AllFreeNovel
Share Us
At the sound of Nolan’s voice, I glance up, watching through my lashes as he grabs the shoulders of a woman I’ve only seen from a distance until now.
Her blond hair is pulled back in some kind of twist, save for a couple strands that have slipped free and now curl around her flushed, tear-streaked face. Mascara drips and smudges around her eyes, but her red lipstick remains untouched.
She’s shaking her head, neck tendons jutting out above the square collar of her dress from trying to get her crying under control. But it’s no use. “I forgot to tell him,” she says in a small, barely there voice. A sob rips out of her, hands wringing anxiously against her chest. “I f-forgot to tell him. How the fuck did I forget?”
Nolan doesn’t say anything.
Movement from behind her draws my attention to the man sitting in one of the chairs against the wall. He’s equally as dressed up as Mel. He must be the boyfriend.Vance.
He slumps forward, elbows to his knees, and scrubs his hands down his face.
I flash back to the picture Nolan sent me earlier, one of Abby grinning up into the camera, brown hair curled all around her head, a big gap where her front teeth should be. She was wearing a black and white checkered dress, with a black headband and slip-ons to match.
Mel texted it to him with the caption:Ready for her close-up
Tonight was a big deal—the night she introduced her daughter to her boyfriend for the first time. They had dinner reservations at a place called La Amor not far from where Lola’s is. I’ve seen it when driving by—dimly lit with candles in the windows. An Italian flag jutting out from next to the wooden door, rippling in the wind.
“She’s allergic to nuts,”he’d told me in the car, his voice faint as he drew aimless pictures with his finger on the window.“Mel said something about anaphylactic shock. She couldn’t breathe.”
“But she said she was okay, right? You said—”
“She said she was alive.”
Never in the time that I’ve known Nolan, have I ever seen him so distraught yet so…hollow—so blank and matter of fact. As if his voice was coming from somewhere else, somewhere where the body couldn’t touch.
He shook and trembled, but his voice remained steady. His eyes reddened and his chest heaved with choppy, crackling breaths, but his eyes remained distant. His lips parted loosely.
Fisting my hands at my sides, I try to focus on what Mel’s saying, blocking out the noise seemingly coming in from all sides. It’s so much worse tonight—like someone threw my head in a blender—and I know it’s because I’m stressed. I didn’t have time to prepare. I didn’t know we’d be coming here, to a place like this.
I know all these things, yet it does little to settle the storm slowly brewing in the back of my mind.
Not now. Please not now.
I just started taking my meds again, but if tonight’s proving anything, it’s that my body’s still adjusting. That, or they no longer work like they should. The pharmacist said it could take weeks for them to take full effect, since I’d been off them for so many months.
Even then…
It’s not a cure. There will never be a cure for this.
I just need to suck it up.
“…to the bathroom quick.” Shaking away my thoughts, I tune into what Mel’s saying. “She was fine. They were fine, talking and laughing. The-the server came around with the dessert tray I guess. N-not a menu. S-so th-they took what they wanted off the c-cart, and s-she grabbed—”
“Is she okay?” Nolan cuts in gruffly, intercepting her stuttered rambling.
“There was shouting,” she sobs, bringing her hands to her mouth. “When I left the b-bathroom. Sh-she was on the f-floor, and b-blu—”
“Melody,” he barks, shaking her.
From my vantage point, I see her eyes widen over his shoulder, and she lowers hands to her sides, nodding. “Yes. She’s f-fine. I’m s-sorry. I just— I can’t b-believe I—”
She’s panicking,I realize.
Then I remember another time, another place—
A bridge.
The ocean.
