“Tell me,” I said, eying her seriously and giving her hand a squeeze.
“I thought I saw someone I used to know. It probably wasn’t them. It’s okay.”
“Where? Who?”
She dared to glance back over her shoulder and then visibly relaxed, “I don’t see them now. I must’ve been mistaken.”
“You sure? You’re alright?”
She took a big breath and beamed at me, “Yes. I’m sure.”
“Who was it?”
She shook her head, not wanting to tell me. I glared.
“Jason,” she replied softly, “The guy who asked me to marry him in Thailand. But it wasn’t him, obviously.” She shrugged.
Angel
I thought I’d seen him at a table for two sitting alone, looking right at me over a menu. I’d been afraid to look back, afraid to find out whether or not it’d really been him. But when I looked back there was no one there. That table was empty. Either it was a lookalike or my mind was playing tricks on me.
I pushed away thoughts of him and just focused on the footsteps Dare and I were taking, heading back toward his building. He didn’t go back to his funny story, instead he was quiet the rest of the walk back and the vibe coming off him was tense.
As we were in the elevator Dare’s phone made a ding sound and he read the text and his expression dropped.
“Awe shit,” he grumbled.
“Everything okay?”
“No. That was Tess. They took Lisa to the hospital. She started bleeding. Had a miscarriage.”
“Oh no.” My stomach dipped and I felt cold envelop me. Lisa would be devastated. Absolutely gutted. My hand covered my mouth.
“Can we go see her?”
“We’ll go tomorrow. Give her today. Okay?” He was replying to the text, his jaw tight.
I nodded.
We got to the apartment and he went to work in his den for a bit. I curled up in bed and watched TV but thought about Lisa. Poor Lisa. She wanted that baby so badly, was already in love with the idea of being a mother before she’d even started to show.
Poor Shayla.
Tommy
I pulled up the driveway at the farm and watched Tia’s face as the house came into view.
“Oh my goodness!” Tia exclaimed, “Holy shit!”
We stopped in front of the house and she threw the car door open, giddy with excitement. She ran toward the front steps.
Just before we left to go get married I met with a contractor and went over specs with him to fix up the farmhouse. When I planned it I didn’t know when we’d be back here but knew that whenever we did I’d be bringing her up here. She called it our ‘happy place’.
It’d been a small stone farmhouse with a gutted kitchen and walls filled with graffiti as the place had been empty for a few years before I bought it. But now it was covered in a soft grey board and batten with a lilac colored shingled roof and lilac colored shutters flanking each window. I’d had the roof, siding, and front porch redone and a back deck and gazebo added. Yesterday I had someone come cut the grass and put out pots of colorful fall mums around the front of the house as well as a big vase filled with two dozen pink roses on the kitchen counter. I followed her to the porch and found the key in my pocket and opened the door.
“Wait,” I told her as she went to go in and then I lifted her up and carried her over the threshold. Excitement was written all over her fac
e, especially at the sight of the roses.