AllFreeNovel
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“It’s kind of for the both of us, but whatever,” I mumble, looking around the tight space. I’m antsy. And confused. And so many other emotions that I’m pretty sure it’s fucking with the chemicals in my body because I feelsick. Like,physicallyill.
“Are you okay?” she asks, eyeing me sideways. “You don’t look too good.”
“I’m…” A fucking mess. “What the hell happened today?”
She opens a drawer, pulls out its contents, and starts sorting them into boxes. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… you went to an Al-Anon meeting, and what? Decided that you need to get the hell out of here?”
“No,” she says through a giggle. “I realized it was time on the drive home after fucking on your girlfriend’s car.” She half turns to me. “I can speak to her if you want.”
Yeah, that’sexactlywhat I want. “And say what?” I scoff. “That we had sex and what? It meantnothing?”
“Is that what it meant to you?” she asks, and she’s so fucking calm, and I feel like I’m caught in a hurricane. Drowning. Slowly.
“I’m right fucking here, Jamie,” I snap. Then try to tamper my emotions. “I’m here talking to you about it becauseobviouslyit means something.”
“Then…” She huffs out a breath. “I’ll tell her that what happened between us doesn’t affect the way you feel about her.”
I dip my head just in time to hide my eye-roll. What happened between us changedeverythingabout how I feel about Bri, just not in the way that Jamie thinks. “Brianna and I are good,” I mumble. “But thank you.”
She doesn’t respond, and when enough time passes, I look up to catch her watching me. “So, I need to talk to you about something,” she says.
I rub my eyes as I move to her bed, sit my ass down. “Go ahead.”
She continues with the packing, her back turned to me. “I don’t have anywhere to stay when I leave, so I was wondering if I could stay at Esme’s. I’ll pay you half the standard rent for—”
“Of course you can stay, and you don’t need to pay me shit, Jamie, and you definitely don’t need to ask permission.”
She freezes mid-movement. “Well, technically, legally, I do. And ethically, I suppose.” There’s a humorous lilt in her tone, and I just… I don’t get it.
Until I do.
She’shappyshe’s leaving, and I wonder if this is how she felt the first time she did this to me.
“What’s going to happen to the RV?” I ask, gripping the edge of the mattress.
“Someone’s coming to tow it on Tuesday and take it back to their garage. They’ll let me know if it’s worth fixing. If not, I’ll just sell it for scrap metal, and if it is, then I’ll either get someone to drive it to Tennessee and pay for their flight back, or Maggie said she would help me sell it. She’ll ship my stuff to me and donate what I don’t need.”
“And then what?”
She’s sliding open overhead cabinets as she says, “And then… I don’t really know what. I just…” she trails off.
I finish for her. “You just need to get out of here?”
“Yeah,” she says through a sigh, revealing a familiar box and holding it to her chest. “It took me three days. I barely slept. Barely ate. And then I drove sixteen hours here, running on nothing more than hopes and dreams…” She laughs once, the sound of disappointment. “To think that a single puzzle piece brought me all the way here…” She holds the box up between us. “Do you want it?”
My chest tightens. “Do younot?”
“You know where this has been for the past five years?”
I shake my head, swallow my emotions. “Where?”
“In the safe in Zeke’s office,” she says, and she’s back to packing again. “That’show important it is to me.”
“So why would you give it to me?”
She faces me, shrugging. “Something to remember me by?”
