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For the first time, I didn’t feel as drawn to the one that took me to Florida. When I looked toward my future with Jack, I saw warm, cozy nights, the laughter of the boys in the background, and the pleasant scratch of his beard against my cheek when he kisses me. I saw happiness, and I didn’t have to commune with the dead to know what my parents would tell me to head towards.
I needed to try to be with Jack, because knowing he called me his felt like it made everything fall into place.
I dropped the robot and went to my laptop. I’d sent the email to the property owner already and had even wired over almost everything Jack had paid me so far to secure the unit. But it wasn’t too late to tell him I was backing out. He could keep the money if he wanted, too. All that mattered was I wouldn’t go to Florida anymore. I was going to stay.
I found the last email I’d sent in my inbox and hit reply.
All I had time to type was “Dear Mr…” when the cursor on my mouse started moving on its own. I bashed the old laptop on the side a few times, thinking it was just acting up. But when I saw the cursor purposefully move by itself to click “forward” on the chain of emails between myself and the property manager, my heart started pumping at a record pace.
I tapped keys, slid my fingers around on the track pad, trying to stop it. Then I saw Jack’s email getting typed into the “send” field and I panicked. I slammed the laptop closed then hurled it at the wall like an overweight frisbee.
I watched it spiral toward the wall in slow motion. I could practically hear the woosh of wind as each corner of the device twirled in a slow loop toward its own death.
I braced myself for the explosion of machinery. I pictured the glittering burst of electronics and the loss of all the pictures I’d never thought to back up or that fanfiction I wrote once on Harry Potter that was about to be obliterated.
The world would never know how dirty some of the professors liked it when the candles were dimmed. I Expecto your robes off this instant, Severus.
You could’ve just closed it, a ghostly, equally slow-motion voice in my mind reminded me.
And then it sunk into the drywall.
No explosion. No destruction.
Just an anticlimactic little thud as my laptop did its best to look like a credit card inserted into a chip-reader.
I stared in disbelief and hadn’t even gotten up from my chair when Jack came through the door. He was showered and changed from his game.
“How were the—” He paused, noticing my gaze, which was glued to the laptop.
He turned his head, then put his hands on his hips and joined me in staring. “Is that your…”
“I was putting it away and it slipped out of my hands.”
Jack looked from the laptop to me. To me, who was sitting at the desk on the opposite end of the room. “Is everything okay?”
“Hey,” I said as casually as I could. My heart was pounding out a message in morse code at the moment. The only problem was I had no experience interpreting morse code. Run? Are you telling me I should just grab Griff and run, heart? Is the church on fire? Is somebody trapped in a well?
“Hi,” Jack said, sliding his arms around me as he walked close. He smelled like soap, shampoo, and detergent. A little medley of fresh I wished I could sink into if circumstances were less dire.
“So there’s something I wanted to—”
Jack’s phone buzzed. I could feel it vibrate through his pocket and fought the brief but overpowering urge to frisbee it toward the wall where it could join my laptop. Don’t check your emails. Don’t do it.
He looked down and groaned. “I should get this. Sorry.”
“You really don’t have to. They can leave a message.”
“It’s Ally. My lawyer said if she reaches out personally, to let her talk. He’s got a recorder embedded in my phone. Hopefully, she’ll screw herself by saying something dumb.”
All I could do was watch Jack put the phone to his ear and head out into the hallway. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but I could hear the deep rumble of his voice muttering single syllable replies.
I was going to come clean when he came back. That’s all there was to it. Whatever ghost had possessed my laptop and fired off that email was trying to tell me as much. Jack would understand, especially now that I was changing my mind.
He stepped into the room a few minutes later, face grim.
“Jack, there’s something I want to explain.”
“You don’t need to. I saw the emails you forwarded. I understand, and I want you to take Griff and go, please. I want you out of our lives.”
