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Wren
“I’m sorry. I need to get this.” I rush out before I turn slightly in my chair to answer. I know who is calling me since I only have one friend, but Jax doesn’t need to hear my crazy best friend.
“Wren? Are you okay? Where are you?” Amber asks in a slightly panicked tone. I love this woman. She is really the only person in this world who cares about me. My ride and die best friend.
“Yes, I’m still getting coffee.”
“Are you on your way, then?” She asks knowing I wouldn’t be answering this call if I was.
“No, I had an accident.” I grimace at what happened a little bit ago, knowing she is about to panic even more.
“Wren! Are you okay? Do I need to come help you? What happened?” She rushes out quickly. I can hear her mumbling about finding her keys and coming to get me in the background as she rustles the phone in her rush to come save me.
“I’m fine. I promise. The guy in front of me caught me before I fell.” I tell her to try to calm her, but that just leads to more questions.
“A guy? Do you know him? Is he cute? Is this like a scene in one of your books? You know when the main female bumps into the main guy and then they live happily ever after,” she says and I’m pretty sure she is jumping with excitement about a possibly real-life fairy tale she thinks I’m having. I roll my eyes behind my glasses. She is such a hopeless romantic, but I love that about her. My own mis-comings haven’t dimmed her outlook on love.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. He asked to buy me a coffee. We were just talking, and I lost track of time.” I blush at that. Yeah, lost track of time since you were over here feeling him up.
“It is totally just like in your books. Are you going to ask him to join you again?”
“Hush you. Yes.” At least I plan to, I think.
“I need all the details. Please. It’s totally in the best friend codebook to tell me everything.” She whines and I swear I roll my eyes even harder.
“I know. I know.” She already knows I tell her everything.
“Don’t forget to bring me coffee. Just because you met a guy doesn’t mean you get out of bringing me yummy goodness. If you don’t, I may not survive today.” I hear the faint ding of our shop door in the background. “Gotta go. See you soon. Love you, babe.”
“Yes sir. Love you too.” I smile as I end the call, then flush with embarrassing heat when I realize Jax probably just heard most of that conversation.
Not wanting him to think of me as rude or anything, I try to explain a little. “Sorry about that. That was my friend. I was supposed to grab her a coffee before work and she was getting worried.” I fidget with my phone in my hands, trying to steel myself to ask this man if he would want to grab coffee with me again when he breaks the silence first.
“Oh. I’m sorry. Am I keeping you?” He replies and I think I hear a smirk in his tone.
“Yes. I mean no. Kind of. I have work and a really important meeting today, but I really enjoyed this. It actually helped with my nerves.” My cheeks must be on fire at this point. “I was actually thinking, only if you want to.” I take a deep breath. “You don’t have to agree. I would totally understand if you don’t want to.” I continue to stumble over my words like the train wreck I am.Why am I even bothering? It’s not like he will agree.
“Wren. What are you talking about?” he asks, sounding somewhat entertained by my nervousness.Asshole.
“Oh, sorry.” I look down towards the ground to hide my fidgeting fingers and bright red cheeks.Why can’t I just be normal?
“Stop apologizing.” He snaps out, startling me, but then in a softer tone, he continues. “What were you asking?”
“Well, would you maybe want to grab coffee again sometime?” I chew on my bottom lip, ready for the letdown and the denial that I know is about to come. Who would want to go out with a blind woman? That negative voice that always seems to follow me around fills my head.No one wants you. You’re not good enough. No one will ever love you.Tears start to fill my lash line as I prepare to get up to leave when I hear his reply.
“Actually, I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“What do you mean, you just got up and left? You didn’t even get his number?” I cringe as Amber continues on with her lecture about the dating do’s and don’ts.
Why did I even ask him out? He probably only agreed out of pity. Who would want to date a blind girl that has major baggage and trust issues?
Amber must have noticed I haven’t been listening or maybe she notices the look of self-pity on my face because in the next minute I’m being wrapped up in her warm embrace. She is the only person who knows what happened to me years ago. How I really came to be blind. She dropped her whole life to help me hide.
It’s been a few years, but after what happened last month, I’m still always on edge. The worst part is that I sometimes feel like I’m being watched or followed, but of course being blind makes it impossible to tell. It’s just a gut feeling, like instincts.
When I told Amber about the feeling plus the weird sensation of being watched, she was ready to drop everything again and run with me, but I couldn’t do that. Not again. Running gets me nowhere. Plus, it’s not fair to Amber and the new life she deserves.
She met the love of her life last year. Jake is a great guy and treats Amber like a princess. He was ready to turn down the job promotion offer he got when Amber said she couldn’t go with him across the country. The fact that Amber was so ready to leave the love of her life for her blind best friend who would probably jump at her own shadow, if she could see it, made me feel horrible. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t pull up my big girl panties and cut the umbilical cord that is attached to us? Yes, this woman was my ride or die, basically my sister but she really did deserve the world Jake wanted to give her.
