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Shit, no. I deleted that before sending.
Drew: Hey. I’m thinking about you.
Yeah, in the middle of the fucking night, everyone knows what that means.
Drew: Hey Mia, how are you doing?
That’s stupid.
Drew: I miss being inside you.
DELETE.
Drew: Hi.
Eventually I decided that no message was the right message to send this late, so I put my damn phone down and figured I’d come up with a better opener in the morning. Along with a plan of how to get her back, or at least get some answers as to why she ghosted. At least I was on the right track now.
two
The roadahead of me was covered in a white dust. Not snow, sadly, although I’d seen enough of it to know that it was more romantic when you didn’t have anywhere to go. No, the road was covered in dried salt residue that dulled the asphalt and, along with the gray skies above, gave my entire view a rather gloomy vibe.
“This will not do,” I said glumly to myself. I needed a hot chocolate or something to perk me up and decided to stop as soon as I saw some signs of civilization.
After flying into Portsmouth, I rented a car and started the three and a half hour drive to Moon Harbor. I looked down at my phone, sitting in the console, and wondered if I should send a text to Drew. Surprising him like this was sure to piss him off, but then again, nearly everything pissed him off. I felt the corner of my lip curl up at the memory of his stupid grumpy face.
As if I had summoned it, my phone rang and I jumped. But according to the bluetooth connected to the car info screen, it was not my grumpy former paramour calling.
I tapped the “answer” button on the screen. “Hello!”
“Mia, hi! How are you?” Alex’s kind, but reserved voice filled the car through its surround-sound speakers. Alex owned the cottage I’d rented during my Christmas getaway. The one in which I’d been snowed in with her brother and ended up having the best sex of my life and falling in love with the grumpy jerk who opened his heart to me. I’d fallen in love with the town too, and after we dug ourselves out of the cottage, I spent another couple days getting to know Alex and Drew’s friends, too. The people of Moon Harbor had been welcoming, kind, warm. And for the first time in my life, I felt that maybe I really belonged somewhere.
It all made my sudden departure all that more difficult. Because reality came crashing down with one email and I was reminded that until I fixed the situation I was in, I wasn’t safe. And neither was anyone who knew me. I couldn’t put Drew through that. So I left without a goodbye, and turned into something I’d never been, ever, in my whole life. The villain.
But now I was back and had a plan to make amends, so I pushed the past out of my head right for the moment.
“I’m great,” I lied with an exuberant lilt to my voice. “How are you?”
“Oh, I’m doing well. Lots of work and little play this time of year. I’m going a little stir-crazy because of the cold weather,” she said with a small laugh.
“I hear you.” Maine winters were brutal, as I’d discovered on my last trip. But after growing up in the South, I couldn’t deny I loved the idea of a proper winter. “So, listen,” I said, without sequitur. “Thank you so much for calling me back. I was a little worried I’d burned my bridge with you.”Why did I say that?
Alex didn’t speak for a moment, and I assumed she was coming up with the appropriately polite thing to say to the woman who broke her brother’s heart.
But then she surprised me. “Not at all, Mia. I was so happy to hear from you. I get it, Drew can be…difficult sometimes.”
“No, that’s really not it.”
“Oh, well, it’s not my business. But I loved meeting you and hosting you, and I’m happy you called. So how can I help you?”
Right to the point. She was doing it, so I could too.
I took a deep breath.
“Well, I was hoping you had a vacancy.”
* * *
I drove my little rental car down the winding tree-lined driveway to the cottage and found Alex standing in front of the porch. I hopped out as soon as I physically could, feeling my muscles stretch in relief after the long flight and drive.
