AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She scoffs out a loud laugh, and I reach for my beer, cracking it open and taking a long sip. Her laugh dies down, and silence fills the line.
“What was that?” she asks.
“What?”
“That noise. Are you drinking?” she laughs, but it’s devoid of laughter. “It’s like noon where you are.” She’s not wrong: I probably shouldn’t drink this early, but I’m still battling a bit of a hangover from the night before, and her talking about dating has me tense. I just need a little bit of mellow. A relaxer. It’s not the same, not like my dad.
“No, it’s just a soda,” I say.
I don’t know why I do it, lie like that to my best friend, or why it comes so easy. But when her easy, true laugh comes, I get it I guess. I didn’t like the concern in her voice, especially when there was nothing to worry about.
“Oh,” she says. “Sorry, I’m such a loser.”
“Never, Stell. Now tell me how you’re going to get out of this date,” I say, sipping the beer again, but this time with a hint of guilt. It does help my never-ending anxiety that has plagued me since I was young, the anxiety that always lessened when I was with her.
Things will be better when she’s on tour with us next year, though. When I can lay under the stars with her and write instead of missing her like crazy. We’re churning some real interest, and if it continues, it could mean a big album and a headlining tour.
The dream. Our dream. All I need is Stella to be mine.
And when I hang up, I make my decision.
Whether I’m good enough for her, whether she deserves better or not, I’m going to make Stella mine when I get home.
9 STILL
NOW
STELLA
“You’re back,” I say, putting a plastic-coated menu he doesn’t need in front of Riggs as he sits at the iron tables outside of the Ashford Diner. Even though I don’t want to, I can’t help how the corners of my lips tip up at seeing him here.
It’s just because he brought Gracie with him.
Definitely.
“Best place for breakfast,” he says with a shit-eating smile that makes my belly flutter in a way it’s not allowed to.
“Do you need this?” I ask, waving the laminated menu. He shakes his head, and I move to turn and input his order without much of a word. He reaches out, though, grabbing my wrist and stopping all movement.
His thumb grazes the underside of my wrist, brushing against that tattoo we got together when we were too young to know about consequences and too optimistic that we’d always work, sending a shiver down my spine that I try to ignore, but I can’t. I never could when it came to Riggins.
“Ignore me all you want, Stella, but I know you better than you think I do. I remember every single thing about you.”
“Except that we got married,” I whisper without meaning to, giving him more than I want to once again, and his lips tip up with my words.
“Yeah, except that, huh? Except now I do. Now I do, Stella. And I’m not letting you run again.”
I don’t respond.
I don’t respond because I’ll either say something mean and angry and impulsive or something worse… like telling him how fucking much missed him, how lonely I’ve been these past years.
Instead, I shake my hand until he lets go, his smile never fading, and I walk back into the diner, hiding in the back until Amelia reports that he’s left, confusion and disappointment in her words.
When I walk to the table he sat at, there’s another twenty under the plate and another photo of Gracie, a dog toy in her mouth as she trots towards the camera man.
Gracie, 2 years old.
All my love, Riggs.
