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Meager yet acceptable jobs were found, assistance was applied for; even an apartment was procured. Not a great one, and not in a great neighborhood – none of them had any rental history – but it wasn't awful.
She'd certainly stayed in worse motels.
And even though it was four of them staying in a tiny two bedroom, living on top of each other, everyone on the verge of a nervous breakdown, it was still ...wonderful. She'd grown up with these women, but she hadn't been able to remember feeling like a real family. Now they did, and even better, now it would be all Albie would know.
As wonderful as it all really was, though, she knew it couldn't last. Not for her. She loved them, loved getting to know them all over again, but that wasn't her life. It was nice knowing she had a safe and secure homebase to return to if she needed, one where she would always be welcome, but it wasn't too long before she got that antsy feeling again.
It's time to go.
So after about two months, when her doctor in San Diego had given her the okay to use her foot anyway she saw fit, Paige decided it was finally time to put that antsy feeling to rest. She'd said goodbye and set off down the street, her backpack securely on her back.
Two days later, she sat in a hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona, and she knew she couldn’t go any farther. The antsy feeling wasn't going anywhere, and eventually, she'd figured out why. Her foot felt fine, her body was in perfect condition, but herheartwasn’t.
She didn’t want to do this anymore.
She'd been terrified by that thought at first, but then she'd thought “what would Parker do?” And she rolled with it and did something she'd never done before.
She bought a plane ticket.
Much like the rest of her family, Paige had never been on a plane before, but she booked a one way ticket to Seattle. Then she'd made a long phone call to her mother and sister, explained what she was doing. She'd thought her sister Sydney was gonna tell her she was being silly, that she should invest her energy into something more worth while than chasing a boy, that she should just come back to San Diego. But she didn’t – Sydney'd whooped down the phone line and told Paige to go get him.
Once she got to Seattle, she wasn’t really sure what to do with herself. Seattle was a big city and she had no clue where Parker lived. She got a cheap room at a motel, and then a job at a bar down the street. The money was lousy, but it was better than nothing.
She eventually moved on and got a job as a baker at a cafe. She was surprised at how much she loved it. She'd always enjoyed cooking (though she would never tell her mother), but she hadn’t really baked all that much. Turned out she was pretty good at it. The money was decent enough to pay for her motel room and feed her, and that’s all she really needed. Plus, her new job introduced her to Marlo.
Marlo Reznick was the editor for an online travel magazine, and also a regular customer at Paige’s cafe. She would come in early in the morning and chat with Paige over coffee and fresh scones. She asked Paige to bake a cake for a niece’s baby shower, then cupcakes for a nephew’s soccer tournament. She started coming in earlier and earlier, and they would talk about all the different places they'd been to in America. Eventually, Paige started letting her in before the bakery even opened, and Marlo would sit while Paige kneaded dough and rolled out pie crusts and cut cookies, swapping stories all the while.
“You should write.”
That had made Paige laugh the first time she heard it, but after Marlo had repeated it several times, she began to seriously think about it. Marlo offered to give her a blog spot in the magazine, if her writing was any good. Paige had gone home that night and tried to think about what to write. Laughing, she'd written the memory of her and Parker heading into Mississippi. She didn’t leave out anything – buying out Walmart, stealing the pot from the kids, sneaking into the pool in the campground. By the end she was wiping at her eyes. But only a little.
She never cried.
Marlolovedthe story. She published it the following week, and Paige was a hit. Readers wanted more, which was good. Paige had been hitchhiking on and off since she was sixteen – she had a lot of stories to tell.
And that was how she found herself with two jobs. The magazine wound up paying a lot better, especially after they gave her a weekly article and had her field questions from subscribers, general things about backpacking and hitchhiking. Pretty soon she was able to get an apartment. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a small one bedroom where the kitchen window faced a brick wall. But it was the first apartment she'deverrented. She felt proud of herself, and thought Parker would be proud of her, too. Hell, she even got a cat.
She connected with Joey through social media. He thought it was great that she was attempting to be normal, and agreed that her writing was a surprise. He loved her articles and read every single one, though he was upset she'd yet to write one about him. They spoke often on the phone and even more online.
They never, ever, spoke of Parker.
Her birthday was at the end of October. Twenty-four. She struggled to force her cat to wear a party hat. He didn’t appreciate it. Thanksgiving came and went. Her mom and sister, and Joey, offered to fly her out to visit, and Marlo had offered her dinner, but Paige spent that holiday alone as well, sitting on her couch. Staring at her phone.
Call him.
She'd wanted to get herself together before really trying to find him. She wanted to be able to show him that she could back up what she said; that not only was she willing to try, but that she couldactuallychange.
She hadn’t seen or spoken to Parker since the ninth of July. It was Thanksgiving. It had been almost five months. She hoped that wasn't too long, and went ahead and pushed the call button on her cell.
“The number you are trying to reach is no longer in service. Please hang up and -”
Paige didn’t listen to the end of the message. She curled up into a ball at the end of her sofa and stared at her wall.
Joey surprised her by coming up for Christmas. “You cannot be alone for Christmas!”, he'd stated. He helped her put up a small plastic Christmas tree, and underneath it they put their presents to each other.
He stayed to spend New Year's with her, too. She offered to take him out, show him some clubs she'd found, introduce him to some acquaintances she'd made. But sensing her lack of enthusiasm, he'd shaken his head.
“We are gonna stay in, and watch girly movies, and make our own cocktails, and stay up late, and kiss at midnight, and we’ll get drunk, and possibly have awkward sex, and it’ll be awesome,” he'd informed her.
