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And it’s to those friendly, polite, well-meaning eyes that I finally realize what I want to say: “I’m going to the beach.”
There’s a pause.
A vacuum of air.
He lifts his eyebrows with uncertainty, as if my words literally did not register. I can only imagine the confused look on Rico’s face, too, hovering at the door behind me.
“I’m going to the beach,” I repeat, a touch firmer.
“Um …” My boss adjusts his tie, then tilts his head as he settles his hands back onto his messy desk. “I don’t quite follow. What do you mean by—?”
The next thing to touch his desk is my ID badge.
And my manager keys.
I lock onto his eyes. “I mean I’m going to the beach.” I point at my face. “Me. This guy. Jonah Lachlan. He’s going to the beach. Literally. And …” As the words come out, the weight comes off of my chest. The chains snap. Something flies out of me as light and free as a fucking seagull. “And I’m not gonna come back.”
Then I laugh.
Like a fucking maniac, I laugh.
My boss gets to his feet. “Um, Jonah, listen … I’m … I’m gonna send you on your lunch break a little early, alright? I’ll handle the manager call, and—”
“Rico can handle it,” I announce rather proudly. “He’s been shadowing me for nearly two years. He would make a perfect manager. He knows this brand inside and out, better than I ever did. And I …” My lips spread into a huge, hysterical grin. “I’m going to the fucking beach.”
Rico’s eyes glow with admiration as he witnesses me.
It’s like I just burst from a shell before his eyes.
“Mr. Lachlan …”
“Thank you for everything, sir,” I tell him, “and I wish you and the company better luck for the rest of the year, and especially this summer. But I won’t be a part of the team anymore, because my ass is going to the beach.”
With that, I head out, but not before stopping by the door and planting a big, fat kiss on Rico’s cheek, startling him. “It’s all yours, my favorite man,” I tell him, squeeze his shoulders, then make my way out.
I don’t know who this person is who just quit his job with the casualness of tossing a tissue into the trash bin.
I don’t know what this smile I’m wearing across my stupefied face means as I get in my car.
I don’t know what fuels my mind as I tear down the highway without even so much as a packed bag in my old, ratty trunk.
This version of Jonah Lachlan hasn’t existed since he was a child. He peels open the windows of his car, loosens his tie, and shouts out with happiness, gripping the wheel as I soar down the highway. My favorite music blasts from the car radio for hours on end as the sun beams over me and the wind untangles every last strand of my hair.
Houston falls behind me like a memory.
It was the city and my old life all along that belonged as a memory—and not Kent Tyler or Dreamwood Isle.
And when Rico calls me on his break, I put him on speaker. “I don’t know, Rico,” I call out at him as I tear off down the highway. I’ve since flung off my tie, unbuttoned my cuffs, and rolled my sleeves up past my elbows. “I’ve got to do this. If I don’t, I’ll be stuck there forever.”
“What’re you even doing??” he asks through laughs of disbelief. “You’re just gonna show up unannounced with literally nothing on you but your wallet and the clothes on your back?”
“And my car, if it makes it all the way! Yikes.” That just hit me. “I hope this piece of shit does make it all the way!”
“Are you coming back?”
“I don’t know! I have no idea. Maybe I’ll find a place to stay, a cheap hotel, or … or Kent will just let me crash with him for a few days. I have no idea!”
“Okay, when I told you last weekend I missed how you used to be free and reckless, this is not what I meant!”
“Are you sure?”
Rico laughs suddenly. “I don’t know! Maybe?!”
“And hey, if I don’t come back,” I tell him, “you can keep it all. The furniture, the apartment. You won’t have to tiptoe around me anymore when you bring home a guy. Whole place is yours! Hey, did you get promoted to manager?”
“I think he’s still convinced you’re gonna come back. I have no idea, Jonah. I can’t believe you quit!”
“I’ve got some prospects down in Dreamwood Isle! Hey, there’s a boutique on the Quicksilver Strand with two ladies who are very impressed by me, by the way. Maybe they’ll hire me. Who knows? Anything’s possible!”
“Oh my lord, Jonah, you’ve gone and lost your mind.”
