“Hey, hon,” my mom calls, and when I walk into the living room, she’s sitting on the couch. “Hope you don’t mind. I stopped in to check on Marlin, and he seemed a bit sad, so I stayed with him and watched TV.”
“I don’t care,” I say, giving her a small smile.
Plopping down on the couch, I’m aware that I smell like bait, but I don’t have enough life in me right now to rush to the shower.
“How’d they look out there today?” she asks, patting Marlin’s head when he jumps back up onto the couch and curls up beside her. “Any lobsters out there?”
“Not many—that’s for sure,” I reply. “Hopefully, they pick up soon.”
“At least the price is good.” She winks. “I would know because it went up this morning, and the other fisherman were pretty impressed.”
“When the price is that good, it means there’s not shit for lobsters out there.” I sigh, reclining back. “Oh well though. We’re making a paycheck. That’s what matters.”
“Exactly.” She pauses, and I know right away that she’s going to bring up something I don’t want to talk about. I don’t know what it is, but the way she searches my face, I know it’s something bad. “Baby, you’ve seemed pretty off the past few days. Everything all right?”
Taking my phone out, I pretend like I’m scrolling social media. I mean, I guess I’m not pretending. I really am flipping through it, but I’m not actually looking at any of it.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I keep my voice level and unaffected.
“Okay,” she whispers. “It’s just … ever since a certain girl left, your text responses to me have been pretty short. And I’ve tried to call you a few times, but you don’t answer. I know my son. And when something is wrong, this is what you do. You hide.”
She’s not wrong. I have been avoiding her. I’ve been avoiding everyone, aside from the two guys who work for me because they aren’t going to ask me about Stella. My brothers? They all have, and I’m tired of hearing her name.
“I hardly know her, Mom.” The words come out more defensively than I planned them to, so I quickly try to smooth it over. “I mean, she was only here for two weeks. So … why would I care that she left?”
“And in those two weeks, she spent more time with you than anyone else, Ridge.” She points out the obvious. “I could see the way you looked at her, baby. It’s all right to admit you liked the girl. It won’t make you less of a man, FYI.” She giggles. “In fact, it’s kind of manly to admit you like someone, if you ask me.”
“I gotta go take a shower. I smell,” I grumble, standing up, but of course, she stands up too.
“Ridge, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but if it has anything to do with Stella, you need to put your pride aside and figure out how to make it better.”
I don’t look at her, but I can hear the worry in her voice.
“And for what it’s worth, I’ve known you your entire life, and I’ve never seen you look at anyone the way you looked at that girl,” she whispers. “And guess what. She looked at you the same way right back.”
I don’t say anything back to my mom because I don’t know what I’d even say. But even she’s tired of my shit because a moment later, she leaves.
For days, I keep going back and forth between two thoughts.
One, I hardly knew Stella, and it’s stupid that I care this much.
And two, what if she was … my person or whatever, and I let her go? And now, she’s going to find someone else. Someone who is much more sophisticated than I will ever be.
I walk into the bathroom and start the shower, letting it get scorching hot because I froze my ass off the entire day. Just like every other day since she left, I know, within seconds, my eyes will shut, and I’ll be stroking my cock to memories of her.
But when I step into the shower, I realize something.
My mom is right. I have never looked at anyone the way I looked at Stella. And it doesn’t matter if I’ve known her ten minutes, ten days, or ten years. I can’t ignore that feeling I’ve had since the first night we spent together.
Maybe she’s back in the city, knowing that’s where she belongs and not even thinking about me. But if I never talk to her again, in person …
How will I know for sure?
Quickly, I wash my hair and my body and turn the shower off.
I don’t know what a simple man like me will do in New York City, on probably the busiest night of the entire year there, but that doesn’t matter. I’ve got a fucking flight to book. And if I can catch one soon, I can be there to kiss her at midnight.
Another flight with another older man.
