. She only picked up the phone because she hated hearing Liv’s cheery voice sounding so desperate and sad.

Alexia had called Ezra from work, explaining things to him, and he had run over to Liberty’s at lunchtime to check on her, but she hadn’t let him in. He knew how bad she was hurting, because she’d never once not allowed him in, never once not shared her feelings with him. He was worried.

Elijah, Billy, Orlando and Viggo had all called her separately. Elijah sounded awkward on his message, begging her to just pick up the phone because he “hated these fucking machines.” She’d cried and laughed a bit, but hadn’t answered. A similar story happened with Billy’s call; she’d been very close to answering, but had retracted her fingers from the button just as he’d hung up. Orlando offered his take on the ordeal, stating that Dom was an idiot sometimes but that didn’t mean he wasn’t an idiot who loved her. He’d said he was sorry before hanging up. Viggo was the only one who’s call she answered, but it was only after some persuasion. She’d spoken in hushed tones, only two syllable sentences and cried some more when he told her how sorry he was. He had also said that she should consider forgiving him and she had responded by saying, “Viggo. Sometimes forgiveness isn’t warranted.”

He’d chuckled softly and replied, “Honey. Everybody deserves to be forgiven. Don’t write him off so quickly.” before he told her he loved her and hung up.

Raya had called again too, half chastising her over the intercom and half consoling her. She said she was eating fruit like there was no tomorrow and wanted Liberty to be the Godmother of the baby. Liberty burst into fits of new sobs and unplugged the phone.

Alexia found her sitting on the couch in her pajamas which she hadn’t changed for three days, “Liberty, you cannot just sit around this apartment stuffing your face with McDonalds.”

“Why the hell not?” Liberty demanded, stuffing several fries into her mouth. She chewed them savagely and then swigged them down with some coke.

“Because. I don’t want your obituary to read, ‘Death by McDonalds’ on it and I don’t give a fuck that it’s the closest food to you. Just because there’s one next door doesn’t mean you can JUST eat that for several days in a row. I mean, COME ON! You went over there this morning and got one of everything on the breakfast list and now you’ve gone and ordered numbers 1 through 5 on the Extra Value Meal thing. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”

“Would you rather I eat fifty pints of Ben and Jerry’s?” Liberty asked, taking several bites out of a Big Mac.

“Maybe. It’s much less grease.” Alexia plopped down beside her and daintily put a fry in her mouth. “Libs! PLEEEEEEEASE.”

“Please what?” Liberty asked, dumping a packet of ketchup on one of her orders of fries.

“Take a shower, get dressed and go out! Further than McDonalds. Go see your Mom. She keeps calling my cell phone and she sounds really upset.”

“I don’t care,” she remarked mournfully, stonily staring at the television screen in front of her. Oprah was on, talking, but the volume was turned down and they couldn’t hear her words.

Alexia put a hand on her arm, “You need to get over this.”

“I NEED more McDonalds.”

“You’re gonna gain fifty pounds.”

“I really don’t give a fuck.”

“Would you STOP swearing? You NEVER swear. It sounds weird coming out of your mouth.”

“Raya said that to me earlier.”

Alexia sighed, “What else did Raya say?”

“The same as Liv,” Liberty replied, setting her burger down and twisting her fingers in her lap anxiously. “They want me to talk to him. They want me to give him a second chance. They want me to get past this. They want me to forgive him. They want me to go and see them.” She ticked off all the reasons on her fingers, sounding angry and sad at the same time.

“Why aren’t they here with you?” Alexia asked gently.

“I told them not to come, I said I wouldn’t let them in.” Liberty closed her eyes and leaned back against the sofa. “I just want to crawl into a hole and never get out again.”

“I’ll go dig you one in the backyard and stick some Mickey D’s in there for you. And lots of water. At least keep your skin looking good. You could AT LEAST do me that favor.”

Liberty laughed weakly, “I don’t know what to do, Lex. He hurt me far more than anyone else in my entire life has. How is that even possible? I’ve been hurt so many times---”

“Not by someone you were truly in love with, Lib. He hurt you that much because he was close enough. You let him in, he was a part of you. He was closer to you than any other guy you’ve ever dated, or ever known even.”

“So it’s my fault he hurt me?” Liberty stipulated, sitting up again and reaching for some chicken nuggets, which Alexia pulled out of her way.

“Of course it’s not your fault!” Alexia cried exasperatedly. “But I don’t think it’s his either.”

“How can you say that?”

“I’ve heard his messages on our machine before you cut the phone line. He’s so in love with you that he doesn’t know what to do with himself, and you won’t talk to him. It’s like when you thought you were in love with Tyler and he just kept throwing you aside. And remember those times when he was really mean to you on the phone? And the times he refused to talk to you?” Liberty cringed, not wanting her to go on, but knowing that she would. She nodded, avoiding Alexia’s eyes. “That’s how Dom’s feeling right now--”

“I’m hurt too, ya know!” Liberty cried angrily. “He’s not the only one in pain!”

“No,” Alexia agreed. “But he’s the one who caused it, so in essence, his pain is far worse than yours is. He’ll never forgive himself for hurting you, even if you decide to give him a second chance. It’ll always be there, in the back of his mind. Like a black spot on a creamy white cashmere sweater. It won’t wash out, and it won’t fade away. One day, you’ll get over this no matter if you get back together or not. But, he won’t let himself forget it, he won’t let himself move on.”

“I can’t even breathe without it hurting, Lex,” Liberty said, wiping her eyes which had suddenly begun leaking tears.

“Imagine how he feels.” She stood up from the couch looking all-knowing, and walked into her bedroom.

Liberty fell back against the couch, sobbing her heart out. The last image in her head before she fell asleep was of Dom, in his apartment alone, feeling more misery than she could possibly imagine.