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“Yes.”
He kissed me deeply, chuckling into my mouth.
“Why’s that funny?” I had the courage to ask.
Tyler’s hand was on my hip. Now it slipped lower, gliding easily into the wetness between my sandwiched thighs as his lips brushed my ear.
“Because you’re talking like it’s over.”
Ten
JENNA
Of all the places you’d go during the course of your life, few would be sadder than an abandoned mall. Gone was the hustle, the bustle, the milling of crowds. The excited chatter of teens and adults as they bought stuff for themselves, Christmas gifts for family, or just hung out for the sake of being around each other.
Right now, the SunSet mall at the north end of town was exactly that: clinging to the tail end of its very existence. The stores were vacant, the walkways empty. The lights going out hadn’t been replaced in years.
In short, the place was damn nearhaunted.
It was sad, because SunSet had once been a booming, thriving place. Situated at the junction of two main ski resorts, the town of Northhold itself had felt the impact of those resorts in decline. The original owners had moved on to bigger and better things. The once-glorious lodges were run-down shells of their former selves.
The running joke was that Northhold had become ‘north holed.’
Starting in the late 90’s, less people came, and thus less people shopped at the mall. Stores began to close. New shops never took their place. Entire wings began closing down, with metal gates being pulled across the once-busy promenades that were shuttered forever. There was no coming back from it. For those parts of the mall, it was over. Finished. Done.
I reminisced about these things as I walked through the SunSet’s ghostly halls, peering down into those darkened wings that had been cut off like cancerous extensions of retail rot. There were a half-dozen stores left, at best. And judging by the two or three people I passed in the last five minutes, those places were suffering for sure.
It made me sad to think this place wouldn’t exist much longer. It would live only in the memory of people like me, and those who’d once shopped here. And when we were finally gone, too? Nothing would remain. It would be like the place never existed at all.
I turned the last corner, and there it was: Aegean pizza. The place looked like it was stuck in time. The glowing red marquee hadn’t been touched since it opened in the 70’s. The brick had never been painted, the walls had been washed and cleaned but never changed. Even the interior decor, with its black lacquer chairs and mirrored walls, had never been compromised.
Luckily, Aegean made the greatest pizza in all of Montana, if Montana could be said to have great pizza. There were at least eight people in line, and another dozen sitting down to enjoy their slices. Four people worked behind the counter, running themselves ragged as they shoved food in and out of the fifty-year old ovens, poured fountain drinks, and rang people up at the register.
Tyler saw me before I even saw him. The smile he greeted me with was warm and friendly.
“She lives!”
He wiped his hands on his apron, then stepped out from behind the counter. He was hot. Sticky. Covered in flour and olive oil and what looked like every Italian spice on the planet.
“Oh, I definitely live,” I confirmed, smiling back at him. I glanced around the place. “A better question would be, how’ve you been?”
It had been three full days since our crazy little tryst. I’d had three days to digest everything. Three long days and nights to replay the highlights of everything that happened.
And there werelotsof highlights.
“Things are good I guess,” Tyler shrugged. “All things considered.”
I lowered my head and nodded slowly. “I’m so sorry to hear about your mom and dad,” I said solemnly. “Jay told me.”
Tyler reached out, tilting my chin back in his direction. His smile hadn’t faded. If anything, it grew wider.
“I don’t mean that,” he said. “But thank you.”
“Welcome,” I replied. “Your foster parents were amazing people.”
“The best,” he agreed. “Wish I’d gotten them sooner, but I’m happy for the time we had.”
A timer went off somewhere behind us. Tyler made a motion with one hand, and a shaggy-haired kid who couldn’t be more than sixteen began pulling pies out of the lower oven.
