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—:—
It was dark by the time Monk got off the bench and began the walk back to somewhere. He hadn’t decided yet where he’d go. He didn’t want to go to the hospital, but that wouldn’t be as bad as going to his loft where everywhere he looked, he’d see the memory of Saylor.
He powered on his phone and saw missed calls from both Doc and Saylor. He thought about turning his phone back off or deleting the message she left, but he did neither.
“Hi, Monk. Can you call me when you get this? I have a lot to tell you.”
He stopped at the liquor store on the way to his loft and bought a bottle of Hennessey. Once inside his apartment, he poured some over ice and sat down on the sofa, turning his phone over in his hand.
29
“Hi,” she said, answering Monk’s call.
“Saylor.”
“How are you?”
“What did you want to tell me?”
“I know you already know this, but I’ve spent the last few months getting my pilot’s license.”
“Yeah?”
“My brother said Doc told you they made me an offer to come to work for K19.”
“Yes.”
Saylor didn’t know what else to say. She felt like she was talking to a stranger—someone she’d just struck up a conversation with, who knew nothing about her and was responding just to be polite.
“How’s Onyx?”
“Not much different than he was two days ago.”
Okay, then. This conversation was going nowhere.
“Thanks for returning my call, Monk.”
“Take care, Saylor.”
She stared at the phone’s screen. Call ended, it said. Ended. Over.
“I love you too, Monk,” she said out loud before turning her phone off and putting it in her pocket.
“That sounds like it went well.”
“Yeah, it was great, Raze.”
Saylor walked into the bedroom where her daughters were lying on the floor, playing with her nephew, who looked like he was getting fussy.
“Time to go, girls.”
Thankfully, neither argued with her.
Saylor managed to get the girls home, baths done, looked over their homework, and read them a bedtime story. Once she was sure both of them were asleep, she sat in the quiet until she fell asleep in their room too. She woke up sometime in the middle of the night with a sore neck but a worse ache in her heart.
Once in bed, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Her mind turned her conversation with Monk over and over. Each time, it ended the same way.
WHEN THE ALARM WENT OFF, Saylor was still awake. She got up and made the girls’ lunches before going in to wake them. Once she was sure they wouldn’t go back to sleep, she went back into the kitchen and made them pancakes. She drew smiling faces with syrup and poured them each a glass of milk.
