Everly had her life all planned out. She was going to marry Brad, her best friend since second grade, her high school sweetheart, and soulmate. He was a baseball prodigy and planned to play for the New York Yankees one day, which was perfect because...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
***** One Year Later *****
Everly's car pulled up in front of the shiny, silver Ashcroft Industries skyscraper in downtown London right as her phone rang. It was a call from her Mom.
"Hey Mom! How are you?" she asked, as she got out and thanked the driver.
"I'm good sweetheart. We're here in New York with Brad's parents watching a Yankees game. How are you and Keaton?"
"We're good. Great actually," she said with a smile.
"That's good honey. I miss you."
"I miss you too Mom."
"Oh, I've gotta go. Brad's about to bat! I'll text you the link to the live feed just in case you feel like watching. I'll call you tonight!" she squealed with excitement before hanging up. She never talked to Brad anymore and they had obviously stopped being friends after she broke off their engagement, but her Mom still insisted on updating her about how he was doing with baseball.
She waved to Kate behind the security desk and gave her a smile as she scanned her access card and walked towards the elevator, pushing the button for the top floor. She leaned against the wall as her phone dinged with a text and she clicked on the link out of curiosity. She watched as Brad stepped up to home plate, doing a couple practice swings before crouching down and staring intently at the pitcher. He swung and there was a loud cracking sound as the ball flew way up high and soared over the stands. He pointed up in the stands at Audrey, his girlfriend, who was holding their newborn baby son on her lap and he blew her a kiss before running the bases.
He had started dating her not too long after Everly broke off their engagement. It had been a huge scandal because she was the girlfriend of one of Brad's Yankees teammates when he fell in love with her. Of course it blew up in the tabloids and Brad was called a homewrecker and Audrey was accused of being a cheater. In a press interview he was adamant that he never touched her, not even a kiss, until after she broke things off with his teammate first, but no one believed him.
Everly did. She could always tell when he was lying and it was obvious that he wasn't. Brad lost a few endorsement deals over it, but more came in to take their place. Cheating scandals for pro athletes were nothing new and it would eventually blow over and no one would even remember about it. After seeing pictures and videos of them together, she could tell he really was madly in love with Audrey and she was in love with him too. He looked at her the way Everly looked at Keaton.
As Brad ran the bases he had a big smile on his face and he looked really happy. Baseball had always been his real true love and his lifelong dream of playing for the Yankees like his idol Babe Ruth had come true. She watched the man that was her first love and her best friend for so many years crossing home plate as screaming Yankees fans went wild cheering for him and he felt like a stranger now.
