Chapter 10

A few days had gone past and Sidney couldn't get ahold of Karen. No one knew where she was and when he's tried to call her, it would go to voicemail. He was really worried about her and wanted to find her. He had only wanted to stop talking to her for a couple of days and then talk to her, but she jumped the gun and left. Sidney was done with practice and decided to head up to Ray's offce to see if Karen was up there. He got there and saw her desk empty like no one's been there for a few days. He was about to leave when someone stopped him.

"Hey Sid" Ray said coming from his office "what can I do for you?"

"I was just here to see Karen."

"She called me a couple days ago saying she had family issues and needed some time off. Didn't you know that?" he saw the look on his face "why don't you come in and we can talk for a minute." Sidney nodded and followed Ray into his office, sitting down as he shut the door. "What's going on Sid?"

"Karen and I had a fight, a big one and she packed some clothes and left. I haven't heard from her in awhile and wondered if she was here and just avoiding me. At least knowing she called you makes me feel a little better knowing she's alright."

"Well she couldn't have gone far. Did you check everywhere?"

"No, I have one other place to try. Thanks Ray and I would appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything."

"I won't and let me know if she's ok. I miss her around the office."

"If I see her, I'll tell her." Sidney left and went to see Britnie, hoping she could help him find her.

Awhile later, Sidney pulled up to Britnie's house and went up to the door, knocking.

"Sid? What are you doing here?" Britnie asked shocked answering the door.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure, come on in." Britnie let him in then closed the door behind him following him to the living room "what did you need to talk about?"

"Have you talked to Karen lately?"

"No and I really don't want to see her just yet."

"Jordan said he told you. What are your feelings with all this? I mean if you don't mind me asking."

"I feel bad for you and although I am mad at Karen, once I talk to her I don't think I can stay mad at her. Jordan said it all started before we dated so I can only hold their one time over her. What about you?"

"I don't know, I mean I was mad at them both from what I saw but part of me hates myself for not talking to her and hearing the explanation. That's why I stopped over, I can't find her anywhere and her cell phone is off. Do you know of anywhere she could have gone?"

"If she isn't at our parent's house, you might want to try our grandmother's house. When she died, she left her house to Karen. That would be the only other place I can think of."

"Could you give me directions so I can go see for myself?"

"Sure, let me write them down for you." She wrote the directions down on a piece of paper and handed it to Sidney. He thanked her and left to go see if that's where she was. Sidney found the house and saw how secluded it was. As he got closer, he saw her car in the driveway and pulled in behind her. Sidney sat in the car for a few minutes to compose himself.

Karen was on the couch, curled up thinking about Sidney. She thought about their first date when he took her to a run down dive and smiled. The food was excellent but the atmosphere was more than cheesy. It showed her how normal he could be. Or when they started dating and he asked her to go steady like they were in Jr High. He always showed a different side when he was around her and she loved it. Karen closed her eyes and remembered their wedding. They had only dated for 10 months before Sidney proposed and the wedding was 2 months later on New Year's Eve at midnight. They had more love for each other in the short time they've been together than anybody whose been married 50 years. Karen didn't know what would happen between them and she knew she couldn't hide away forever. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Karen went to open it...revealing Sidney.

“Sid? What are you doing here?” Karen said shocked and confused.

“Can I come in please?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, come in.” Karen said as he walked past him.

Sidney looked around the house and turned to Karen "you're not an easy person to find."

"How did you find me?" she said motioning for him to sit down.

"Britnie."

"Is she mad at me?"

"That's something you need to talk to her about."

"I'll take that as a yes. So why did you come here?"

"I came to talk to you."

"Oh."

Sidney saw the fear in her eyes and his heart sank. "Do you realize how much you hurt me? Do you realize how it hurt to see Jordan touching your naked body and kissing you where only I was meant to kiss you? Do you?"

"I can imagine how you felt" she said looking down to the floor.

"Why Jordan? What could he give you that I couldn’t? Is this why you didn’t want to start a family with me because you thought you could have one with him?"

"That’s not why Sid. I didn’t want to start a family this soon because I wanted it to be just us for a couple years before we had kids."

"What?"

"We've only been married for a year Sid. You still could have time to realize that I'm not what you want and a baby would just complicate you feeling like you had to stay around. Jordan was a bump in the road that I got caught up on one to many times. He didn’t have or give me what you couldn’t, he kept me away from what I didn’t want to give you yet."

"Why couldn’t you just tell me what was going on when I asked you the other week?"

"I don’t know why" sighed Karen "maybe I was afraid that you would think I was right."

"Baby, I love you. All you had to do was tell me that you wanted it to be us for awhile, I would have understood. I just don't understand why you kept seeing Jordan even after we got together."

"Jordan got to be a force bigger than me and you catching us was a way to bring me out of it. I had tried to stop it but I couldn't and before you ask, I don't know why I couldn't."

"I think you do know why, you just don't want to say it. Am I not enough for you? Do I not satisfy you?"

"That's not it Sid. He was just different than what you and I have. I can't explain it any better than that."

"Do you have feelings for him?" Sidney asked hoping he didn't get the same answer Jordan gave him.

"I'm not sure what I feel towards him."