AllFreeNovel
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I held onto him like he was a life preserver. "You know what else I want besides that shirt at your sister's store?"
"What?"
"The horse one. I want to take it back to Atlanta with me. I was talking to the girls at the studio about getting it framed."
"Okay, yeah, that's a good idea. We can go by my apartment while we're out today."
"I'm so excited," I said. "Are you really coming to Georgia?"
"Yes, I am. But first, we're getting coffee and breakfast."
***
It was 6pm that evening when we made our way to his apartment. We had been running errands and sightseeing all afternoon, and we stopped by his place to get the t-shirt before going to meet his family for dinner at a different restaurant at 6:30.
I had a bag in my hand when we came inside, and I put it, along with my purse and shoes, in a spot near the door. I was thirsty, so I went to the kitchen to get myself something to drink while Isaac went into his bedroom to get the t-shirt.
I took a minute to drink some water. It was quiet in his apartment, and I got lost in thought, staring at the countertop and remembering details of our day.
I smiled even though no one was in there with me. I thought of Isaac coming to Atlanta and staying with me there. We had talked about options, and we thought we would get married this summer in Seattle. That meant he would need a place to stay when he came to Atlanta next month. I decided I would contact a dance family I knew to see if they could rent him a room for a couple of months.
I was so looking forward to having him come visit me. There were certain restaurants to eat at and activities I wanted him to experience in Atlanta. I considered different parks and hikes while I finished drinking my water. I was accustomed to keeping hydrated, so I poured and drank another glass.
I assumed Isaac would come back into the living room when he was finished, so I planned on waiting there, but I expected him to come back by now.
I had spent several minutes thinking by then, so I decided to go find him.
"Hellooo?" I called from the kitchen.
"I’m in here still!" he yelled from his bedroom. "Come help me!"
I walked into his room. It was decorated by his mom and sister, but they had kept it masculine and clean, and I loved going in there.
"It's not here," he said, looking confused and sounding worried. "I had it in this specific drawer. I've definitely seen it since you and I got back in touch. It was folded up in this drawer. I didn't unfold it, but I checked to make sure it was still there, and it was."
Isaac was leaning over the drawer, peering into it.
"It's empty," I said looking inside as I came up to him.
"Because I just took everything out," he said. "And it's not in there." He motioned to his bed, which contained everything that had been in the drawer, mostly folded t-shirts. I went to the bed and casually looked at them all, searching for the grey shirt. There wasn't a single piece of fabric that was the same color as the horse shirt.
"Do you mind if I sift through these?"
"No, I don't mind. But it's not there. I've looked through it ten times. I've looked in all these other drawers, too, and in my closet."
"I thought it was taking you forever."
"Yeah, I'm…" Isaac trailed off and looked through another drawer. He was a simple guy, and he had a closet along with one nice dresser with eight drawers. He looked through each of them—some of them didn't even contain clothes. Isaac thought the shirt might have fallen out of the drawer, and he took drawers completely out of the dresser to check behind them and make sure.
I watched him work, helping him look by glancing over things and trying to see if I could find the shirt. Just like him, I saw nothing.
"Ari, we need to be going to meet my family, and it is not here. I know it was here, and now it's not."
"God probably made it disappear again."
"What? No. It was in here like even a week ago. I saw it."
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He probably made it disappear sometime between then and now. You smile at me, butyou'rethe one who told me it showed up in my drawer by God in the first place."
