“What happened?”
“Life did.” I sniffed, loathing every syllable that came out of my mouth. I didn’t want to talk about Molly. I didn’t even like to think about her. The time after she cut me loose with such finality, I could have been an astronaut floating in space.
“Is she alive?” Adelaide’s voice cracked, and I wanted to kick myself for making her ask that question.
“Yeah, baby. She’s alive and well back in Chicago.”
Adelaide exhaled, her face sinking deeper into my chest. “You scared me, Adam.”
“Sorry.” I smoothed my palm down the length of her spine. “She’s not dead. She’s married to my cousin.”
Her breath stopped. “No. What?”
I kept stroking her back, more to soothe myself than her. “That was later. I mean, it wasn’t cool, but there was no overlap.”
“Yeah, that really isn’t cool,” Adelaide agreed. “Did you break up with her?”
“No, I didn’t. I never would’ve. Molly was a good girl. She loved me, then she broke me into tiny, jagged pieces when she cut me off. I had TSC, we were going on the road, but I was coming back for her. That was our plan. She was going to college, I was going to make something of myself with my music, and we’d be together. That was my thinking at least.”
“Oh, Adam.” Adelaide knocked her forehead against my pec. “What did she do?”
I didn’t want to talk about Molly, but holding Adelaide primed me. She warmed my belly, making it easy to spill my guts all over her.
“I went on the road. As soon as I was a few states away, she called and told me it was over. She loved me, but it wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t who she wanted anymore. Then she just never spoke to me again. That was it. I loved her for three years. Huge fucking love. Would’ve done anything for that girl. She couldn’t even end it to my face, let me kiss her and hold her knowing she was going to break us as soon as my back was turned. I didn’t get a say in it. She’d decided, and that was that.”
Adelaide didn’t say anything. Her arms circled my neck, and she hugged me with so much ferocity, her biceps trembled. I wrapped my arms around her back, giving her the same intensity. I needed to give that to her, and I wanted everything she offered in return.
“Life is unfair, Adam. It sucks so bad sometimes. But I don’t believe she was your bloom. She wouldn’t have left you that way if she were. I saw what the bloom looked like between my parents. The option to leave each other didn’t exist. You’ll get another one when it’s time.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as my stomach twisted violently. “Here’s to hoping.”
Eventually, our arms loosened, and Adelaide returned to her side of the bed. I flicked on the TV, keeping the volume low. She turned onTrain to Busan, only doing it to drive me nuts, but I dozed while she watched, so I didn’t give a shit.
The next time I woke up, Adelaide was standing beside my bed, placing a steaming cup of coffee on my bedside table.
“I have to run,” she whispered.
“You’re taking care of me?”
“Mmhmm. Don’t I always?”
I captured the backs of her legs, drawing her flush with the side of the bed. “You do. Thanks for being here this morning.”
She wove her fingers through the top of my hair. “Always. I do have a question before I go, though.”
“Go for it.”
Her nose twitched. “Was Molly a short, curvy, girl-next-door type?”
I breathed a laugh, letting my arm fall away from her. “Yeah. How’d you guess?”
Adelaide shrugged and backed away from the bed now that she was free. “The archetype.”
She was out of my apartment before my fuzzy brain understood what she meant. Adelaide had picked up on the kind of women who normally piqued my interest. I wasn’t sure what it was about that that made me feel uneasy, but it did.
My chest and stomach ached like I’d run a marathon then done two hundred sit-ups. The hell of it was, the pain wasn’t from thinking about Molly. This was a special kind of pain that came from seeing Adelaide hurting.
Saul Goodman had better get his shit together. What he was doing to my girl wasn’t acceptable. Nobody hurt my girl.