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“Sounds good. I’ll look into it. I don’t see it being a problem.”
“Thanks. Let me know what you find,” I said and turned back to my computer.
It felt good to be busy to have a plan and something to do. It had taken me a little over a week to snap myself out of the funk I was in after I left Jason. It had taken me less than a day to decide I needed to get out of town and do something. It had taken even less time to decide how I would spend it.
Annie had come over as soon as I had gotten home, curious how the trip had gone and how Jason and I had fared. She had been a bit shocked to say the least when I told her everything that had happened. She had been supportive of me through the entire process. Letting me talk it all out and staying with me while I came to terms with everything.
I didn’t feel like I could mope around too much over the break-up, if it could even be called it. I was the one who had started things, I was the one who ended things. I had no reason to be sad or upset how things went down. Even if that was exactly how I felt.
It was odd but I missed Jason. I knew I shouldn’t, we had hardly talked before our trip and we only spent a little over a week together. It didn’t make sense that I was missing him, that I found myself reaching for him while I slept and woke up wanting him. It wasn’t right that I longed to hear his take on my new plans and resisted the urge to call him and get his input. It sucked more than it should that I simply missed talking to him and hearing him laugh.
I told myself it had been a fun week, a great way to say good-bye to his father and my mentor and close the book on that part of my life. It wasn’t how I ever would have thought things would have happened but I couldn’t have asked for a better way for it to go. I hoped that Jason and I could find a way to be friends. He was still family after all and we would see each other from time to time.
It wasn’t something that I could do right now but it was something that I wanted to do eventually. It was why I was going on my trip. I needed to get away from him, from the show, from all the memories I had associated with it. I needed to figure out who I was if I wasn’t doing the show and what that meant for my future. I had an idea what it was but I needed time to figure it out and that was what Annie was helping me do.
Working with Kevin, seeing the United States and everything it had to offer had been a wonderful experience but it only made me realize I wanted to see more. I wanted to do more. I didn’t see why I couldn’t do the same thing I was doing, but around the rest of the world. I wouldn’t be doing scavenger hunts exactly. However, I might do that in the future. I wasn’t sure how that would work if I would be in breach of contract or something by going off on my own but I would worry about that later.
For now, I wanted to travel, see the world and tell people about it. I had a good following on social media. I was sure they would continue to follow me on my next adventure. I was working on a way to tell everyone what I was doing, but first I needed to have everything in place.
The sound of the door to my house opening had me calling out to Annie. “Back so soon?” I asked.
“Back? I didn’t even know you were back. I had to hear about it from the crew,” my mother called.
I dropped my head down and took a deep breath. I had been avoiding her all week. It had been easy to avoid her when she thought we were still traveling, I hadn’t corrected her. It was only a matter of time before she figured I was back. I hadn’t told Annie not to tell anyone I was home, but I had hoped she wasn’t announcing it either.
“Hey, Mom,” I said as I walked into the living room and gave her a hug.
“How are you?” she asked as she held me tightly.
“I’m good. How are you doing?”
I leaned back and looked at her. She looked tired, as if she still wasn’t sleeping well. She and Kevin had never spent a night apart once they were married and I was sure the adjustment had been hard on her.
“This sucks. I hate it, but I’m dealing. It’s good to have you home. I thought I would have heard from you. I didn’t think it would be Jason that told me you were back.”
“He’s back?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“Yes. I would have thought you two would have come back together. Don’t tell me things went so horribly with you two that you had to come back on your own,” my mother said and crossed her arms under her chest.
“It didn’t go horribly exactly. I actually had a good time with him and we might have even enjoyed each other’s company.” I admitted.
“Did you get into a fight? I’m sure whatever it is you two can work it out.”
“No. We found a way to work together. We found a way to not hate each other, but that’s as far as it went. We won’t be working together again. He’s going to keep producing the show but I have decided I can’t be a part of it.”
“Because you can’t work with Jason? You’ve worked with each other before. You said you two started to get along on the trip. That was the whole point of it. But you’re saying you can’t? Why?”
“The whole point of the trip? Did you know that Kevin would do this?”
“Who do you think helped to set it up? The plan was for you two to do it after the first of the year. When Kevin died, it seemed like you should do it now instead of later. We both hated how you and Jason never got along and we wanted you to find a way to work together.”
“This wasn’t something he had planned when he died?”
“Goodness, no. Kevin was in the prime of his life, we never talked about death. You know I hate even thinking about it. This was something he had planned before. It took coordination and time. You know how hard the hunts are to set up.”
“And you did it all because you wanted Jason and me to like each other?”
“Well, that was part of the plan,” my mother said and wouldn’t look at me.
